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Brian Stratton Dillon is a horticulturist, dome-grower, and adept percussionist. In this episode, enjoy a tour inside his Growing Spaces geodesic greenhouse, where, at 8,300 feet high in the Rocky Mountains, Brian grows subtropical fruits, veggies, and herbs. At the end of the episode, get a sneak peak into Brian’s music and recording studio where he gives us an exclusive “mini concert” on his drum kit.
Brian also shares intimately about his near-death auto accident, from which he had severe brain injuries (including DAI – “Diffuse Axonal Injury”). This experience led him on a path of discovery and awakening – connecting the dots between brain health, psycho-spiritual well-being, the benefits of fresh, locally-grown food, and the importance of his Vipasina meditation practice. Not only does Vipasina come to us in a 2,500+ year tradition of “brain training,” so is the tradition of food forests an ancient one – including 2,000 year old food forests in Morocco, and centuries-old Permaculture stewardship of the Amazon Basin.
Brian discusses how the work of Dr. Daniel Siegel, M.D. has been a game changer for him, and how Dr. Siegel’s “Interpersonal Neurobiology” is essential for mind/body/spirit integration. Dr. Siegel’s books, including “The Yes Brain,” “Mindsight,” and “Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human” come highly recommended. Brian recommends Dr. Siegel’s Mindsight Institute, the Mind Up Program, and the books “No Drama Discipline” and “Mindful Therapist.”
In his Growing Spaces dome garden, Brian cultivates figs, Gingko Biloba, passion flower fruits, tomatoes, grapes, pineapple guava, curry plant, Romanesco cauliflower, Red Russian Kale, arugula, and tilapia. He cultivates his soil with High Plains Biochar, Xtreme Gardening mycorrhizal fungi, and Recharge microbial SuperPack from Real Growers.
In this inspirational episode, Brian reminds us that “healing takes courage, bravery and hard work!”
RESOURCESgrowingspaces.com/yonearth (grow domes – mention Y on Earth & get a 5% discount!)onegreenworld.com (Seeds and starts)mindsightinstitute.com (Dr. Daniel Siegel’s work)dhamma.org (Vipasina meditation retreats)facebook.com/groups/growing.dome.enthusiastsfacebook.com/stratton.dillon
Transcript
(Automatically generated transcript for search engine optimization and reference purposes – grammatical and spelling errors may exist.)
Hi friends, I’m really excited to share this podcast episode with you.
In it, I visit with my good friend, Brian Stratton Dillon, at his geodesic Growdome up in
the mountains in Colorado.
These are domes provided by a company called Growing Spaces, and they are based in part
on the designs that come from Buckminster Fuller.
Some of you may be aware of the term Buckyball, and the geometry of the structure is essentially
that.
So a Dodecahedron is a 12-sided three-dimensional object made up of equal pentagons.
Okay, so that’s one of the platonic solids.
The dome that we’re in is actually called a truncated icosahedron, and it’s related
to one of the Archimedean solids, and these are more complex three-dimensional solids
known about at least since the time of the Greeks.
And so basically they’re like a soccer ball where you have interlocking hexagons and pentagons.
So the dome that you’re going to experience in the episode is essentially structured
out of pentagons and hexagons.
Each one of those, however, is made up of triangles, right?
So hexagon has six of those, a pentagon five of those.
So you’ll see some of this in the video, and I hope you really enjoyed this episode.
So come on, let’s check it out.
Welcome to the YonEarth Community podcast.
Today we’re visiting with my friend, Brian Stratton-Dillan, Hey, Brian.
Hey, Aaron.
How you doing?
Doing great.
We’re right here in your grow dome, and I’m so excited that we get to share what’s
going on in here, and chat a bit about your story and journey as a horticulturist, as
a musician, a drummer, and it’s just a joy to be here with you today.
Oh, I’m so glad you guys are here and really appreciate the opportunity.
Cool.
So Brian, for our audience who don’t know this, Brian and I go way back to like the middle
school, high school days, and we’ve been pals ever since connected primarily and initially
through music, and have a lot of mutual friends we keep in touch with, and so it’s just a
real joy to have him on the show here today, and I know with our tour of the dome a little
later on, and also we’re going to get a sneak peek into Brian’s music and recording
studio.
