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Beyond the Harvest: What Season 1 Taught Us About Growing Our Own Food · Old Ways New Days

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome witches, pagans, heathens, spiritualists, and anyone interested in living sustainably.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_03: This is Old Ways, New Days, where the old ways meet the good dirt.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Kayla.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm Nel.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: And each week we explore the sacred art of living close to the land.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: From compost to covens, chickens to charms, we're reclaiming self-sufficiency, seasonal living, and ancestral wisdom.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_04: Whether you're stirring your cauldron or your soup pot, this is a space for wild-hearted folk walking the homesteading path with intention, magic, and muddy boots.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: We are obviously live on TikTok.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: Hi everyone, I'm Nell.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Kayla.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um so we are going to be recording our normal podcast as well.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: And since we are live on TikTok, this is not going to be saved on TikTok.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: But if people come in while we are recording our episode, we will also answer your questions.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um what else was I going to say?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: I just drew a complete blank.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I've never done TikTok.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: I've never I don't have the app, so I have no idea.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: I don't.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's just like you're talking to me via video chat.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: That's pretty much it.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Only you don't get to see the other person.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but they get to see me.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: They get to see you.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: Alright, here's one of our oh come.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: Nope.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: She's gonna run out hide.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: I was gonna say, here's one of the kitties that you often hear.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_04: She's the loudest.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_04: Here, baby.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: And and apparently.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: And the stinkiest.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: I guess she is.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_04: You want to start then?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: So when you're hopping in, please like, follow, share.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: More likes.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: The more people we get in.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_03: Things gonna towel.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: And uh the more we can discuss about things with you guys.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: So today we're gonna talk about Beyond the Harvest and what we learned and what season one taught us.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: And you.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: Especially me, since I'm in the listeners, but okay, you two.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: Me too! Yay! Alright.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: Just trying to still get my camera angle here, so.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Alright.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: You wanna go first then?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well go first.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, you two.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: Snap it.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: Hey! Of course.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I thought.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: So today we're doing something a little different.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: We're not starting season two by immediately telling you what to plant.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: We're not starting with a list of tools.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: We're not starting with a new project or another garden challenge.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: Did we do a garden challenge?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think we did.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe we should.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Ooh.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: Instead, we're going to look backward.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Because before you decide where you're going, sometimes you need to take a good, honest look at where you've already been.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna move this a little bit so that you can actually look that I'm kind of looking at you without looking at you.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's just water.
• 4:11
  unknown: That might get close.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: So season one gave us a lot to think about.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: We talked about gardens, seeds, soil, food preservation, food forest, pests, pollinators, harvests, failure, success, the changing climate, the history of agriculture, the modern food system, and what it actually means to become a little more self-sufficient in a world where most of us can't simply walk outside and plant 50 acres of wheat.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: And somewhere along the way something became clear.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: Growing food isn't really about growing vegetables.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: At least not only.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's about learning how things work.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's about learning where our food comes from, it's about learning what we can do for ourselves, it's about understanding what happens when something goes wrong.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: And perhaps most importantly, it's about realizing the that resilience isn't one giant accomplishment, it's a collection of small skills.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: So today we're going to look at what season one taught us and what we're talking and what we're taking with us into season two.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: Because this season isn't going to be about starting over, it's going to be about building on what we've already learned.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Do I need to increase the font size more?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_04: I'm already blind enough.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, alright.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_04: So what did we actually learn?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_04: Let's start with the most obvious question.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_04: I was gonna say you might want to turn towards me.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um after everything we talked about in season one, what did we actually learn about growing food?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_04: Well, hopefully we learned that growing food is both simpler and more complicated than it looks.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_04: You put seed in soil, you give it water, you give it light, eventually something grows.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_04: That's part of this that's the simple part.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_04: You're distracting me.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_04: But then reality shows up.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_04: The soil might be terrible, the weather might be ridiculous, the seeds might not germinate, the tomato plant might develop a disease, the rabbits might decide your lettuce belongs to them.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: It does.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_04: I know, right?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the deer might treat your garden as an all-you-can-eat buffet.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the squash vine bores might move in without paying rent.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_04: The heat might arrive three weeks early.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_04: Or the rain might never stop.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like right now.