agri-Culture

Hello Everyone and a Happy 2026!

This month Susan sits down to discuss all things pop culture and the influences it's had on her art and life and maybe yours. So, cue up your Betamax deck and reminisce about what inspired you and your crafts.

Links:

https://www.mosshollowhill.com

https://www.starwars.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/

It’s our last podcast of 2025 already.  In honor of what’s left in the barrel at the end of the year, the best way to enjoy both is to drink up with Paul and Pierce of Taconic Distillery.  

For this one, we have a video on the Backyard Green Films YouTube channel to go with this one, in case your imagination needs a visual boost.  For the taste buds, you might want to head to the Hudson Valley.

Links:

https://www.taconicdistillery.co...

For this month's podcast I travel to Rhinebeck, NY for the NY State Sheep & Wool Festival. I met so many wonderful and talented people...I was totally geeking out. With my cameraman Oscar in tow, the two of us interviewed some amazing talent, from rug hooking to fine art. So please sit back and enjoy this month's episode of Susan's Shire.

Links:

http://www.ravensgateprimitives.com/

https://www.sheepincognito.com/

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Muck, glorious muck!  Sounds funny, but it’s true.  The “muck” found north of NYC and south of the capital city may look like black dirt to some, but it’s more like black gold to those who know – and that’s not a Clampett reference.  The agricultural region known as the Hudson Valley grows almost everything like nowhere else, due to this phenomenal resource.

Join us today as we speak with Michael Risario and Jeff Scales.  They took ...

This month Susan discusses the difference between a yarn festival, a fiber festival and everything in between. Susan just returned from the Lambtown Festival in Dixon, CA and will be heading to Rhinebeck, NY for the 45th annual New York State Sheep and Wool Festival. She gives us a little history about some of these festivals and what inspired her down the path of fiber arts and that there isn't such a thing as bad sheep'...

Sheep are cute and fluffy and produce that wonderful stuff from which many sweaters are born.  But there’s another side to them that doesn’t get mentioned quite so often.  Lamb is an incredibly common meat in most other countries of the world, but not so much in America.

Nick Forrest is trying to change that direction, to capture the possibilities of a multipurpose animal that fits so many different needs.  Just in time for the New ...

Exciting news for fiber enthusiasts! We're thrilled to announce a dynamic collaboration between Susan Shirley, a creative figure in the fiber arts community, and the creators of the popular agri-Culture podcast. Together, we're embarking on a journey each month to bring you captivating stories and insightful interviews from the diverse and fascinating world of fiber. So, please welcome to Susan's Shire!

Links:

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Mark Winslow is from West Falmouth, Maine, where one member or another of his family has farmed on Marston Homestead since the 1790’s.  That seems like a pretty traditional bunch, and moving around doesn’t seem to be applicable.

But that’s not necessarily so.  We met up with Mark and his oxen demonstration at the American Milking Devon conference in Tunbridge, Vermont.  And these boys can do the miles - we heard that a trip to the n...

We search for peace in this chaotic month, and find it in a little shop in Kingston, New York.  The Yarn Farm is made those who like the company of kindred spirits to ply their craft, sure.  It’s also great for those who might want to stop for a quick skein or an artsy crafty yarn-ish item, as well.  

But for those of us who might find Zen in an adult beverage, a perfect charcuterie board and a sunny table by the river, we’re also h...

Today, we meet up with John Garcia of Dancing Sun Farm.  We were able to grab a moment of conversation with him at the lively meetup known as Texas Wool Week, held in the wild weather days of March at Sheepwalk Ranch in Bandera.  Cold, wind, sun, warmth – we had it all.  After all, this IS Texas.

After 29 years in the U.S. Army, John began his second career in service, but this time to contribute to America’s food and fiber systems....

Any time you put the word “summit” in something, it mentally becomes bigger than you previously thought.  A conference on steroids, in most people’s minds.  And when you do an ag-related summit in California, that notion of grandeur can be well deserved, even when you take away the size of the state itself.  The sheer amount of agricultural exports that the producers in California send to other parts of the U.S. and the world is st...

In what started out as a May Day date (that’s a truckload of compost in Rick and Elara’s world), a visit to San Pasqual Valley Soils struck black gold (again, compost).  

In one of the most fortuitous spontaneous Backyard Green Films conversations yet, an extremely knowledgeable dirt farmer by the name of Craig Kolodge, PhD (“Dr. K.” to pretty much everyone) gave an impromptu interview, surrounded by towers of amendment and beeping ...

On today's podcast we meet up with Brook Sarson from CatchingH2O.  We followed Brook as she took a passel of learners and UCSD's Director of the Bioregional Center, Keith Pezzoli, PhD, on a tour of a greywater and rain catchment project that her company had recently installed. 

Water management is a favorite topic for us here at Backyard Green Films.  With efforts like these, even if April brings few showers, we still have...

We’ve been hunkering down for the last few months now on the traveling side of our Backyard Green Films universe.  2024 was a doozy of a year for us in many respects, so we had to take a few moments to catch our breath this winter. 

Enrique Guerra, also known as “Kiko,” is our guest today, and he’s pretty much royalty in Texas Longhorn Cattle circles.  Kiko is the son of another Enrique Guerra – who was always known as Enrique, and ...

Now, if you hear me talk about Rhinebeck, you might think today's guest is going to focus on wool. Nope! Not really. Sheep, yes, hair yes, but mostly wool, no. Our podcast guest today is a lovely man named Brent Zimmerman, and as I introduce him I'm kind of hard pressed to call him one thing, though you could definitely call him a sheep farmer.

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/limekilnfarmNY
https://sheepa...