The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

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In This Podcast: In this episode, Greg chats with sourdough baker, teacher, and cookbook author Amy Coyne of Amy Bakes Breadto demystify sourdough from starter to slice. Amy shares her personal journey into sourdough, explains the science and simplicity behind naturally fermented bread, and offers practical guidance for beginners and experienced bakers alike. The conversation covers fermentation, hydration, common mistakes, discard recipes, and how to make sourdough fit into busy family life. Throughout, Amy emphasizes patience, experimentation, and joy in the process.
Our Guest:  Amy Coyne is a sourdough baker, teacher and creator behind Amy Bakes Bread, where she shares tried and true sourdough recipes that are approachable, reliable, and fun to make. She's been baking for as long as she can remember, and sourdough has been part of her kitchen for over 13 years. Amy is the author of The Beginner's Guide to Sourdough, A cookbook made to help every home baker feel confident creating incredible sourdough bread from scratch.
Key Topics & Entities
Amy Coyne
Sourdough starter
Natural fermentation
Wild yeast and bacteria
Hydration levels in bread
Dutch oven baking
Sourdough discard
Inclusion loaves
Family-friendly sourdough
The Beginner’s Guide to Sourdough
Amy Bakes Bread
Home baking science

Key Questions Answered
What makes sourdough different from conventional bread?
Sourdough relies on natural fermentation rather than commercial yeast, resulting in improved digestibility, lower glycemic response, and better nutrient absorption due to reduced phytic acid.
How do you create and maintain a sourdough starter?
A starter is made by culturing wild yeast and bacteria from flour and water through regular feedings, watching for predictable rise-and-fall cycles, and adjusting temperature and ratios for consistency.
How does temperature affect sourdough fermentation?
Warmer temperatures speed fermentation while cooler conditions slow it down, meaning timelines must shift with seasons and kitchen conditions.
What is hydration, and why does it matter?
Hydration refers to the ratio of water to flour; higher hydration creates a more open, airy crumb, while lower hydration produces a tighter, more structured loaf.
What are the most common mistakes new sourdough bakers make?
Unrealistic expectations, discomfort with wet doughs, and misunderstanding fermentation timing are common early hurdles.
What can you do with sourdough discard instead of throwing it away?
Discard can be used in crackers, pancakes, biscuits, cookies, gravies, and more—adding flavor, texture, and reducing waste.
How can sourdough be adapted for busy schedules and families?
Using refrigeration, adjusting starter...

In This Podcast: Edmund Williams returns to discuss the LEHR Garden system and a breakthrough soil product emerging from it: LEHR Soil Amplifier. By combining ecological soil biology with engineered water flow, the LEHR system grows plants in primarily woody materials while composting beneath living roots. The resulting extracted soil behaves as a powerful biostimulant, dramatically improving plant growth, resilience, and heat tolerance. This episode explores living soil, stable carbon, and how feeding soil organisms transforms plant health.
Our Guest: Edmund is a civil engineer and innovator in the urban and sustainable agriculture arena. He has been working with various municipalities and nonprofits to transform the ways our society feeds itself. The Lear Garden was designed to be a low maintenance system using biology as a part of the automation. To do this, Edmond created a compost bin as the core technology, and like any compost bin, it needs to be emptied periodically, The finished compost that comes out is unlike anything on the market having some very surprising and beneficial properties.
Key Topics
LEHR Garden (Linking Ecosystem and Hardware for Regeneration)
LEHR Soil Amplifier
Biostimulants in agriculture
Living soil biology
Stable soil carbon
Glomalin and mycorrhizal fungi
Biochar as nutrient buffer
Urban waste stream composting
Flood-and-drain raised bed systems
Heat resilience in desert gardening
Soil food web
Tall pot tree propagation method

