Late Bloomer Interviews Barefoot Farmer in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee. Check out this vital podcast!
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When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. – John Muir, 1911
We have to break out of this fog that we’re in thinking that modern agriculture is feeding people. It’s not. It’s really causing a lot of problems. Most of our environmental problems are agriculturally oriented. – Jeff Poppen, 2015
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I drove up to Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee, to visit Jeff Poppen, known as the Barefoot Farmer, owner and operator of Heady Ridge Farm and Long Hungry Creek Farm, one of the oldest and largest organic farms in Tennessee. I saw him mowing hay in a field and pulled over and he pulled over and we met.
Kristina Rossi, Jeff’s secretary, who plans to own her own farm one day, showed us around the farm while Jeff mowed hay. Kristina fed me homemade stew from farm beef and vegetables, along with fermented vegetables and homemade bread and fresh butter then we took a tour. I had brought along my old friend, Guy Zimmerman, Area Forester for the Tennessee Department of Forestry, as Jeff’s farm, which is 60% forest, was in his jurisdiction.
We met later on the porch of a vintage post office building Jeff had moved to a field near where he holds his music festival. He discussed the benefits of biodynamic agriculture and the importance of soil health and how it could reverse global warming (grazing animals on grassland drives carbon back into the ground), also how the nutrition obtained from homegrown food raises consciousness.
Jeff has a lifetime of farming experience, claiming “It’s the only thing I’ve ever done,” however his two books, personal TV appearances, his farmer training program, and his music festival attest to his appetite to share his knowledge and his farm with others. For more information about Jeff and his farm activities, go to barefootfarmer.org/ – Thanks for listening!
When I recently had Sharon Carson, a biodynamic family farmer for 25 years, on my first live webcast and mentioned I was heading home to Tennessee, she said, you have to meet Jeff Poppen. I spent the last day of my trip at his farm, and recorded this interview, which will be combined with more images into a slideshow which will be available at Kaye Kittrell | Late Bloomer Urban Organic Garden Show on YouTube.
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Thank you! – Kaye