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: I know, like right now.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_04: And suddenly that little seed has become a lesson in ecology, weather, patience, observation, problem solving, and occasional creative profanity.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_04: Ooh, I know.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_04: That's gardening.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_04: And that's one of the things we learned in season one.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_04: Growing food is not about controlling nature, it's about learning to work with it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_04: The more we garden, the more we realize that we aren't really in charge.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_04: We can prepare, we can plan, we can improve our soil, we can choose varieties, we can protect plants, we can water, we can mulch, we can save seeds.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_04: But ultimately, we're participating in a living system.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_04: And that changes the way we think about the garden.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_04: The garden isn't a factory, it's an ecosystem, and we're part of it.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: So, one of the biggest lessons from season one was that a garden has value even when it doesn't produce a perfect harvest.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: That can be a difficult idea to accept.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: Especially when you spent money on those seeds.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: Soil amendments, containers, raised beds, trellises, tools, fertilizer, maybe grow lights, maybe fencing, and then you watch half your plants struggle.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's very easy to think, well, that was a failure, but was it?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: You learn something.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn that the corner of your yard doesn't get enough sunlight.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn that your tomatoes hate that particular location.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn that your lettuce bolts too quickly in summer.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you discovered that a crop you thought you'd love isn't actually worth the effort for your household.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn that you don't need 12 varieties of tomatoes.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: Oh come on.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: You don't well, I only have two.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: I technically only have one, but a lot of that one.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn that you absolutely do.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's information.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: And information is one of the most valuable things a garden can produce.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: A garden can also produce a habitat.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: Pollinator resources, shade, organic matter, compost materials, seeds, knowledge, community, and connection.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: It can teach children where food comes from.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: It can give someone an excuse to spend time outside.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: It can give a person something meaningful to care for.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: It can create opportunities to share food with neighbors.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: And it can reconnect us with something that modern life often separates us from.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: The understanding that food is alive before it becomes something packaged on a shelf.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: And that matters.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because once you understand the work involved in producing even a small amount of food, you begin to see food differently.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: A tomato isn't just a tomato anymore.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's soil, water, sunlight, seeds, labor, time, weather, and a little bit of luck.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: Alright, I see we have some people joining us.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: We do.
• 10:21
  unknown: Hi!
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_04: Alright, uh, so we're gonna talk next about food resilience, and that brings us to one of our biggest segments or themes of season one.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: Food resilience isn't the same thing as trying to come become completely independent from the modern food system.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_04: That's an important distinction.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_04: Most of us aren't going to produce every calorie we consume.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_04: That would be ridiculous.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_04: That would be absurd.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_04: We're not going to grow our own wheat, mill our own flour, produce our own salt, raise livestock, make our own clothing, forage our own tools, and somehow manufacture our own canning jars.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_04: Could you imagine?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not no.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: We wouldn't have time for that.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_04: Time alone is the issue.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_04: Let alone resources and knowledge and it hurts.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_04: And we don't need to.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_04: Self-sufficiency doesn't have to mean total independence.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_04: Instead, resilience can mean having options.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_04: If you grow tomatoes, you have another source of tomatoes.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_04: If you save seeds, you have another source of seeds.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_04: If you know how to preserve food, you aren't completely dependent on eating everything immediately.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_04: And if you know how to compost, you can create fertility from materials that would otherwise become waste.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: If you know how to grow herbs, you have another way to supply your kitchen.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: If you know how to make bread, ferment vegetables, dehydrate produce, or can safely or can say can safely you have more tools available to you.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: And those tools matter because resilience is about redundancy.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_04: If one source disappears, another one exists.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: If the grocery store is out of something, perhaps your pantry has it.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe, maybe.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: If seed prices increase, and I know they are, perhaps you have saved seeds.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_04: If your garden fails one year, perhaps you have preserved food from the previous season.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't have a yard, perhaps you have containers.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't have containers, perhaps you have a windowsill.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't have a windowsill, perhaps you at least have a community garden or access to one.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_04: There isn't one definition of resilience.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_04: There are many, many layers.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: So seed saving has changed the conversation.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: We talked about seed saving during season one, and this is one of those subjects that seems simple until you really think about it what it means.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: A seed is tiny, almost ridiculously tiny, and yet inside that tiny object is potential.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: A future plant, a future harvest, possibly hundreds or thousands of future seeds.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: When you save seeds from your own garden, you're doing something that people have done for thousands of years.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: You're selecting, you're observing, you're preserving, and you're participating in the continuation of a plant line.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: But seed saving also teaches us something bigger.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: It teaches us not to think of gardening as a single season.