What makes a LEHR Garden different from hydroponics or permaculture alone?
It integrates both ecology and hardware, using a raised flood-and-drain system filled mostly with wood chips and organic waste, allowing plants to grow in living soil biology rather than inert media.
Why does the garden soil need to be removed and reset?
As woody materials break down, water flow slows, causing anaerobic conditions. Removing and resetting the soil restores oxygen flow and system performance.
What is LEHR Soil Amplifier?
It is the sifted, biologically rich soil produced inside the system, containing earthworm castings, biochar, microbial life, and multiple known biostimulant compounds.
How is this different from regular compost?
Unlike compost made separately, this material forms beneath living roots, encouraging creation of stable soil carbon compounds such as glomalin, which are critical to true topsoil structure.
How much is needed to see results?
Very small amounts are effective — about one gallon can treat roughly 1,000 square feet of garden space.
What plant responses have been observed?
Reports include greener lawns, higher vegetable productivity, improved pest and disease resistance, thicker rose petals, and rapid recovery of stressed trees.
Can it improve heat tolerance?
Gardeners observed lush summer growth during record heat, with plants surviving and producing through extreme desert temperatures.
What is the underlying mechanism?
The product stimulates soil biology, increases mycorrhizal activity, provides mineral buffering through biochar, and enhances nutrient cycling.
Episode Highlights
LEHR stands for Linking Ecosystem and Hardware for Regeneration
Gardens grow food in mostly wood chips enriched by composting beneath roots
Soil removal became the “problem that was the solution”
Sifted soil behaves as a high-density biological stimulant
Stable soil carbon forms directly through plant–fungal interactions
One gallon treats approximately 1,000 square feet
Gardeners report dramatic improvements during...

With Beatrice Nathan...Curious permaculture story
In This Podcast: Beatrice Nathan joins the podcast to explore how permaculture principles can be applied to family life, childcare, and community resilience. She shares her journey from home gardening to teaching permaculture, and launching a Village Roots childcare co-op. The conversation weaves together food production, social permaculture, and mutual aid as practical responses to modern parenting and systemic stress. This episode highlights slow, small solutions that build trust, connection, and long-term community health.
Our Guest:  Beatrice Nathan is a home gardener, permaculture teacher, turmeric farmer, and mom to two boys. She is passionate about reweaving the web of social support, empowering ordinary people to grow food and teaching practical design principles. She believes that we all have a part to play in creating a better future.
Key Topics & Entities
Beatrice Nathan
Permaculture ethics (Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share)
Social permaculture
Village Roots Childcare Co-op
Babysitting co-ops / time-based exchange
Front-yard food gardens
Community resilience
Parenting and childcare affordability
Permaculture zones applied to time and energy
Degrowth philosophy
Permaculture Design Course (PDC)
Ruby Ranch (Asheville, NC)

Key Questions Answered
What is permaculture beyond gardening?
Permaculture is a framework for living a good life, offering ethics and principles that can be applied to land stewardship, relationships, parenting, and community design—not just gardens.
How does a childcare co-op work without money?
Families exchange babysitting hours using a shared spreadsheet. Hours earned caring for one family’s children can be used with any family in the co-op, building trust and flexibility without cash.
Why is childcare so challenging for families today?
High costs, limited availability, misaligned schedules, and the emotional toll on young children make conventional childcare inaccessible or unsustainable for many families.
How does the Village Roots Childcare Co-op embody permaculture?
The co-op applies permaculture ethics and principles like slow and small solutions, stacking functions, feedback loops, and people care to meet real childcare and community needs.
How can permaculture help parents—especially mothers—avoid burnout?
By reframing priorities through concepts like zones of time and energy, permaculture helps parents let go of nonessential commitments and focus on connection during demanding life seasons.
What’s the value of front-yard food gardens?
Front-yard gardens invite conversation, sharing, and relationship-building with neighbors, turning food production into a social connector.
How can someone start a similar co-op in their community?
Start small, set a geographic boundary, clearly communicate expectations, onboard families personally, and use existing guides and templates to reduce friction.
Why is community-building increasingly important?
As larger systems become more fragile, hyper-local, trust-based networks like co-ops, time banks, and tool libraries help meet needs when institutions fall short.
Episode Highlights
Permaculture as a life framework, not just a land design tool
Applying permaculture ethics to childcare and family systems
Designing a babysitting co-op using time instead of money
Front-yard gardens as hubs for neighborhood connection
Reframing permaculture zones around time, energy, and life...

