E153 Paulette Whitney - For the love of food, flowers & spring loaded seeds

Futuresteading

As a food grower, lover of the natural world, cook and wizened plant expert, todays conversation meanders between the veggie patch & the kitchen, the garden shed & the pickling shelf.
A reverence for the food we eat was planted deep inside Paulette's young mind by a mother who shared her skills and passion which then carried her onto this trajectory of life where she experiences the world through her garden.
As founder and owner of Provenance Growers and now author she tells the story of where our food comes from, how it was grown and what nutrients it might share with us in our interwoven way of existence with the natural world.

Links you’ll love:
Provenance growers
Broccoli and other love stories
Loved this? Try these:
Similar themes but of course wonderfully different stories.
Ep 134 Jane Stevens who is a herbalist & astrologer in the US
Ep 121 Nat Wilmott who shares her story of homesteading, homeschooling & living simply in the West Gippsland Hills
Ep 53 Simeon Ash from Spoke and Spade market garden.
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We talked about:
Learning lessons outside with her Mum
Seeing a process evolve from environmental impact to food
Tapping back into her childhood skills to step away from the pressure to sell things
Changing careers in her mid 20’s & landing in horticulture
Making people feel happy & safe with what we do with our hands
The many uses of flowers for culinary, health & horticulture
Her addiction to seeds - especially spring loaded ones
Tips for managing cross pollination for seed saving
Her caffeine supported daily routine
The cycle of paddock/soil management
Her love of perennial edibles for ease of management & health of soil
Creating plants that are hardy & weather beaten that thrive when planted
Kids pulling away from their parents
Being a reluctant elder
Market gardening as an ideal job for a human low in confidence & introverted
Her ADHD diagnosis
Her husband is the doer & she is the wanderer
Storytelling as a tool for knowledge sharing
Following the rhythm of her brain as a pattern to writing her book
The freedom of knowing you can hold more than one idea at once
The beautiful cyclical nature of observing & interacting
Lean model of market gardening
Managing failure - easier to do when you are safe & have your basics met
Avoiding waste from the outset

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