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Episode-1592- Ben Hewitt on Nutrient Dense Food Production

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Click Here to Buy a Copy of Ben's Book

Click Here to Buy a Copy of Ben’s Book

Ben and his wife, Penny, along with their two sons, have transformed a worn out Vermont hillside into a thriving homestead, which currently provides more than 90% of their food, along with most of their building materials, all their heating and cooking fuel, and many other essentials.

They call their style of homestead scale food production “practiculture,” reflecting the fact that they draw on many different methodologies while always striving to make this work “doable.” They are the authors of the recently-published book The Nourishing Homestead.

Ben’s previous book is Home Grown, which explores his experience with the public ed system (he’s a high school dropout) and his family’s experiences “unschooling” their two sons.

Ben joins us today to discuss Homestead-scale nutrient dense food production and what he calls practiculture.  To go into how to make your food nutrient dense, what that actually means and why it is important.  As well as discussing his new book, “The Nourishing Homestead“.

Join Us Today to Discuss…

  • What exactly is nutrient density and why it matters
  • The connection between soil health and human health
  • The relationship between big pharma and big food
  • What it’s like to grow and process 90%+ of your own food,
  • What Ben’s days and diet looks like
  • The difference between independence and interdependence
  • The essential role of livestock in a healthy homestead/farm eco-system
  • What the hell is “practiculture,” anyway do we really need another freaking word

Resources for today’s show…

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Comments

Episode-1592- Ben Hewitt on Nutrient Dense Food Production — 15 Comments

    • That was my wife the other day on half a pint of blueberries the other day. I sat them down, and 5 minutes later looked down and they were all gone.

      Oh well, she probably needed to gorge herself on spring / early summers bounty!

  2. We tilled one of our beds for the first time since it was established after 6-7 years of no till (but broadforking and weeding) and the result was insane weed pressure. Wont’ do that again!
    I have not gotten the fully mulched no boradfork/soil disturbance approach to work, however.. Would like to for sure – but we’re so wet – heavy mulching often wreaks havoc on plants in my experience, here.

    • If you’re THAT wet, maybe you’re in one of the few places that seriously elevated raised beds [something like 2 feet above grade] are a good idea Ben?

  4. Bulk seed MSB discount? Almost time to renew my lifetime membership. Thank you Jack.

  5. He mentioned fermenting the green beans. I wonder does he eat them raw through the winter or cooks them? I know its better not to cook fermented foods because it kills the lactobacillus. But maybe the main benefit of fermenting the green beans is not having to can? I cant imagine eating uncooked green beans? Great show though. Going to order his book.

    • They do break down a bit and my thoughts are he is using whey (left over from making cheese from his cows) to ferment with. They will still have a crunch but they are amazing! Try just one pint on your counter and see if you like it :).

  6. Great discussion on child/seniors as disposable consumers.

    Ben’s book, The Town that Food Saved, is a must read on interdependence of local businesses.

  7. So, this is kind of funny, I think:

    I was listening to this podcast, and I thought to myself, that Damn Yankee is talking so fast, I can’t understand him. And, then I realized that because Ben is talking so fast, Jack is talking too fast, also. Like maybe unconsciously, Jack’s native Pennsylvania was creeping back in to keep up with Ben. I couldn’t listen to the whole thing. I kept thinking about all the people I went to school with in Oklahoma and longed for that slow, Southern Drawl.

    It wasn’t until I started listening to the next podcast that I realized I had accidentally hit the “Speed @ 1.5x” button on my phone!

    Great interview, Jack.

  9. Ben is a great asset to the show… Love the content and foundation, but if I heard um one more time I was going to jump off the roof.

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