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The extraordinary Churchtown Dairy in New York is restoring dairy farming in a context where such farms are still closing around them. They are doing it with nature, family, food and festival at its heart. With organic and biodynamic methods, they are keeping cattle together in their families to amazing benefit, cultivating myriad farm products including medicinal plants, restoring a diverse landscape, designing beautiful buildings including a store onsite, and hosting an extensive set of gatherings at their spectacular barn venue. That’s where we’d attended an event the night before, with guest-of-honour and friend, the globally renowned author of Cows Save the Planet, Water in Plain Sight, and The Reindeer Chronicles, Judith Schwartz. It’ll also host the Real Organic Project conference on September 28, amongst Shakespeare productions and varied concert events.

Today we meet Churchtown’s herd and farm managers – Eric Vinson and Steffen Schneider respectively. I already knew a bit about Steffen - Co-Founder of the Institute for Mindful Agriculture, and Director Emeritus of Farm Operations at Hawthorne Valley Farm, up the road from Churchtown (having spent 30 years there). And Eric? Well, this 36 year old former journalism major used to run a successful event hire company in the city. But when covid hit, the realisation hit that he needed to live out something more meaningful. He landed at Churchtown, prepared to do anything to get a start. And two years on, he’s managing the herd, with a big vision, and an appetite for sharing it with people.

Eric’s our main guide here, as Steffen just had a short time with us, and Judy is my esteemed unofficial co-host.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.

Recorded 29 August 2024.

Title slide: Judith Schwartz, Olivia Cheng & Eric Vinson (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

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The evening before we recorded the main episode with Pedro, we went out on the Plains to shepherd the buffalo to their next patch. This is a rare chance to hear one of the world’s most respected bison wranglers – and the animals themselves – at work. And there were some very special moments too, in this condensed 20-minute special extra to episode 220.

The wind can be mighty on the Plains, and as we went further towards the buffalo it did push the microphone I had on me at times. But given how rare and special this was, and that our voices, and at times the buffalo voices, can still be heard clearly enough, I’ve left in as much as I can of the good stuff, and decided to run with it. I hope you enjoy it. We pick it up as we drive out to the herd, already in awe at the scale and wonder of the Great Plains.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.

If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Pedro, ‘The Great Buffalo Restoration on the American Prairie’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.

Recorded 29 July 2024.

Title slide image: Among the buffalo (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Thanks for listening!

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

Send us a text

Pedro Calderon-Dominguez is regarded as an extraordinary horseman. Though as fate would have it, his life took a series of unexpected turns, through wildlife ecology as the first to further Aldo’s Leopold’s work with black bears, into holistic management with some of the legends in Mexico and beyond, and ultimately into working with buffalo. Now he’s regarded by some as the world’s top bison wrangler.

Pedro is currently based at an ambitious project called American Prairie, in the north of Montana, managing its bison restoration program on the Great Plains. We visited him and his brilliant wife Flora a few weeks ago, and were blown away by the presence of the bison again on this country, and Pedro’s subtle connection with them.

Mexican-born and raised, with his own indigenous origins and expert horse-handling pedigree, Pedro was recruited to American Prairie to play this key role in their mission to coordinate and leverage, across varied land tenures, the restoration of 3 million acres of essential grasslands. And it’s turning up some remarkable outcomes, including relationships with First Nations, and connections with the broader bison restoration work across the continent. At the same time, we’d also been hearing about the controversy and discontent amongst some locals feeling like big money from outside is supplanting family ranches. Save the Cowboy billboards line the highway as we approach.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.

Recorded 30 July 2024 (intro recorded at Judith Schwartz’s home in Vermont).

Title slide: Pedro with the buffalo (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Find more:
Tune into a special extra to this episode, Out Among the Buffalo, later this week.

For more on Pedro, tune into Back to the Land with Cody Spencer - World's Top Bison Wrangler - Pedro Calderon Dominguez.

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

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This week we’ve got some special news, and a mail run. That is, I reply to some of the text messages coming from you through the new link in our episode show notes. And I’m coming to you from the extraordinary Churchtown Dairy in New York, after attending an event last night at their amazing barn venue, with guest-of-honour, the globally renowned author and previous podcast guest, Judith Schwartz.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.

Recorded 29 August 2024.

Title slide: Yours truly in the farmhouse reading room where this was recorded (pic: Olivia Cheng).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Thanks for listening!

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

Send us a text

Aldo Leopold has profoundly influenced the modern conservation and regeneration movement. He affected nearly every national conservation initiative in the US during the 1930s and 40s, and this year marks the 75th anniversary of his classic book A Sand County Almanac. Hard to believe now that it was rejected many times before being finally accepted just one week before his death. Since then, the book has been translated into at least fifteen languages and sold well over two million copies.

Today, we visit the land that inspired it, by the Wisconsin River, in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Land that was clapped out and abandoned before he bought and regenerated it with his family – also converting the famous shack from what was a chook shed. Our family starts up the road at the Centre run by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, honourably marking the place of Aldo’s death.

