Sleeping Frog Farms is an intensive 75-acre farm nestled in the Cascabel corridor of the San Pedro River Valley. Founded on permaculture design and biodynamic growing principles, Adam Valdivia, Debbie Weingarten, CJ Marks, and Clay Smith are dedicated to providing their community with seasonal heirloom fruits and vegetables through farmer’s markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Farm to School, Food Coop, and restaurant sales. Their laying hens, dairy goats, honey bees, and earthworms are integral to pollination, soil-building, and recycling crop waste into food and fertilizer. They harvest a diverse selection of produce daily and at its peak ripeness, in order to bring the finest taste and nutrition to Southern Arizona. This episode is sponsored by White Oak Pastures.

"Our hope is that in 10-15 years that we can be doing a small scale grain operation to feed the animals."

--Adam Valdivia on Greenhorn Radio

This week on We Dig Plants, Carmen DeVito is re-joined by Mark "Coach" Smallwood, Executive Director of Rodale Institute and Green Mission specialist for Whole Foods. Carmen and Mark talk about everything from soil management courses to beekeeping. Learn why backyard beekeepers are much better suited for honeybees and why colony collapse disorder is commonly misunderstood. Learn more about composting and hear some practical growing tips from "Coach". This program was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.

"There are very few wild hives left. Bees need beekeepers!"

"We think the answer to the health of the honey bee is not the commercial beekeeper, it's the backyard beekeeper. They tend to manage their hives in a much healthier way."

"I like to plant what grows high with what grows low and what grows fast with what grows slow."

--Mark "Coach" Smallwood on We Dig Plants

Megan Paska grew up gardening with her mother and grandmother in Maryland, and spent her summers on her family's 450-acre farmstead in rural Virginia. When she moved to Brooklyn, NY in 2006, she found that her landlords were enthusiastic about her putting up a raised bed vegetable garden in the backyard. Soon after came bees and honey, then the chickens and fresh eggs. She created the Brooklyn Homesteader blog to chronicle her backyard and rooftop adventures in agriculture, as well as her experiences with urban farming organizations like BK Farmyards, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, and Brooklyn Grange, with whom she coordinates educational Beekeeping workshops. Megan also hosts workshops and classesfrequently from her backyard garden and in local businesses as well as private classes on subjects like gardening, mushroom growing, food preservation and beekeeping. She is currently in the planning process of starting a farm, The Homestead at Seven Arrows, on 20 acres of leased land just outside the city. This program has been sponsored by The Heritage Meat Shop.

"I love beekeeping...you never stop learning, and that's a humbling feeling."

"That's why we started Hayseed's. We were having a hard time finding good quality things like chicken feed, soil, and soil amendments for a reasonable price." -- Megan Paska on Greenhorn Radio