The Good Dirt: Sustainability Explained

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1. Mary and Emma Talk About Halloween: Less Waste, More Fun! (Reprise)

   23 oktober 2026 · 28 min

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   Join Mary and Emma as they discuss a slow living Halloween, the second largest consumer season in the US. From the ancient traditions of the Celtic Samhain celebrations, to the modern day spook fest that dominates this time of year, you'll hear how you can embrace the special beauty and magic of nature during this time, letting go of much of the waste and frenzy but keeping all of the fun! Lees meer

   Things Mentioned:

   Candy Alternatives

   The Scariest Thing About Halloween is the Plastic Waste

   National Retail Federation Prediction for Halloween Spending in 2022

   About Lady Farmer:

   Our Website

   @weareladyfarmer on Instagram

   Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC

   Leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you!

   Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com

   Original music by John Kingsley. The Good Dirt is a part of the Connectd Podcasts Network.

   Statements in this podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not to be considered as medical or nutritional advice. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and should not be considered above the advice of your physician. Consult a medical professional when making dietary or lifestyle decisions that could affect your health and well being.

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2. Ep.241: Food Communion: Rethinking What We Throw Away with Daniela Ochoa Gonzalez

   25 september 2026 · 1 uur 21 min

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   It's the autumnal equinox as we record this one — rain all afternoon, a first cup of hot tea for the season, the kind of cozy day that makes you want to slow down and pay attention. Fitting, since Mary and Emma open this episode by pausing to say hello properly: a reintroduction, for anyone new to the podcast, of who they are and why they've kept this conversation going for years, even as the pace has slowed to something more sustainable than weekly. Lees meer

   Then Mary sits down with Daniela Ochoa Gonzalez, a food systems circularity advocate who's spent more than fifteen years turning zero-waste ideas into real programs — from a green-barter pilot she built in her hometown in Michoacán, Mexico, to her current work here in the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve. Daniela's story moves through Cornell, a favela-inspired recycling exchange in Curitiba, Brazil, and a front-row seat to just how much food — avocados especially — travels a long, tender distance before it ever reaches an American kitchen counter.

   This conversation lands just ahead of Food Waste Prevention Week, and it's full of the kind of practical, no-guilt wisdom Daniela calls "food communion" — not just what we eat, but what we do with what's left over. Expect real numbers, real hacks, and a genuinely moving reframe of a habit most of us do without thinking twice.

   In this episode:

   Mary and Emma's reintroduction to the podcast — where Lady Farmer and The Good Dirt have been, and why the podcast has settled into a monthly rhythm

   Daniela's path from international relations and conflict resolution studies to food systems circularity, by way of Cornell, the Pan American Health Organization, and a green-barter pilot she built in Michoacán, Mexico

   The Curitiba, Brazil program that inspired her work: exchanging recyclables for fresh produce in low-income communities

   What "food systems circularity" means — from soil to plate to what happens after

   The scale of avocado waste moving through the DMV region, and …

3. Ep. 240: The Future of Food with Jill Demers (Part 2)

   21 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 5 min

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   A few weeks ago, we sat down with Jill Demers and couldn't stop talking...so, we came back for part 2! Lees meer

   In this episode, we dig into the economics of small farming in America, and why the deck has been stacked against it for decades. Jill lays out the numbers plainly — most small farms operate at a loss, propped up by off-farm income, in a system that was never designed to sustain them. We talk about commodity crops, genetically modified seed, the vertical integration of the food industry, and what "get big or get out" actually did to the farms that used to feed us directly.

   But this isn't a doom-and-gloom conversation. Jill's real subject is reconnection, what she calls "farm hospitality," and what we'd call remembering something our bodies never really forgot. Because underneath all of it is the same idea Jill's been chasing for over twenty years: food is our deepest connection to nature, and the fracture in that relationship is costing us more than we realize...in our health, our communities, and our sense of belonging to the land under our feet.

