321. From Panic to Empowerment | Chloe Lieberman | Wild Abundance | Asheville, NC

May 24, 2020Blog and Newsletter Writer, Instructor for Nutrition, Gardening, and WildcraftingTell us a little about yourself.Wild Abundance is more then a website it's a school, I live here and the school is here in the Southern Appalachian mountains just outside of Asheville, North Carolinacornwinter squashsweet potatoesmicro dairy, one Jersey cow and mostly Alpine dairy goatsflock of ducksbeekeepermedicinal and edible mushroom cultivationmedicinal plantsthe school that i work for is located just down the road campus is run by my dear friend, Natalie dog walkertogetherthis yearwe are walking on an online gardening schoolteaching people all over the worldpretty much becausewe love it an are passionateafraid of breakdown of supply chainssurge and your listeners have noticedinterested in gardeningwhen you first start out gardening it can be overwhelmingdiscouragingsteering them in the right directionfolks who have that inspiration can have that success and keep goingI always think it's interesting, I always dreamed of going to Montana, I knew a girl who always wanted to go to Maryland. She's like doesn't that just sound beautiful?can really20 acreswe have 23 acresbigger farms in this statepiedmonteastup in the mountainsAppalachian mountain chain in the southern part of that mountain chain. It's one of the oldest mountain formations in the worldLots of endemic species that live hereIt's a beautiful verdant jungle in the spring and summertemperate rainforestlots of raingets chilly changing with climate changeA big chunk of that is wooded hillsidefarm per se flatland 3-4 acreswhere we have the animalsharvest timber obviously for wood heat cooking and mushroom cultivation My partner is just dedicated at working away at developing a silvapasture and nut orchard up on the slope.I'm sure your listeners know 23 acres can mean a lot of different things if you have top soil and if it's hilly landso we are somewhere in betweenflat for the mountainsdo grow our vegetablessteep land marshy boggy landThat's similar where we are surrounded by doug fir forest and you can see before and after pics on our website. where he has cut the forest to build the minifarm.Tell me about your first gardening experience?well, I didn’t grow up gardeningI grew up in the suburbs in the bay area in Northern, CAsmall rural western part of the countyalternative school that happened to be a public school, was really a blessing for me and my family getting to go to a private school that was public and freealternativeproject basedinterdisciplinaryopen classroomin marinmore rural partbest friend mom had dairy goatsmade her own beerapple sauceMy other friends momgrew beautiful rosesberries and fruitsI did have early exposurewe had a garden at my schoolearly childhood exposure I was drawn to plants and animalsI didn't tend my own garden till I was in collegeI knew I wanted to studyagri-cologyenvironmental studiessustainable food systemsavid cookvegetarainlove vegetables and cook lotsAnyone who cooks a lot has a visceral understanding of the difference of quality