A Journey in Holistic Wellness
In This Podcast: Clinical herbalist Kimberly Kling returns to discuss regenerative health in a highly toxic modern world. Drawing from personal experience, clinical practice, and ecological awareness, she explains how petrochemicals, industrial agriculture, and environmental toxins disrupt human health—especially the gut microbiome, mitochondria, and detox pathways. The conversation moves from root causes to practical, accessible steps people can take, including food choices, herbs, lifestyle shifts, and community action. Throughout, the focus remains on empowerment, resilience, and reconnecting with plant wisdom rather than fear.
Our Guest: Kimberly is a clinical herbalist and the guiding force behind joyful roots in Southern Arizona where she helps her community locally and beyond cultivate inner wellness through earth centered herbal care, rooted in a deep reverence for the healing power of plants. Kimberly's journey began in childhood, crafting magical plant stews and foraging connections with Michigan's native flora. Her background in landscape architecture and engineering provided a foundation for understanding the intricate relationships between plants, people, and the land. However, it was motherhood and a personal health crisis that led to her clinical herbalism deepening her passion for holistic wellness. Now, Kimberly integrates traditional wisdom with modern herbal practices, empowering others to reconnect with plant wisdom for vibrant health and wellbeing.
Medical Disclaimer: In today's episode we are talking about our health. The information provided in this podcast is for general information and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. We are not medical doctors and no medical doctor/patient relationship is formed. Always seek advice from your qualified medical doctor regarding questions you may have about your medical condition.
Key Topics & Entities
Kimberly Kling
Joyful Roots
Clinical herbalism
Environmental toxins
Petrochemicals
Haber-Bosch Process
Glyphosate, Diquat, Paraquat
Gut microbiome
Mitochondrial health
Autoimmune illness (lupus)
Antioxidants
Liver detoxification
Regenerative agriculture
Food forests

Key Questions Answered
Why are modern humans experiencing chronic illness earlier than previous generations?
Because exposure to synthetic chemicals, petrochemicals, pesticides, plastics, and food additives has rapidly increased over the last ~150 years, overwhelming biological systems that evolved alongside natural substances.
How do pesticides and herbicides affect the body if they’re “safe for humans”?
They often harm microbial...

A Rosie On The House Replay
In this episode we explore the concept of wicking bed gardens, hosted by Romey Romero & Farmer Greg, our guest is .
Farmer Greg joins Romey Romero on Rosie on the House to break down how to successfully grow fruit trees in the low desert, even during unusually warm winters. He explains why fruit trees are worth planting, how climate confusion affects citrus and deciduous trees, and the most common mistakes that kill young trees. The conversation covers proven planting methods, soil preparation, watering strategies, and long-term thinking for orchards that can produce for decades. This episode is a practical, experience-based guide for homeowners who want reliable fruit harvests in desert climates.
Key Topics & Entities
Low desert fruit tree growing
Citrus varieties (navel, Cara Cara, Trovita, Minneola, Gold Nugget)
Deciduous fruit trees (apple, peach, apricot, plum, jujube, mulberry)
Low-chill requirements
Rootstock selection
Bare root trees
Urban Farm Fruit Tree Program
Six-Six Basin Rule
Desert soil organic matter
Mycorrhizae and soil biology
Irrigation and deep watering
Mulch and microclimates

Key Questions Answered
Why plant fruit trees instead of relying on store-bought fruit?
Homegrown fruit has superior flavor, freshness, and nutritional value, and a single tree can produce for decades with proper care.
What makes fruit trees struggle during warm winters in the desert?
Low-chill trees may not receive enough cold hours to set fruit consistently, causing irregular growth, dormancy confusion, or skipped production years. Therefore, we need to make sure we plant low chill fruit trees.
What are the three non-negotiables when buying fruit trees for the low desert?
Choose low-chill varieties, ensure the correct rootstock for desert conditions, and select soft-flesh fruit that ripens before July 1.
What are the most common ways people accidentally kill fruit trees?
Planting in hot microclimates, allowing grass to compete with roots, and relying on shallow daily drip irrigation.
How should fruit trees actually be watered in the desert?
Deep, infrequent watering—about once a month in winter and every 10–14 days in summer—allowing soil to dry between waterings.
Why are bare root trees preferred for deciduous fruit?
They’re planted while dormant, establish faster, and adapt better long-term than potted trees when planted correctly.
How long does it take for a fruit tree to really produce?
Year one focuses on roots, year two on shoots, year three begins fruiting, and years four to five bring full production.
Episode Highlights
Fruit trees thrive when planted for climate, not convenience
Citrus can be harvested across six months with smart variety selection
The Six-Six Basin Rule dramatically improves survival and growth
Desert soil must be rebuilt with organic matter and biology
Overwatering and under watering look the same—but both can kill trees
Bare root planting in January sets trees up for lifelong success
A single well-planted tree can produce for 50–100 years

Calls to Action & Resources
Urban Farm Fruit Tree Program — https://www.fruittrees.org
Free Desert Fruit Tree Master Course — https://www.fruittrees.org
Questions or tree photos...