Working With and Learning From Nature
Earth Care: How Connecting to Nature Can Change Your Life
Episode 140: Before 2006, Andrew McMillion wasn’t thinking too much about plants, soil health, or ecology. He was living the American Dream, spending a lot of money, and commuting to work at his job for a large corporation. The only catch? He felt miserable. After taking a test to see how high his carbon footprint was, Andrew committed to make a change. Now residing in Ornes, Norway, Andrew lives on a small ecological farm where he focuses on earth care, people care, and increasing and protecting plant biodiversity.
In this thoughtful and inspiring interview, Andrew shares his journey from knowing nothing about plants (in 2013) to growing over 200 varieties of vegetables, trees, and herbs. We talk about some of his favorite plants including Tree Collards, Shetland Kale, Habblizia or Caucasus Spinach, Syrian Homs Squash, Lambsquarters, Ashitaba, Udo, and Achocha (Bolivian Cucumber). Andrew shares his experience of the positive effect of building relationships to individual plants and the many cycles of life in which we are embedded and how changing his focus from matter and production to connections and life quality has been pivotal for the thriving of the web of life on his farm.
Andrew also shares his experiences from the Norwegian Seed Savers, the Green Party and the Refugee Greenspace Initiative, the new nonprofit Andrew co-founded, which sets up kitchen gardens at refugee centers. For more information and to contact Andrew, visit: RefugeeGreenSpace.org
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:14 — 40.0MB) | Embed
10 Comments on “Earth Care: How Connecting to Nature Can Change Your Life”
Thanks for the podcast. It would be good to have a list of the plants he mentions as I can’t quite hear what they are
Hi Norma,
Thanks for listening. The plants that we talk about that I recall offhand are the following: Ashitaba, Syrian Homs Squash,
Tree Collards, Habblizia or Caucasus Spinach, Lambsquarters, quinoa, Udo, Shetland Kale, and Achocha (Bolivian Cucumber). Others include: Purple Tree Kale (PTK) and Daubenton kale, Syrian Medieval Chard, mouse melons, Yacon,Skullcap, and Valerian.
Happy Growing!
Jill
Hi, and thanks for an inspiring podcast.
Some of the plants I heard:
Lambs quarter,
Quinoa,
Tree kale or collard,
Shetland kale,
Syrian medieval chard,
Kaukasian spinach – Hablitzia thamnoides
Thanks, Anita! I appreciate you listening!
Jill
Thanks, Anita! I appreciate you listening!
Jill
Hi again,
It actually says in the description:
Tree Collards, Shetland Kale, Hablitzia or Caucasus Spinach, Syrian Homs Squash, Lambsquarters, Ashitaba, Udo, and Achocha (Bolivian Cucumber).
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this was a good programme – arctic and sub-arctic regions are often ignored
Thank you, Rich. I appreciate you listening. I’ve done an episode with Andrew about Amaranth on The Plant Report podcast. Stay tuned for more!