   In this episode:

   Why 86% of U.S. farms are classified as "small" — and why most of them lose money every year

   How the "get big or get out" model took hold after WWII, and what it replaced

   What a commodity crop actually is (and why that field of corn you're driving past isn't headed to anyone's dinner table)

   The vertical integration of seed, chemical inputs, and distribution — and why it locks small farmers out

   Genetically modified corn, glyphosate, and what it means for our gut health

   Jill's concept of "farm hospitality" as a way to reconnect people to their food — and why many farmers resist it

   The disappearance of farmland to development and, increasingly, to solar leases

   Food deserts and systemic inequity on reservation land in Montana

   Why Jill encourages people to "start at the top of the food chain" (and what that means)

   The cultural narrative that food should be cheap — and why that narrative is doing …

4. 239. Returning to Our Birthright Relationship with Nature: A Conversation with Julie Brams

   17 juli 2026 · 1 uur 8 min

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   Our guest today on this week's episode is Julie Brams — an earth-centered psychotherapist, certified forest therapy guide, meditation teacher, and the author of The Nature-Embedded Mind: How the Way We Think Can Heal Our Planet and Ourselves. Julie states that her work is in helping restore the human mind to its rightful place within the living world. She is also co-founder of Elemental, an earth-centered learning community helping participants heal the division between humans and the rest of nature. This is a rich, unhurried conversation — the kind you might want to take on a walk, or sit with under a tree. We hope it meets you right where you are. Lees meer

   In This Episode

   Julie's path from 34 years as a licensed marriage and family therapist into earth-centered psychotherapy and forest therapy guiding

   Why she moved away from the term "ecopsychology" to "earth-centered" and "re-rooting."

   The idea of "the rest of nature" — and how this small language shift addresses the human/nature divide

   How Western civilization's model of extraction and domination differs from cultures built on kinship and reciprocity

   The historical roots of mind/body/earth separation — from ancient Greek philosophy through Descartes and the Enlightenment

   Why our bodies "cannot be separate from Earth" — from the air we exchange with plants to the physiological toll of space travel

   Gloria Steinem's phrase "linked, not ranked" as an alternative to hierarchy

   The story of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight and the moment it reshaped Julie's thinking about sustainability

   What forest therapy actually looks like in practice — and Julie's own humbling first encounter with a tree

   A story about a jumping spider that became an unexpected lesson in love versus ownership

   Reflections on grief, reciprocity, and the idea that the more-than-human world may be missing us as much as we miss it

   Language, indigenous wisdom, and the book Sand Talk as a guide to non-divisive ways of thinking

   Why unlearning this d…

5. Encore: A History and Reflection on Emancipation with Tony Cohen

   19 juni 2026 · 47 min

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   This episode initially aired on June 19th, 2021 Lees meer

   We have a special bonus episode for you this week in celebration of our newest national holiday-- Juneteenth! Mary and Emma reunite with author, historian and farmer Tony Cohen for an exploration into the history of Juneteenth and the holiday’s complex folklore and origins. Tony takes us back in time to examine how this monumental declaration of freedom spread in a variety of ways depending on the geographic, economic and social landscape of the time.

   Mary, Emma and Tony pause to reflect upon what freedom means and looks like in the modern era and why society continues to resist a hard look at injustice. Tony points to how altering behavior can feel like giving up our own freedoms and comforts and reminds us that the fair trade movement has deeply historic roots. He also reflects upon the transition from enslavement to the tenant farming system and points to how that system affects us still today. The trio grapples with some hard truths about freedom itself and acknowledges the work still left to be done.

   Tony shares how he celebrates Juneteenth at Button Farm and rejoices in community as he reflects upon the precious ability to gather and take new found enthusiasm into the world.

   Let’s get into the episode:

   1:30 - Emma introduces this week’s special episode

   3:00 - Tony Cohen on the history of Juneteenth

   15:00 - The transition into freedom

   20:00 - The shift to “waged” labor and the evolution of slavery

   28:00 - Fair trade

   31:00 - Local emancipation

   41:00 - Celebrating Juneteenth

   42:30 - The happenings at Button Farm

   48:00 - Creating Community

   Things Mentioned:

   Button Farm

   Oprah’s visit

   The Menare Foundation

   HipCamp - Camp at Button Farm

   Anthony Cohen

   The Good Dirt - Episode 31

   The AG Reserve - Montgomery County

   The Underground railroad in Montgomery County, Maryland: A history and driving guide