Then we head out to the shack, where Aldo arrived at so many of his insights, and where I’m joined in conversation about the man, the regeneration happening here and around it, and the meaning of Aldo’s legacy today, by Dr Katie Ross - dear friend, very generous long-time podcast subscriber, former Acting-CEO of Soils for Life back in Australia (founded by our former Governor-General Michael Jefferies), and now returned local to America’s Dairyland in the State of Wisconsin. Though it was her first time to the shack too.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.

Recorded 14 August 2024 (intro recorded at dawn today at Chute Falls in Ontario, Canada).

Title slide: Aldo Leopold outside the shack (from the Foundation’s website).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Thanks for listening!

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

Send us a text

Cole Mannix was featured in the New York Times a couple of months ago as part of a series called ‘Making It Work’, about ‘small-business owners striving to endure hard times’. The title read: Montana Has More Cows Than People. Why Are Locals Eating Beef From Brazil? The by-line followed: ‘Cole Mannix, [co-founder] of Old Salt Co-op, is trying to change local appetites and upend an industry controlled by multibillion-dollar meatpackers.’ And it seems local appetites are ready for it too – with both eaters and producers lining up for a taste of things, apparently just in need of a model that works.

It’s early days, but with a family legacy steeped in stewardship, some hard lessons from past efforts, and Cole’s personal journey from the ranch to theology and other revelations, the co-op is off to a rocking start. Literally. Soon after it formed in 2021, The Old Salt Outpost burger shop was set up in a famous old bar in downtown Helena. Though when I visited Cole, we started in the cruisier country vibes of the new restaurant and retail outlet across the street, called The Union. And we culminate back there with four of my favourite minutes ever on this podcast.

They happened to be prompted by Fred Provenza's presentation at the Old Salt Festival, a gathering to bring the whole lot together. So many essential aspects of systemic, regenerative change. Though as I was to learn, with one critical piece of the puzzle to come. And just the right sources of finance to make it happen.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too).

Recorded 20 July 2024.

Title slide: Cole & AJ entering the Old Salt Outpost burger shop (pic: Olivia Cheng).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Find more:
Old Salt Co-op’s page on Steward

Hear Dan Miller from Steward on episode 161, Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

Send us a text

Allan Savory is a legend of regenerative agriculture - the ongoing force behind holistic management, a movement that has featured in so many stories on the podcast. Indeed, as we’ve travelled across the US / Turtle Island, we continue to hear such stories (including in last week's episode).

Longer-term listeners might remember my conversation with Allan on the podcast back in 2020. It still stands as amongst the most listened to, and my personal favourites. So as we neared Denver, Colorado, I reached out to Allan and the team at the Savory Institute. As it happens, Allan was about to front the next course at their nearby ranch. But by the time we were in the ‘hood, it was the week of Independence Day, and holiday movements had set in. So Allan, his wife Jody and I shared the intention to meet later in our journey.

Then, over the weekend just passed, we were privileged to visit Kelsey Scott at the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota (standby for that special episode soon). Allan came to mind there too, with a story I share here from Kelsey’s husband Monte. It reminded me of Allan’s story at the end of our conversation, on the profound place intuition has held for him in his life. Then there was the music he chose, which I was able to include at the end.

So with all that in mind, and as Allan approaches his 89th birthday, I hope you enjoy revisiting one of this podcast's very special conversations.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps too).

Intro recorded 6 August 2024. Conversation recorded 22 November 2020.

Title slide: Allan Savory (supplied).

See more photos and links on the website of the original release, and for more from behind the scenes become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell.

Scotland the Brave, by Eric M. Armour.

Sourced from the Free Music Archive under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

Send us a text

In episode 164 with Nicole Masters and Meagan Lannan (the infamous ‘armoured butts’ episode) we talked about the new ‘train the trainers’ program in agroecological systems thinking they’d created, called CREATE. This time, we visit them at home, as they gather for the first reunion of the program. Fifteen highly accomplished alumni from incredible and varied places gathered at Meagan’s beautiful regenerative ranch. And as the few days together wrapped up, I spoke with six of these people from across each of the three annual runnings of the course to date.

Those three runnings have taken place in some famous places in the US and the UK, including where our first guest today used to be an ambitious CEO for the family estate of Lady Diana. The 4th running of the course is about to start in Paradise Valley, at the foot of Yellowstone, where plans are also afoot to create a major new centre for this and other programs to flourish into the future.

So given this podcast explores the stories of human transformation that allow for the regeneration of everything, and how we can help other people along, I was fascinated to learn who these people are, why they were here, and what transformations they’ve experienced. And there was no shortage of them, from the course, and from this gathering itself.

Recorded 11-12 July 2024.

Title slide: Nicole Masters speaks to all (pic: AJ).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Guests:
Garth Clark
Cody Spencer - and his new podcast Back to the Land
Rebecca Baldwin-Kordick
Sérgio Nicolau - and a short video that Sergio put together on Instagram of his journey
Francisco Alves (Herdade de S. Luís) - and on Instagram
Nia Cowcher and Jamie’s Farm
And kudos to

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!