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_03: The garden isn't seed, plant, food, done.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's seed, plant, food, seed, storage, next season.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: That's a cycle.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: And once we start thinking in cycles instead of isolated tasks, our whole approach of homesteading begins to change.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: The garden produces food, the garden also produces seeds.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: The garden produces plant material.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: That plant material can become compost.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: The compost builds soil.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: The soil grows the next crop.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: The crop produces food.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: The food produces scraps.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: The scraps can return to the system.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: And suddenly we're not just gardening.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: We're building a system.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's like the hole in the ground.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: The ground in the hole.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's the you put the plant or the tree in the hole and the hole in the ground.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: Makes the whole world go round.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: I've never heard of that.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's where's that from?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's a rhyme of some that I learned a long time ago.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: A long time ago.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: And that is going to be a major theme of season two.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Which we're starting soon.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, technically now.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: Technically.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: This is the beginning of season two.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: It is October 1st.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's my grandmama Shirley's birthday today.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Happy birthday, Grandmama.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Happy heavenly birthday, Grandma Shirley.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: She made the best homemade bread ever had.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: I thought.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: And pickles.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_04: So we also spent a lot of time talking about soil.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: And soil is one of those things gardeners often don't think about until something goes wrong.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: We look at the plant, we look at the leaves, we look at the flowers, we look at the fruit.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: But underneath all of that is an entire world.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_04: Roots, fungi, bacteria, organic matter, water, air, minerals, tiny organisms interacting in ways we can't see.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: The lesson here isn't simply feed your plants.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's build the environment.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_04: Oh goodness.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's build the environment your plants need.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's a very different philosophy.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_04: Instead of constantly asking, what fertilizer should I use, we can begin asking, what does this soil need?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_04: It does it need organic matter?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_04: Does it need better drainage?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: Does it need protection from erosion?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_04: Or does it need living roots?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_04: Does it need less disturbance?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_04: Does it need time?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_04: Because healthy soil isn't something we pour into a garden bed, it's something we cultivate.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_04: We're going to dig deeper into the underground during season two.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_04: Because the more we understand the soil, the more we understand that gardening isn't just about what's happening above the surface.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: So now we're gonna go into the preservation of making the harvest last.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: And then there was the preservation! Yes.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because growing food is wonderful.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: But what happens when you have more than you can eat?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: That's where preservation comes part of the system.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: Canning, freezing, drying, fermenting, pickling, root cellaring, cool storage, and even simple practices like storing onions, garlic, potatoes, winter squash, or dried beans properly.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: Preservation changes the relationship between harvest and time.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: Without preservation, the garden can become feast or famine, everything arriving at once.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: Tomatoes everywhere, zucchini everywhere, beans everywhere, and then suddenly it's over.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: But preservation lets us stretch the harvest.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: It turns abundance in August into food in January.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: It allows the garden to continue feeding us after the garden itself has gone dormant.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: And that is an old idea.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: Our ancestors didn't necessarily grow food simply because they wanted fresh vegetables in summer.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: They grew food because winter was coming.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: Harvest wasn't the end of the process.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: Harvest was the beginning of another one.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: That mindset is worth remembering because the modern grocery store has made us accustomed to food being available all the time.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: But the old systems taught people something different.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: Abundance has to be managed.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: You don't just harvest, you preserve, you store, you share, you plan, you remember.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_04: And then we learn to fail.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_04: And hard.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you you know, you had a whole new environment with a new house, a new yard, and new critters.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_04: Lots of critters.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, that townhouse balcony kind of saved you from all the critters.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: Not really.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_04: No, okay.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: No, we had a rabbit that would actually come up onto the balcony.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: What?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: I thought it was like feet off the ground, like multiple like the townhouse.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: We actually had a set of stairs that came up onto the balcony.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: So smart rabbit.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Smart rabbit.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_04: Alright, so let's talk about something that doesn't always make it into gardening books.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_04: Failure.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_04: Because if season one taught us anything, is that failure is part of the process.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_04: You will kill plants.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_04: You will overwater something.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: You will underwater something.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_04: You'll plant too early, which I did this year.