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

Anastasia started her career as a seasonal agricultural worker at the age of 17 when a series of fateful events led her to the blueberry barrens of Downeast Maine. She raked berries every year for the next 8 years, and also did some apple picking, morel mushroom hunting, and tree-planting which eventually became her primary occupation. This lifestyle kept her on the road for the better part of 13 years and enabled her to become intimate with many parts of the country. She has been based out of Tucson, AZ (the city of her birth) for the past 10 years where her home has evolved into an urban, desert farm. Anastasia has just earned a degree in Rangeland Ecology and Management from the University of Arizona. She is looking forward to integrating her experiences and skills in ways that will help to produce food and other products from the land while sustaining and enhancing natural and cultural resources. This program was sponsored by White Oak Pastures.

"I think what I really loved about it [seasonal agriculture] was the bizarre social scene that grew around it... I also got really into the physical aspects of it... grueling, repetitive work out in the hot sun... But I don't wanna paint a rosy picture of seasonal agricultural work because it's not that way for many people."

"The fact that we can make food from animal products without altering the land is really important to our food security." -- Anastasia Rabin on Greenhorn Radio

Shelterbelt Farm is owned and managed by Craig and Erica and their young children Rowan and Phoenix. Started as a homestead in 2005, 2010 was their first year of operation as an official farm. The farm is located in the scenic rolling hills of Caroline, NY, in the Finger Lakes region just southeast of Ithaca. It is home to three generations of Modishers, and pigs, chickens, turkeys, bees, and geese. Next year Craig and Erica will add 100% grass-fed cattle and goats, and eventually produce greens through the winter in unheated hoophouses.

Craig and Erica are passionate about regenerating the health of the land and their customers, by managing animals in a way that builds soil and plant diversity, provides a low-stress, happy life for the livestock, and produces nourishing pasture-raised meats. All-natural production practices, superior taste and quality, and good environmental stewardship go hand-in-hand.

Craig also runs Ironwood Builders with his business partners, and Erica works at the Cornell Small Farms Program as the co-manager of the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project. This program has been sponsored by Hearst Ranch.

"When you're homesteading you don't have to worry about enterprise budgets, profits, efficiency or scale. These are some of the issues we've been dealing with since we began commercial farming." [6:32] -- Erica Frenay on Greenhorn Radio