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. He and his family raise sheep, goats and chickens in the lovely, lonely, beautiful area known as Texas Hill Country.

We hope you enjoy our conversation about endings and beginnings, his second life, and the programs and support systems that helped him on his way.

Links:

www.TexasWoolWeek.com

www.TheSheepwalkRanch.com

https://www.facebook.com/Dancing.Sun.Farm.NM

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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 staggering.

But there’s another aspect to agriculture that is a huge business opportunity: Agritourism. If you’ve ever been wine tasting, done a farm tour, seen the flower fields, gone horseback riding, or sampled local cheese while sitting in your B&B, you’re an agritourist.

The 2025 California Agritourism Summit, put on by the UCNR (Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources), is meant to highlight the potential of agritourism for the producers in California. It’s another way for our food and fiber producers to maintain self-sufficiency in these changing times.

The wave is here, and California farm producers are ready to ride it. And this one doesn’t have to be near the ocean.

Links:

https://ucanr.edu/site/communications-toolkit/acronym-directory

https://www.usda.gov/glossary

https://ucanr.edu/site/california-agritourism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Got_Milk%3F

https://class.ucanr.edu/statewide-program/uc-anr-small-farms-network/ramiro-lobo-sfp-advisor-san-diego-county

https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/SecretaryBio.html

www.cagrown.org

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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 trucks full of manure, compost and wood chips. Elara was in heaven, with the conversation chock full of words such as “nematode,” ”sequestration,” “carbon cycle,” and other sciency stuff.

Don’t ever say there’s no such thing as romance anymore, especially in Springtime.

Links:

https://spvsoils.com/

https://spvsoils.com/craig-m-kolodge/

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

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

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

https://clairemontonline.com/event-6080495

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