   Juneteenth becomes a federal holiday

   Lift Every Voice and Sing

   DC Emancipation Day

   Montgomery County…

6. 238. Food As Our Deepest Connection to Nature with Jill Demers of ReWild Ranch

   6 juni 2026 · 1 uur 12 min

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   Jill Demers is the founder of ReWild Ranch in Montana, a one-of-a-kind regenerative farm, wellness destination, and educational space, rooted in the one question she's been asking for over two decades: Why are Americans so disconnected from their food — and at what cost? As a regenerative farmer and certified nutrition therapy practitioner, Jill has built ReWild as an answer to that question — a place where the farm is the center point, and guests leave changed in ways that they will never forget. Lees meer

   This conversation is rich, wide-ranging, and deeply resonant with everything Lady Farmer stands for. It's also the kind of talk that makes you want to go outside and put your hands in the dirt.

   In this episode, you'll hear about:

   Mary's return to growing her own vegetables — tomatoes, seeds, and all — as she and Emma transition away from their longtime CSA

   Emma's reflections on joining a new CSA and what food rhythms look like in a young family

   Jill's origin story: childhood memories of fresh-shucked corn, a lifelong obsession with food and ecology, and graduate school research on the Dust Bowl

   What ReWild Ranch is — a regenerative farm, glamping destination, and women's retreat space in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana

   The three ways guests can experience ReWild, from passive glamping to immersive hands-on workshops and women's retreats

   How Jill's son Alder's autism diagnosis became the catalyst for her deep dive into nutrition therapy — and how dietary and lifestyle changes led to the eventual loss of his clinical diagnosis

   The Dust Bowl: what caused it, what it revealed about soil health and industrial agriculture, and why Jill argues we may be living through something even more catastrophic today

   Glyphosate, the gut microbiome, and the parallel between soil health and human health

   The "60 harvests" statistic — where it comes from and what it means for the future of food

   Why Jill believes feeding the world is not America's job — and what a "checkerboard" mo…

7. 237. Composting as a Cultural Shift with Ben Parry of Compost Crew

   8 mei 2026 · 55 min

   Afspelen
   This week, in honor of International Compost Awareness Week, we're joined by Ben Parry, CEO of Compost Crew — a small but mighty business in the DC metropolitan area helping thousands of households and businesses turn their food waste into something good for the soil. Ben's story is a quiet revolution in itself: a journey from renewable energy to regenerative soil, from powering the grid to feeding the ground beneath our feet. Lees meer

   In this conversation, we dig into how composting is transforming what we throw away into a vital resource, the very real challenges of scaling community-based systems, and what it takes at the household, neighborhood, and policy level to shift our cultural relationship with food waste. Ben shares Compost Crew's growth from a small food-scrap hauler with a handful of customers to a regional force serving thousands of homes, the partnerships with local farms that bring composting full circle, and his vision for a future where dropping your food scraps into a compost bin is as ordinary as not littering on the highway.

   It's a hopeful, grounded conversation about the patient work of building better systems one bucket, one alley, one farm at a time.

   Main topics covered:

   The evolution of composting in the Washington, DC metro area

   The role of systemic infrastructure and community engagement in waste recycling

   Strategies to overcome perceived barriers to food scrap composting

   The importance of local, transparent food systems and grassroots momentum

   Future developments in composting technology and policy

   In this episode:

   Ben introduces Compost Crew and its mission to keep food waste out of the landfill

   The story of DC's curbside composting pilot and the ambitious plans to expand it citywide

   Why systemic infrastructure and visibility matter when it comes to building participation

   How social perception, education, and regulation shape compost adoption

   The Compost Outpost model — bringing composting to local farms like One Acre Farm in Dick…

8. 236. Earth First Gardening with Melanie Cotillo of Lazy Dirt Wildflower Farm

   24 april 2026 · 1 uur 14 min

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   Spring has a way of pulling us back to the soil — and this season, Mary sat down with someone who has made the health of the soil and the well being of the pollinators and wildlife in her local ecosystem her first priority. Melanie Cutillo is the self-described Plant Wrangler in Chief at Lazy Dirt Wildflower Farm in Mexico, New York, a backyard nursery nestled just east of Lake Ontario, where she grows native and wildflower plants entirely without plastic, peat, or synthetic inputs of any kind. Lees meer

   It was a cold January morning walk to the mailbox and a chance encounter with a dried circle of New England aster in the snow that sent Melanie on a quest to grow native plants. The result is a farm, a philosophy, and a way of tending the earth that she calls "Earth First Gardening."

