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

May 24, 2020 Blog and Newsletter Writer, Instructor for Nutrition, Gardening, and Wildcrafting Tell 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 Carolina corn winter squash sweet potatoes micro dairy, one Jersey cow and mostly Alpine dairy goats flock of ducks beekeeper medicinal and edible mushroom cultivation medicinal plants the school that i work for is located just down the road campus is run by my dear friend, Natalie dog walker together this year we are walking on an online gardening school teaching people all over the world pretty much because we love it an are passionate afraid of breakdown of supply chains surge and your listeners have noticed interested in gardening when you first start out gardening it can be overwhelming discouraging steering them in the right direction folks who have that inspiration can have that success and keep going I 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 really 20 acres we have 23 acres bigger farms in this state piedmont east up in the mountains Appalachian mountain chain in the southern part of that mountain chain. It's one of the oldest mountain formations in the world Lots of endemic species that live here It's a beautiful verdant jungle in the spring and summer temperate rainforest lots of rain gets chilly changing with climate change A big chunk of that is wooded hillside farm per se flatland 3-4 acres where we have the animals harvest 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 land so we are somewhere in between flat for the mountains do grow our vegetables steep land marshy boggy land That'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, CA small rural western part of the county alternative 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 free alternative project based interdisciplinary open classroom in marin more rural part best friend mom had dairy goats made her own beer apple sauce My other friends mom grew beautiful roses berries and fruits I did have early exposure we had a garden at my school early childhood exposure I was drawn to plants and animals I didn't tend my own garden till I was in college I knew I wanted to study agri-cology environmental studies sustainable food systems avid cook vegetarain love vegetables and cook lots Anyone who cooks a lot has a visceral understanding of the difference of quality