This week began with an exciting new adventure for me-I started cohosting the Wake the Farm Up: Maintaing Ground podcast! I've been a guest on Wake the Farm Up a couple times over the past few months, and the shows host, Ande the Elf, recently invited me to join him more often. Our first episode just came out, check it out here!
Ande I have been friends on social media for several years, so when I started posting about my foraging adventures he invited me to his show. He invited me the day of the recording and I had never even heard of the show, which he had only started a few months before, so I was excited to say yes but didn't know what to expect or have time to listen to any episodes. I thought maybe I'd be going to a small sound controlled room to record, but instead I showed up to a group of people hanging out eating persimmons and getting up to speak on the mic at somewhat random but fluid intervals while the shows DJ, Stefin101 played music and inserted sounds throughout the show. I got to hear from other guests doing amazing things with food locally and enjoyed the vibes that night. I now know this was a, 'Live at the Lab' experience, that have an open audience and a causal format where some people are specifically invited as guests but audience members can also come up and share their stories. We had a good chat about my foraging and I made some connections with other guests that I took out into the real world. You can listen to that episode here!
A few months later, Ande had me on again after I gave up conventional grocery stores and started my Grocery Free 2023 project. That show was at a the Lost Bridge Brewery, a bar and Farmstore at the Carriage House Farm just outside of Cincinnati. The show was so much fun! I had some great conversations with the other guests, delicious drinks with local crystallized ginger, and got some beautifully crafted local foods from their farmstore. This was also a live show, but it was a bit more structured since the show was also the entertainment for the bar that night. The guests were given a lineup and delivered awesome content. It was a long episode, I recommend listening to the whole show, even if you do it in sections. My interview started at the 57 minute mark, check it out here!
I was starting to really get into Wake the Farm Up. I listened to episodes and gained more local foraging and food production connections and was starting to have some more regular and hilarious interactions with Ande, who is a master of puns and sees humor in every scenario. Ande eventually asked me to join him as a regular cohost and I agreed!
I'm still figuring out my role in the show. I listen to the show, but I haven't heard every episode yet and there's a lot of different aspects to it that I'm still learning-such as the various personalities that come through Ande and manifest as different characters on the show, the fluid nature of planning, the nuances to artistic interweaving of music and conversations. I'm figuring it all out live as we record and laughing throughout the process as my cohost keeps things humorous and light. All the while we have great conversations and build community with guests.
Wake the Farm Up has live shows both in Cincinnati and on the road. We're planning to be at several festivals in the summer of 2023 and we'll be posting the lineup on our website. The show is all about building and maintaining community around permaculture practices and principals. Ande the Elf has been known in the international permaculture community for decades and has been a teacher to many. He is a treasure in Cincinnati. Come check out a live show, maybe even be a spontaneous guest where we're Live at the Lab! Follow us on social media for updates on when and where will be recording and join us if you are able! If you can't come to a live show, be sure to check out the podcast through your favorite hosting platform. We have serious conversations that are seriously fun and we can't wait to share the wisdom and laughter with you!