What Is The Urban Farm Podcast About?

Updated

The Urban Farm podcast is a long-running interview show hosted by Farmer Greg Peterson that focuses on growing your own food, building healthy soil, and running a farm or homestead with fewer outside inputs. It is best suited to listeners who want practical, experience-based conversations about sustainable growing rather than news or quick tips. The site describes it as having 1,000+ episodes, with guests who are experienced homesteaders and growers.

What the podcast covers

Based on the episode highlighted on the site, the core themes are:

  • Growing food with minimal outside inputs — reducing reliance on purchased fertilizers, feeds, and other external resources.
  • Farm ecosystems — treating the whole property as a connected system rather than isolated beds or animals.
  • Living soil and biological wealth — building soil health as a form of long-term value.
  • Homesteading philosophy and patterns — the thinking behind decisions, not just the tasks.

A representative example is episode 1009, featuring returning guests Shawn and Beth Dougherty, described as homesteaders with 40 years of experience growing food and building a farm ecosystem with minimal outside inputs. The episode description names their philosophy of homesteading, living soil, biological wealth, and recurring patterns as the topics discussed.

Who it is for

The show fits you if you are:

  • Starting or running a homestead, small farm, or food-growing project.
  • Interested in reducing purchased inputs and closing loops on your land.
  • Looking for long-form conversations with people who have decades of hands-on experience.
  • Comfortable with a philosophy-plus-practice format rather than a step-by-step tutorial.

It is a weaker fit if you want short, structured how-to lessons, region-specific regulatory guidance, or content aimed at large-scale commercial agriculture.

How it fits with the rest of the site

The podcast is one part of The Urban Farm's offerings. The site also lists online courses, free monthly classes, fruit trees for Phoenix, and an online store. If you want guided instruction rather than interviews, the courses and monthly classes are the more direct route; the podcast works well as background listening that shapes how you think about your growing system.

How to start listening

  1. Go to urbanfarm.org.
  2. Open the podcast section (the homepage highlights a current episode with a "Listen Now" link).
  3. Pick a recent episode to sample the format, or search the archive for a topic you care about, such as soil or low-input growing.
  4. Expect interview-style episodes; the site's own description emphasizes guest experience and philosophy over scripted instruction.

One practical note: with 1,000+ episodes, browsing the full archive can be overwhelming. Starting from a recent episode and then searching by guest or topic is usually faster than scrolling from the beginning.