   This conversation is for every gardener who has ever come home from the nursery with a carload of beauty and a pile of plastic waste—wondering if there's a better way.

   Melanie and Mary talk about what it really means to be not just a gardener, but a guardian of the earth’s abundance. Whether you have many acres or simply a front porch, a city window or a community garden plot, this episode will remind you that what matters is how we tend to the land we have.

   In this episode, Mary and Melanie talk about:

   What makes Lazy Dirt Wildflower Farm different from a conventional nursery — small scale, field-grown plants, zero plastic, and a focus on local ecotype native species

   The January morning that started it all: a circle of New England aster in the snow and a pair of tracks that changed everything

   Why Melanie ditched plastic entirely — and how a 10-by-25-foot barn full of collected pots finally pushed her over the edge

   The alternatives she found and invented: soil blocking, wool pots, burlap wrapping, and growing in native soil without bagged amendments or peat

   Why avoiding peat matters and what's lost when we use it: carbon sequestration, living soil, and a non-renewable resource extracted…

9. 235. The Cost of Slow Living: How to Align Your Values Without Burning Out

   3 april 2026 · 1 uur

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   What happens when a listener writes in with the very questions your community is wrestling with? You invite her on the show. Lees meer

   Emily Hillman has spent 14 years in the fashion industry — from the artisan workrooms of Midtown Manhattan to the fast fashion corporate world. After purchasing a 19th-century farmhouse in rural New Jersey and becoming a mother, she found that her priorities had quietly shifted. Finding herself at a crossroads, Emily reached out to Mary and Emma, not looking for all the answers so much as a grounded, honest conversation. .

   This is The Good Dirt's first interview back after a hiatus. Here we’re talking about the real tension so many of us feel: I want to live more simply, more slowly, more intentionally — but how do I actually do that in the life I'm already living?

   If you've ever felt the push and pull between the values you hold and the demands of the world you live in, this episode will speak to you.

   In this episode, we cover:

   Emily's journey from Vermont roots to New York City fashion workrooms — and what she learned firsthand about the difference between artisan craftsmanship and fast fashion production

   The "painful catch-22" of slow living: wanting a simpler life that costs money, while earning less because you're stepping back from the corporate grind

   Why removing moral judgment from your daily purchasing decisions can actually free you to make more sustainable choices

   Practical, accessible approaches to buying secondhand clothing for kids (and why our audience is already well ahead of the curve)

   The economics of slow food: buying in bulk, finding local sources, joining a CSA, and why embracing constraints actually sparks creativity

   Composting as one of the most powerful individual acts for the planet — and tips for making it work even in bear country

   How small, cumulative changes add up — and why you're probably further along than you think

   Book recommendations: Redefining Rich by Shannon Hayes, The Artist's Way by Julia Ca…

10. Mary & Emma: Rethinking Slow Living

    20 maart 2026 · 28 min

    Afspelen
    Mary and Emma return to the podcast after over a six-month hiatus, reflecting on the evolution of Lady Farmer as a brand and their own experiences within it. They discuss how the cultural context around sustainability has shifted, how they don't want to present themselves as experts or frame sustainability in moral terms, and how systemic forces limit individual impact even as daily habits still matter. They aim to focus more on finding meaning, creativity, and defining “the good life". They share personal updates (babies! work! gardening!) and discuss plans for how they want to continue to unfold into The Good Dirt and the Lady Farmer project. Lees meer

    00:00 Welcome Back Check In

    01:11 Meet Mary And Emma

    02:12 Lady Farmer Origin Story

    04:16 Slow Living Then And Now

    08:17 Beyond Individual Responsibility

    10:37 Morality Free Sustainability

    13:24 Decluttering And Landfill Guilt

    15:34 Meaning Emotions And The Good Life

    17:16 Creativity Work And Money

    19:52 Grandma Life And Restorative Gardening

    21:13 Reopening The Marketplace

    25:52 Listener Requests And Wrap Up

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