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_04: You will plant too late.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_04: You will forget what you planted.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_04: And you will lose labels.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_04: You will discover that the seeds packet's definition of small plant and your definition of small plant are two very different things.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_04: Or more.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_04: What do you mean by or more?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_04: It could be two or more different things.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I suppose.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_04: You'll grow something beautiful and then discover that nobody in your house likes to eat it.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_04: You will spend weeks nurturing something only to have a pest destroy it overnight.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes you'll do everything correctly and the crop will still fail.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_04: That's gardening.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_04: And it teaches us something that modern life doesn't always encourage.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_04: Failure can be information.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_04: A failed crop doesn't necessarily mean you are bad at gardening.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_04: It might mean the variety isn't suited to your conditions.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_04: It might mean the timing is wrong, uh, the soil needs work, you might need protection from wildlife.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_04: It might mean you need a different watering strategy strategy.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_04: It might mean you shouldn't grow that crop at all.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: And the last one is important because self-sufficiency doesn't mean stubbornly producing something that doesn't work.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes resilience means changing the plan.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: Do you need to say hi to people?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hi Courtney! Welcome to the city.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_03: This is my friend Kayla.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: So this might be one of the most important lessons we're taking into season two.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_03: Self-sufficient sufficiency is a spectrum.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: There is no magic point where someone suddenly becomes self-sufficient.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: You don't wake up one morning and receive a certificate.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: Instead, you become slightly more capable.
• 21:30
  unknown: Come on.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: What, you want your certificate?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: I can make you one.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want it like framable?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_04: Sure, of course.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_04: I have certificates saying that my garden is, you know, pollinator friendly, so why not?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: True.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_04: You have one in your yard.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_03: I have two in my yard and two on the wall.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: Alright, so then slightly more capable again.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: Wait.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: Where was I?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_04: Don't know I'm sorry.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: So you don't wake up one morning and you receive your certificate.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'll make you yours.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: Instead, you become slightly more capable.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: Then slightly more capable again.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you grow 10% of your vegetables.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: Then 20%.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn to preserve.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you start see saving seeds.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn to repair your garden tools.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn to make bread.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn to ferment.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you start composting.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you grow herbs.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you start buying food from local producers.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you trade your extra tomatoes for someone's eggs.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you learn how to identify edible wild plants.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you simply become better at storing what you already buy.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: Every one of those things increases your options.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the important part.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have to become completely self-sufficient to become more resilient.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: You just have to become more capable than you were before.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: And of course, the biggest question, what if you don't own the land?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: Well, then I guess you talk to people that do.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: So this brings us to another lesson we kept returning to throughout season one.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have to own land to a homestead.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_04: There's something we feel, and this is something we feel very strongly about.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, because when people hear the word homesteading, they often imagine 20 acres, a farmhouse, a barn, chickens, a huge garden, fruit trees stretching into the distance.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe a pond, maybe goats, and that's wonderful if you have it, but that isn't the only version of homesteading.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_04: You can homestead in an apartment, in a townhouse, on a balcony, on a patio.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: What are you doing?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_04: Get in the video.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what are you doing?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_04: You're pinching my backside.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: They can only see half your face.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you can homestead on a windowsill.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_04: You can grow herbs, you can grow microgreens, you can learn preservation, you can bake bread.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_04: You can compost.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_04: And I did uh you can save seeds.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_04: You can save seeds.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: You can save seeds.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um you can compost.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_04: And I did that video, I think it was the first YouTube video I put out of turning a simple black tupper like rubber made tub into a compost bit.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you can mend clothing, you know, learn how to sew.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: There's all those uh educational development programs that schools put out for adults and the elderly.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm getting there.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_04: Calling me old, calling myself old.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, so you if you don't have a skill, you can probably learn it.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um you can learn to cook from basic ingredients, you can build a pantry, learn where your food comes from.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_04: You can grow food in containers, you can participate in a community garden.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_04: Uh no more and more are popping up.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you can share harvests, you can learn traditional skills, reduced waste, and you can make something instead of buying it.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: You can repair something instead of replacing it.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_04: That's homesteading too, because at its heart, homesteading isn't really about acreage.