Sunny Gardener's Podcast

Coffee is a hot commodity, traded second only to oil. It is one of those things that will be missing from any North American ‘100 mile diet.’ Tammy Rostov, owner of a family business that has roasted coffee since 1979, talks about the worldwide and very local trade. Kate Ruby explains how the Costa Rican plantation she visited is the most sustainable and humane farm she has seen. Listen and learn why! Recorded at WRIR, Richmond Independent Radio, 97.3 lpFM and WRIR.ORG

The theme music is Bonefire Dance by Rattlemouth, and the incidental music was Café by Banda Maravilha.

Lightly on the Ground radio is a Sunny Gardener production for Richmond Independent Radio, broadcast on WRIR lp FM 97.3 and WRIR.ORG. I am grateful to all the volunteers at Richmond Independent Radio, and to our community of donors and underwriters who bought us all this equipment for making radio.

Ever wonder how we could replace coal and nuclear power as fuel for generating electricity? Systems Engineer Will Stewart sketches out a scientifically and economically based plan for bringing enough sustainably produced power online to replace all the outdated generating technology we are dependent on now. This is the first of a two part series on Lightly on the Ground Radio.

This episode of Lightly on the Ground Radio features a parlor conversation among several who spoke at 53rd Garden Club of Virginia Conservation Public Education Forum entitled Uranium: What Should Virginia Do? The focus is on an effort to rescind the 1982 ban on uranium mining.

We discuss several discrepancies between fact and the talking points being used to promote the safety of mining uranium in a major watershed. Topics include the effect on the Commonwealth’s two major industries: agriculture and tourism; the difficulty in predicting the behavior of radioactive tailings stored in robust plastic bags for thousands of years; and the cost of reclamation and restoration which would, very probably, revert to the state and federal governments, that is to taxpayers.

Olga Kolutushkina,(legislative and regulatory adviser to the Roanoke River Basin Association), Robert E. Moran, Ph.D. (geologist, geochemist and partner in Michael-Moran Assoc., LLC, in Golden, CO), and Paul Robinson, (Research Director for Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, NM) joined Sunny Gardener for a candid discussion of that forum which just ended in the parlor of the Jepson Center at University of Richmond.

Robert Burnley advises governments and industry about the environment.  He served as Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality 2002-2006, during Governor Mark Warner’s term.  His expertise and understanding of energy, economics and the environment provide a firm foundation from which he speaks about the potential and pitfalls around uranium mining. Listen and judge for yourself whether or not to open the Commonwealth to this new business opportunity.

The discussion proceeds during this program, part of a series exploring the reality and potentiality of lifting the 30 year ban imposed by the General Assembly in 1982.  This matter may well come before the 2012 General Assembly and we hope to provide an accessible forum for public discussion.  The condensed amount of information in the ½ hour mp3 audio format makes this a useful teaching tool for legislators as well as for concerned citizens.

Three informed and concerned citizens, documentary photographer Jesse Andrews,  7^th generation farmer Byron Motley, and Andrew Lester, executive director Roanoke River Basin Association, tell the story of how uranium mining would change the land, economy, and the well being of those who live near the potential site of Virginia’s first mine.  One landowner has plans to open his acreage to uranium mining in partnership with an international company that is operating under a Virginia name.

Lightly on the Ground Radio airs on WRIR lp 97.3 FM and worldwide at WRIR.ORG, noon on Wednesday and on the web at 11 on Thursday.  It is podcast and available through the Lightly on the Ground Radio facebook page.

Should we roll back the ban on uranium mining in the Commonwealth?

Documentary photographer Jesse Andrews,  7^th generation farmer Byron Motley, and Andrew Lester, executive director Roanoke River Basin Association, tell the story of how uranium mining would change the land, economy, and the well being of those who live near the potential site of Virginia’s first mine.  These three natives grew up in the area and know the towns, farms and businesses surrounding Chatham, Virginia.  One landowner has plans to open his acreage to uranium mining in partnership with an international company that is operating under a Virginia name.

This program is part of a series exploring the reality and potentiality of lifting the 30 year ban imposed by the General Assembly in 1982.  This matter may well come before the upcoming General Assembly and we hope to provide an accessible forum for public discussion.  The condensed amount of information in the ½ hour mp3 audio format makes this a useful teaching tool for legislators as well as for concerned citizens.

Lightly on the Ground Radio airs on WRIR lp 97.3 FM and worldwide at WRIR.ORG, noon on Wednesday and on the web at 11 on Thursday.  It is podcast and available through the Lightly on the Ground Radio facebook page.

Mary Rafferty, Virginia Sierra Club’s Grassroots Organizer and Host Sunny Gardener discuss the safety and reasonableness of mining uranium in Virginia as it pertains to the agriculture at the base of our food system. Mary is informed and clear about the science, economics and politics of the venture. This is groundwork for the discussion that needs to take place across the Commonwealth and nation in light of energy needs, wants and dangers. Lightly on the Ground Radio airs on WRIR lp 97.3 FM and worldwide at WRIR.ORG, noon on Wednesday and on the web at 11 on Thursday.

Should you wish to learn more facts about uranium, visit the World Information Service on Energy at http://www.wise-uranium.org/index.html. For current Virginia uranium news, visit KeepTheBan.org. The company that hopes to bring uranium mining to Virginia is VirginiaUranium.com.
Befriend Lightly on the Ground on Facebook for up to date guest and podcast information, and to share in the discussions.

