Libsyn Directory

Ep 49 - Small-Scale Homesteading with Michelle and Stephanie

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Release Date: 05/18/2023

Ep 65 - Market Vending Tips with Sara and Mike

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Today Mike and I are talking about some of the big things we've learned over the last few years of vending at various farmers markets, festivals, craft fairs, and other events. We hope you'll find a lot of useful info here that you can use to level up your own market experience!! Some of the areas we dive into include: -things to think about when choosing markets (and when to leave a market behind) -tips and tricks for making your booth stand out to customers -reducing friction for your customers (aka making it easy for them to buy from you) -improving customer interactions We'd love to do...

Ep 64 - Mushroom Foraging with Whitney Johnson

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Hey friends! My guest today is Whitney Johnson, also known as the Appalachian Forager. She's here to talk about her beautiful new book, Go Forth and Forage, which is all about mushroom foraging. We dive into some of the common misconceptions about mushrooms, how to go about identifying mushrooms properly, the debate about whether we should cut or pluck when harvesting, and lots of other hot shroomy topics. Whitney also shares some knowledge about how learning tree identification can really help you when out mushroom hunting and we talk a little bit about other foraging adventures and the joys...

Ep 63 - Seed Farming with Dan Brisebois

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Hey friends! Hope you’re doing well! Spring is poking its head up here but we’re still getting snow off and on as well, so we’re not able to start planting outdoors yet. We have lots of great stuff happening inside though! We’ve got loads of grow lights and heat mats set up and we have tons of seedlings already taking off! We’re really trying to narrow our focus this year to growing larger quantities of a fewer number of crops. Specifically we’re focused on the things that we need big amounts of in order to produce the things we make for our farm store – mainly our seasonings and...

Ep 62 - Traveling Farm Work with James Miller

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Today I have a really great guest for you! His name is James Miller and I actually met him as a tattoo client. We did a large piece that took several sessions and so as I was tattooing him we had some really amazing conversations that then led to me wanting to bring him on the podcast. James was here in Colorado to work on a local farm as a WWOOFer. Now what is WWOOFing? WWOOFing stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. This is an organization that networks small farms with individuals who are interested in working on farms. This usually isn’t paid work, but instead a pre-set...

Ep 61 - Italian Folk Healing with Lisa Fazio

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Hi, friends! We’ve been working hard this month getting back into the swing of things. We spent four days vending at various markets this month and March and April are slated to be busy as well. We also had the official grand opening of our farm store in Hotchkiss and it’s been so amazing to connect with people in person when they come in to browse our teas and other herbal products! We’re getting ready to jump on our next project, which is getting the greenhouse built next month! We’re also getting some seeds going indoors in the meantime, and then they’ll move out to the...

Ep 60 - Tiny Farm Planning with Jill Ragan

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Hey friends! Hope you’re doing well as we wrap up January here. We have been SUPER busy with some big projects behind the scenes. One of them is that we now have our farm store open in Hotchkiss! For the last two years, Mike and I have, in addition to homesteading, had a small tattoo studio in Hotchkiss. Our lease was coming to an end and we had really outgrown the space so we started looking for something bigger. One of the things we were hoping to find was a new studio space that would be big enough to actually house both of our business! We lucked out and found a great commercial space...

Ep 59 - Preserving with a Purpose with Sarah Thrush

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Hi friends! Welcome to our first episode of 2025! We're getting back to releasing two new episodes a month, and we have some awesome interviews already recorded and ready to share with you -- like this one! Today’s guest is Sarah Thrush, who I’ve been following for a few years over on TikTok. You might know her there as and she shares tons of great information with her followers about food preservation. I was also able to snag a copy of her book, , and I have to tell you it’s quickly become one of my favorite books about canning! It covers all of the basics if you’re new to canning...

Ep 58 - Homestead Chats with Natalie and Sara

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Hi friends! I'm back with an awesome repeat guest today -- Natalie, the Alaska Redhead! Natalie is a fellow off-grid homesteader who lives in Alaska and was on the podcast a little over a year ago. We became friends and have stayed in touch, so decided to have an on-going series that we're calling Homestead Chats with Natalie and Sara. Today we catch up on what's been going on at each of our homesteads, how we made it through winter, our different crafty endeavors, and lots more! Hope you enjoy! ~*~*~*~*~*~ Find Natalie on Instagram: Natalie's Podcast Natalie's crochet ...

Ep 57 - Botanical Cocktails with Tenae Stewart

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

Hi friends! It's been a minute since our last episode but we have lots of fun progress updates to share! Things are moving along nicely with our shop build and we've been having a great season at different farmers' markets and festivals. Today I’m super excited to have Tenae Stewart on the podcast to talk about her book, Botanical Cocktails. Residing in California, Tenae is a cottage witch and astrologer who has previously published two other books, The Modern Witch’s Guide to Natural Magick and The Modern Witch’s Guide to Magickal Self-Care. In her latest book, she shares delicious...

Ep 56 - Next-Level Tools for Your Homestead

Tending Seeds: Adventures in Gardening, Homesteading, and Herbalism

We're back with our second episode in our Homestead Tools series! Make sure to check out Episode 53 - Essential Tools for Your Homestead if you haven't already listened to that one. Today we're moving past the basic tools that we previously covered and talking about some investments that can really help to level up your projects. Mike answers my questions about everything from cutting metal and welding to a variety of options for sawing your own lumber, and so much more! We hope this episode will be super useful for you. is the Miller welding app that Mike mentions. Our third installment in...

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Hi friends! I hope the month of May has been treating you well! Things here are looking great – it’s finally warm enough that we have some seeds started and sprouting, and we were invited to vend at a local market for a spring event last week. Our farmers' market also starts up at the end of this month and we’re looking forward to being there every Saturday!

Today’s interview features two awesome guests who I’m excited to introduce you to:

Stephanie Thurow is a Certified Master Food Preserver and Master Gardener Volunteer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a homesteader, author of bestselling cookbooks Can It & Ferment It, WECK Small-Batch Preserving, and WECK Home Preserving. You can find here on the Minnesota from Scratch blog, or on Instagram under the same name. Stephanie hopes her experience with homesteading will help others reach more of their goals. When she isn’t in the kitchen preserving, she can be found in the garden with her hens, teaching food preservation classes, or at the lake with her family and friends.

Michelle Bruhn homesteads in suburban Minnesota. She's a local food advocate, Master Gardener Volunteer, writer, garden educator, and farmers' market manager. As the founder of ForksInTheDirt.com, an information hub for garden and farm-to-table living, her passion is helping folks "dig" their food. She can also be found at ForksInTheDirt on Instagram. When not in the garden, Michelle enjoys spending time with her backyard flock, family, and friends while immersing herself in nature (usually with a foraging basket in tow).

Their book Small-Scale Homesteading covers topics such as:

Gardening tips and tricks: from composting, soil health and what plants thrive best during the different seasons.
All things preserving: Canning, curing and how to keep your vegetables last year round.
Raising chickens: how these feathered friends can inhance your homestead.
DIY products and recipes: healthy alternatives to everyday cleaning products, lotions and soaps.

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If you’d like to support the podcast, please spread the word about it by sharing it on your social media!

You can also support us by checking out our online farm shop. We have lots of great herbal offerings in stock and pre-orders for our summer solstice box will be opening up soon.

Until next time, keep your hands dirty and your heart open.

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