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_04: It's about relationship and capability.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's about developing a closer relationship with some with the resources that sustain you and becoming a little less helpless when something doesn't go according to plan.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so we're gonna take a little pause here because assignments are going off because it's the first one or Thursday of the month or something.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: Nope, it's one o'clock and it's the refinery.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: Oh.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: There we go.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: They do it every every day at one o'clock.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: Gross.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, so we're gonna discuss of what's going on here since Courtney had asked.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we had a question.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_03: We are in season two of our podcast now.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: So we are going over what we learned and didn't learn during season one.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: So if you haven't listened to any of our podcasts, you can go ahead and find us on any of your um podcast listening sites.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: And even on YouTube.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: Podcast is called Old Ways New Days.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, same as our our thing here.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, so it just discuss of you know what we have learned and what we're going to be learning and discussing in our next season.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: And we also have a book of face page.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh TikTok has certain okay words that you can and cannot use.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: Got it.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: So, um, we do have a page and we also have another one um called at the garden gate where um people can ask us questions and we'll answer them.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_04: So eventually I think we'll try and do the garden gate as a live TikTok.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_04: With a recording that will um go out on the platform on Mondays.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_04: But yep.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: Or maybe we'll yeah, we'll figure that out.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: We'll figure that out when we get more questions asked.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, yeah, we've been doing this for a year now.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: I know it's a bit a year.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's official, it's officially a year.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, Mellum.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: These are of course all of Nell's friends.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know any of you, so hi, welcome.
• 27:30
  unknown: I love that you're here.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: Shall we eventually get to meet a few of you?
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: Because, well, Mellum, she lives up north and over by Duluth.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, and then uh Courtney, she lives in Missouri.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: She's the one that I got that big snake plant from.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_03: That was just a couple little parts and now it's like humongous.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome, that's awesome.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, and Courtney does a lot of self-sufficiency.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: Sweet.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_03: She even uh teaches her own kids school.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_03: She's a stay-at-home mom.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh wouldn't you like to be an interviewee, Courtney?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: Because we're looking for people to interview.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: She has chickens.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: She has a whole homestead herself.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: Nice, see.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: Ding! I know.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_03: I thought you shut that off.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: Well, apparently not on the watch.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: Alright, so now we are going to continue on.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: So the garden doesn't have to look like anybody else's.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: Ooh, nice.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, what was that?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: She's gonna add bees.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: Sweet.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yay.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: That's my next product.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_04: Because now I have a beehive.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: Alright, so another lesson from season one is that there is no single correct garden.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: Your garden doesn't have to look like the photographs on social media.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't need matching raised beds, it doesn't need perfect rows, it doesn't need expensive cedar boxes, it doesn't need a greenhouse, it doesn't need a beautiful according to someone else's definition.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: It needs to work for you.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: If containers work, use containers.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: If raised beds work, use raised beds.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: If a traditional ingrown garden works, wonderful.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: If you have one tomato plant on a balcony, that's still a garden.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: If you have herbs in your kitchen window, you're still growing food.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_03: If you grow strawberries in hanging baskets, you're still practicing in you're still participating in the food system.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_03: And if your garden looks a little wild, well, maybe that's not a problem.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're growing something that's beneficial to pollinators.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're leaving some soil bare for ground nesting insects.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're allowing a few volunteer plants to grow.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're growing flowers among your vegetables.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're creating habitat without even realizing it.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_03: A garden doesn't have to be sterile to be productive.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes the most productive garden is also the most alive.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: Is it Yay! I don't know what that means.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_03: Good job, Mallam! Mallam, what does that mean?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: She just became a title gifter.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's just something that happens when they gift.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_03: Oh.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, big Tony.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_04: Alright, and now we get into the biggest lesson of all.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_04: The one that really brings us season one into season two.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: During season one, we talked about individual skills: seed saving, composting, gardening, preservation, food forest, pest management, pollinators, soil building, water conservation, food storage, bread, fermentation.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_04: These can sound like separate hobbies, but they're not necessarily separate.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_04: They're pieces.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_04: And when we connect those pieces, something much more powerful happens.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_04: Let's take a simple example.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_04: You grow tomatoes, you harvest them, you eat them fresh, you preserve some, you save seeds, you compost the damaged fruit and plant materials that can be used.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_04: Or can't be used.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: Can't.