Host Sunny Gardener and guest David Wilson converse about what drives a family to be self sufficient.  David Wilson  is an environmental engineer and suburban homesteader with 3 acres in Chesterfield that back up to a huge church garden and a utility right of way.  He, his wife and two daughters speak three languages, play music, sew, bake, cook from scratch, make bobbin lace and beer, bicycle, run long distances, fence, fish, and garden.  He and his family cleared part of their lot so they could plant a serious vegetable garden and produce much of what they eat.  For protein, they stock their freezer with the most wholesome meats they can procure, usually from people they know and, until recently, they kept a few laying hens.   David and his family are part of a community who work together to get things done, just like in the old days.

Befriend Lightly on the Ground Radio on Facebook and learn who will be on and when podcasts are posted.

Lightly on the Ground Radio airs on WRIR lp 97.3 FM Richmond Independent Radio and at WRIR.ORG.

In a wide ranging, richly textured conversation with Host Sunny Gardener, attorney and livestock farmer Emily Lenschow and her partner, David Thompson of Tuckahoe Plantation Livestock discuss their humane way of raising sheep, cattle, chickens and rabbits.  Their joy and concern for their animals is contagious and their knowledge of husbandry is deep.  The discourse moves on to the pesticide bans in Canada and the US, NAFTA and working with local officials on changing laws, including municipal ordinances concerning keeping chickens.  Visit our guests at their website: http://tuckahoeplantationlivestock.com

Befriend Lightly on the Ground Radio on Facebook and learn who will be on and when podcasts are posted. 

“It’s all about the soil,” Will Allen says as he sets the stage for feeding the populace of the future. He maintains that the way to produce enough food is to put everything we can back to work at root level. This story is full of inspiration and information from the pioneer of urban agriculture. Growing Power is transforming hundreds of tons of waste into compost for the acres of vegetables they grow. Fish, too, found a home on the farm in Chicago, as part of a holistic green house and aquaculture system.

His command of facts and his vision are evident in this half hour conversation in Richmond, Virginia where he was the guest of a prominent women’s club. When asked what keeps him coming back to the sunny south, he replies that he goes where he’s invited. www.Growingpower.org will get you to their amazing place. And visit Lightly on the Ground Radio on facebook to learn about upcoming shows.

People who care about what they eat are growing vegetables on their urban and suburban property, near their neighbors. Some have developed a visceral need to grow food by considering the potential for shortages brought on our food system’s intricacies.

One way to add quality protein to a family’s diet is to keep a few hens for eggs. Regular listeners may remember the conversation about lawn treatment drifting on to a backyard organic garden and destroying it. This is another place where neighbors’ territories can collide as families are persecuted and prosecuted for having hens on their property. One would think that producing food for the family is a very basic freedom.

Sounds dramatic but it’s a fact. This is one of those edges where one’s food security can be breached by your next door neighbors. There are layers of ordinances, from the federal, (heaven forbid) the state, the municipality, right down to neighborhood associations. Local ordinances can pave the way or impede that freedom.

This episode of Lightly on the Ground Radio is a discussion of this matter with Copeland Casati and Amy Randolph of Chickunz, an association of fowl loving people around Richmond, Virginia. It has happened elsewhere and it will happen again as more and more people attempt to feed themselves by producing food in their own backyards.

Katherine and Bruce Johnson, owners of Dragonfly Farms in Central Virginia, are proud to produce and offer all natural grass fed Belted Galloway and Angus beef. Sunny Gardener, Host and Producer of Lightly on the Ground Radio, talks with them about how and  why they do it. 

They tell a good story about how their animals are raised on pasture in a low stress humane environment.  They practice rotational grazing and sustainable common sense farming, using no hormones or steroids, nor feed any grain. They use no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides on pasture or garden. The nutritional benefits outweigh any inconvenience encountered as they bring each animal to optimal health and maturity for slaughter.  Then they drive the animal only 55 miles to a small USDA certified butcher just north of their farm.

There is literature on the health benefits of pastured beef, including  Eatwild.com ,  LocalHarvest.org, americangrassfedbeef.com/grass-fed-natural-beef.asp, organicgrassfedbeefinfo.com/why-grass-fed-beef.htmlb and mayoclinic.com/health/grass-fed-beef/AN02053.  Their website is Dragonflyfarms.com.

Join Lightly on the Ground’s Facebook group and find out about  this week’s guest so you can tune in to WRIR lp FM Richmond Independent Radio, 97.3 around Richmond, and WRIR.ORG around the universe.

Lightly on the Ground Radio hosts Sally Norton, a public health scientist and nutrition educator.  She sits on the Virginia Food System Council and is a member of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming.  She spends a lot of time in the diverse and productive organically grown landscape in her suburban back yard. 

Hear her objective observations and scientific analysis of the effect of lawn care products on a vegetable garden.  Learn what recourse a home gardener may have when a damaging toxic herbicide drifts onto the garden.  Hosted and produced by Sunny Gardener; recorded outdoors and edited at Epic Gardens for WRIR lp FM 97.3 Richmond Independent Radio.

William Byrd Community House says Yes! to Urban Agriculture, or steps toward that future by hosting a farmers’ market, a community garden, a farmlet and programs for children, teens and grown ups that have an impact on what foods they choose to eat.

Robert Bolling, executive director, tells about these projects and other, more indoor works, all focused on WBCH’s Vision and Mission “To be a catalyst to transform lives and build self sufficiency.”
Produced and broadcast at WRIR, 97.3 Richmond Independent Radio, in May, 2011. Also heard at WRIR.ORG

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