You’re going to have a real treat both in terms of the audio podcast and for those of
you who are watching the video, you’re going to see some really amazing stuff on this
episode.
So before we dive in, let me just tell you that Brian studied under a handful of great
drummers and mentors, including Mike Berry, Todd Reed, and the living legend drummer Dave
Weckle.
He has performed over 1200 performances, has taught over 80 drum students and has recorded
with renowned artists such as Andy Nevala from the Glen Miller Orchestra, Stuart Davis,
the wild divine, the John Parker trio, and has toured in many states throughout the United
States, including Hawaii.
And Brian first fell in love with botany in 1999 when he was living on the island of
Hawaii, where he had the unique opportunity to do garden care for Sylvester Stallone’s
beachfront property on that island, and he also attended the college at the Kauai community
college where he learned how to propagate cuttings, working in the greenhouse on the campus
there.
And then he moved back to Colorado in 2000, becoming heavily involved in the music scene,
and that was in a terrible car accident, and after being a victim of a hicular assault
in 2010, he was set on a different path.
And growing food became a huge priority in his life, and he decided he wanted to move
to a climate that was more conducive to growing all year round.
So he set out on a worldwide tour, including Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga, etc., and basically
he discovered growing spaces, the company that makes these grow domes, which were sitting
in presently, and realized he could basically have these subtropical conditions right here
in the mountains of Colorado, and grow year round.
So he erected this dome in 2014, and has been able to grow in an agricultural zone of
seven, despite the fact that we’re at an elevation here of 8,300 feet above sea level,
which is an agricultural zone three.
So he’s growing culinary food and medicinal herbs and flowers here year round, and is also
working professionally with a great company called Skyscape Gardens, doing all kinds of
installed, edible landscapes and food forests in the Metro Denver area.
And so Brian, I guess it’s not an exaggeration to say that you and I share a couple of our
very favorite core passions and hobbies from music to working with plants and soil.
Absolutely.
And thanks again for inviting us into experiencing your dome today.
Oh, my pleasure.
Yeah.
Thanks for being here.
So let’s talk just a bit about what is it like?
And I think maybe we’ll try to get a photo up in this video of what the dome looks like
in the middle of the winter after a big lizard.
But what’s it like in your day to day living up high in the mountains and having this environment
to come into?
Oh, it’s amazing.
You know, I’m a native of Colorado and I’ve always loved it here so much.
But in terms of the growing season, it is a shorter season.
And so especially at this elevation, you know, I mean, there’s only a couple or three
months where you can really try and grow things and then you have deer and everything
else that gets to your to your plants and food.
So this is a protected space.
It has rodent barrier underneath it.
I’ve only had one mouse in this structure in six years.
And so it’s just very protected and from the elements and provides a really safe
kind of just perfect growing environment, you know, in the winter, I think the most snow
I’ve gotten here was like 44 inches.
And you know, the dome held up really, really well.
It can take huge snow loads and hail and wind with ease.
And so that’s one of the main reasons I started thinking seriously about building one
of these.
Right.
And the geometry is super fascinating and beautiful to look at, right?
And there’s one of the strongest three-dimensional shapes.
And we know how to build as humans and it’s based after Buckminster Fuller’s Buckyball,
right?
Is that kind of what the design’s based around?
As far as I know, that’s, yeah, I don’t know the history super well.
But I do know about Buck, what’s the name?
Buckminster.
Buckminster Fuller.
That’s right.
It’s called Bucky.
Bucky.
Yeah.
So the geometry is built out of triangles and it’s called a, it’s a variant of a truncated
icosahedron.
I did a little research on this.
And so there’s an ancient Greek mathematician, Archimedes, who identified all kinds of
three-dimensional solids that are more complex than the better known platonic solids,
right?
Like the cube, the dead decahedron and so on.
And the Archimedes solids are much more complex, have many more facets and faces.
So this one is essentially made out of a whole bunch of triangles, but they’re arranged
in patterns of hexagons and pentagons.