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, can't.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_04: The compost helps build next year's soil.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_04: Those plants produce next year that soil supports your tomato plants.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: Those plants produce more tomatoes, you save more seeds, you preserve more food, and you continue the cycle.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_04: Now add herbs and pollinator-friendly uh plants and a compost system.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: Add rainwater collection where legally appropriate.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_04: Add a pantry.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_04: Add food preservation, add seed storage, add crop rotation, add a few perennial plants.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_04: I know it's getting Lis is getting long.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, suddenly you aren't growing vegetables, you're building a small food system.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_04: And it doesn't have to be huge, that's important.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_04: A system can exist in a backyard, it can exist in a community garden, it can exist across several containers, it can exist across several households.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe you grow the tomatoes, but your neighbor grows cucumbers, somebody else grows the herbs, someone else makes bread.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_04: Another person has fruit trees, and someone preserves.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_04: And maybe the you know friend down the road has chickens.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_04: And suddenly the community has something no individual household could easily create alone: redundancy.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_04: That's resilience.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: Although it used to be on camera because I'm not used to being a every year.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_03: She'll get used to it.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, I I'm not sure.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's hard for us to actually meet up once in a while.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_03: Because I have Thursdays off, but she doesn't always have Thursdays off.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um we could potentially plan for every Sunday.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: We could.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: Before I have pool.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_03: Because that kind of worked out well.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_03: So we could plan for that.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_03: We just gotta make sure the fiancee doesn't uh interrupt us.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_03: With the banging and the the coming and going, yeah.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_03: So we can always post a poll on the Facebook page and um see when would be the best time to go live, but it would have to be the mornings because I shoot pool at one.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: So and every other Sunday I have an obligation.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: It wouldn't be every Sunday, it would be every other.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, we can do that.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_04: So especially if you guys or folks like this.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean I Absolutely.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: This is my first time with TikTok.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't, I have no idea.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: But it's fun.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: I enjoy it.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_03: So as we move into season two, we want to leave one thing behind.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_03: The idea that we have to do everything.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: You don't.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have to grow every vegetable, you don't have to preserve everything, you don't have to save every seed, you don't have to compost perfectly, you don't have to food forest, you don't have to mi sourdough, you don't have to own a dehydrator, you don't have to pressure canner.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: You don't need chickens, you don't need acreage, you don't even need a garden.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: Start with what you can do, then build.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe your first step is grows growing basil.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's planting t potatoes in a container.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's learning how to freeze green beans.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's saving tomato seeds.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's making compost.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's simply keeping a garden journal.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: And then next year you add something else.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's how skills become systems.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: Not all at once.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_03: One connection at a time.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_04: If we had to boil everything down to a few lessons, maybe they would look something like this.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_04: First, food doesn't begin at the grocery store.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_04: It begins with soil, water, sunlight, seed, labor, and ecosystems.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: Second, a garden is more than a source of vegetables.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_04: It can be habitat, education, community, therapy, beauty, food, and a place to practice resilience.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_04: Third, seeds are part of the harvest.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_04: You grow the food you grow today can help create the food you grow tomorrow.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_04: Fourth, soil is alive.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_04: What happens underground matters just as much as what we see above the surface.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_04: Fifth, preservation extends the season.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_04: Harvest isn't the end.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's the beginning of storage, sharing, and planning.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_04: Sixth, failure is information.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_04: Every crop that doesn't work teaches you something about your land, your climate, your timing, your methods, and yourself.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_04: Seventh, self-sufficiency isn't all or nothing.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_04: Every skill gives you another option.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_04: Eighth, you don't need to land you don't need land to practice homesteading.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_04: You need curiosity, willingness, and whatever resources are available to you.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: And finally, the individual skills matter, but the connections between them matter even more.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: So where do we go from here?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_03: Hmm.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_03: That was season two.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's what season two is going to explore.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to take the things we've learned and start connecting them.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to look underneath the garden.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about soil compost and food forests.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about pollinators and about pests.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about the plants we call weeds, about lawns.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about food preservation and pantry building.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about water.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about gardening and a changing climate.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about tools and traditional skills.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about bread and fermentation.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to talk about food systems.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_03: And we're going to keep asking the same question.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: How do we take what we've learned from the old ways and make it useful in the world we actually live in today?
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's really what old ways, new days has always been about.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: Not pretending we live in the past.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_03: Not romanticizing every part of the past.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_03: Not assuming that modern life is automatically wrong.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's about looking backward for knowledge.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_03: Looking around the world we live in.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_03: Living in.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_03: Looking around the world we're living in.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_03: And then deciding what is worth carrying forward.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: Are you okay?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_03: No, I have tongue tie.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_04: There's one final thought I want to leave you with.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_04: We often define abundance by how much we have.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_04: How much food, how much money, how much land, how much space, how much equipment, how much property.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_04: But maybe abundance can also mean how many things do you know how to do?
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_04: How many problems can you solve?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_04: How many resources can you use creatively?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_04: How many seeds can you save?
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_04: How many meals can you make from basic ingredients?
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_04: How much food can you preserve?
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_04: How much waste can you turn into something useful?
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_04: How many people can you share skills with?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_04: And how many ways can you adapt when something doesn't go according to planned?
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_04: That kind of abundance can't always be measured in dollars, and it doesn't require a huge homestead.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_04: It requires knowledge, practice, observation, and time.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: So before we officially step into season two, let's take a moment to appreciate where we've been.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_03: Every seed we planted, every garden problem we wrestled with, every harvest, every failed crop, every jar put away, every seed saved, every lesson learned, every moment we realize that we didn't actually know how much we thought we did, because that's part of this path.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_04: We aren't trying to become perfect homesteaders.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_04: We're trying to become more capable people.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_04: People who understand their food a little bit better.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_04: People who understand their soil a little better.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_04: People who know how what?
• 40:05
  unknown: It's a finger heart.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_04: Oh.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: Like what are you doing?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_04: People who understand, um, I've lost my swear.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_04: Uh people who know how to grow something, preserve something, repair something, save something, share something.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe eventually teach someone else.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's how knowledge survives.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_03: One person learns, then another, one garden becomes two, one saved seed becomes another generation of plants, one loaf of bread becomes a skill.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_03: One jar of preserved food becomes a little more security.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_03: One compost pile becomes better soil.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_03: One small garden becomes part of a larger ecosystem.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_04: And eventually all those things begin to connect.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_04: That's where we're going next.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_04: Not bigger for the sake of bigger, not more complicated for the sake of more complicated, but deeper, more connected, more intentional, and more resilient.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_03: Because the goal was never simply to grow a garden, the goal was to grow capability.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_03: And perhaps that's the real harvest.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_03: Not just what we pulled from the soil, but what the soil taught us while we were growing it.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for coming back for another season of Old Ways New Days.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_03: We're so glad you're here.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_04: And as we step into season two, remember we don't have to grow everything.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have to make everything.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have to know everything, and you just have to start somewhere.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_04: Plant something, learn something.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_04: Save something, preserve something.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_04: And then when you're ready, connect it to something else.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_04: Because the old ways still have something to teach us.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_04: And we're still learning how to bring those lessons into the new days.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_04: Bye.