That’s right.
So it’s got that hex and pentalpha interchange going on.
And it’s an extraordinarily strong structure.
So yeah, it doesn’t surprise me at all that with these snow lobes and wind lobes that you
don’t have any sort of issues with the structure failing.
Yeah, no, it’s remarkable.
And I think on growing spaces’ website, they have a, they do a test where I think they
drop like a sledgehammer from however many feet above and it just kind of bounces off
of the structure.
So the polycarbonate material that makes up these panels is also really hardy.
So there really is no issue in terms of strength with these structures and that’s really the
issue, especially up here in the mountains, you know, with greenhouse gardening.
Like if you have a standard kind of a frame type of thing, I mean that can work and it
does work for a lot of people, but a hail storm can come through and, you know, in 10 minutes
you’re looking at a bunch of repairs and kind of a whole mess, you know.
So the growing spaces kit really just takes all of that worry and concerns out of the
equation.
Yeah, I’ll just mention growingspaces.com and a great company actually based in Colorado.
And they are sponsoring this podcast episode and have told us that if you want, you can
go to growingspaces.com and mention YonEarth and get a 5% discount if you want to get
a dome.
There are several different sizes and or you can also click on the logo link that lives
on the YonEarth podcast page or sponsorship page and that’ll take you into a dedicated
page in the growing spaces digital ecosystem.
So take advantage of that 5% discount.
I know with with COVID and everything going on in the world, their demand has been through
the roof.
And so their production schedules out like three months right now.
So if you’re interested, good idea to get a hold of them sooner and later and get in
the queue.
But yeah, so it’s amazing what they’re doing in terms of having these these domes in
multiple communities throughout the Rocky Mountain West and elsewhere, helping certain
communities grow a lot more food than they’d otherwise be able to.
Absolutely.
Yeah, and there’s all kinds of programs with schools and communities like you’ve said.
And just a lot of opportunity to teach, you know, youngsters about this.
And I mean, I think that’s the thing if people didn’t grow up in the garden much, I think
it can be kind of an intimidating thing to grow food just period, you know, even just
like a little container garden on the deck or something.
But once you just kind of jump in and try something, you know, you get to hang a bit really
quickly, especially if you have some tips from friends and, you know, resources online
these days.
Yeah, it’s great.
And I think as we do the tour, we’ll talk a little about your soil amendments.
I know you’re working with some biochar in here, too, and you’ve actually developed a whole
array of techniques and tools that you’re working with, right?
To maintain the soil health in here and keep the plants healthy.
Yeah, I’m learning as I go, you know, there’s so much to learn with the soil biome and a
healthy biology there, but yeah, you helped me, you turned me on to the biochar.
I actually used that in the tomato beds this year, and I think it’s helped a lot.
I’m also introducing beneficial fungi and bacteria and also using a microbial superpack, this
product called recharge.
And so, yeah, there’s kind of a lot to talk about with all that stuff, and certainly
a lot more for me to learn.
I feel like I’m scratching the surface, honestly.
Yeah, well, I got to give a shout out to our buddy, Rowdy Yates, who’s one of the Y on
Earth ambassadors, who’s company high-plains biochar up in Wyoming is where I think we
got you that biochar, and yeah, it’s a great operation.
So for those of us in the Rocky Mountain region, that’s one of the best suppliers we can
go to for the biochar, which really does amazing things for the soil, right?
Yeah, it just provides, as far as I understand, any enormous amount of surface area because
it’s so porous.
And so, all that surface area is where, you know, beneficial bacteria and other beneficials
can live and, you know, offer the roots of the plants, a supply of that consistently.
Yeah, I’ve heard it described that putting the biochar into soils, kind of like putting
a whole bunch of apartment buildings, providing a lot more habitat.
Yeah, and yeah, it also works like a sponge, so in arid climates, like ours, when you’re
watering plants, it helps keep the retention of moisture in the soil longer, which obviously
is a big deal in certain climates, so that’s super helpful.
Thanks.
Yeah.
Thanks for showing me.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I want to ask, Brian, I know that that traumatic brain injury that you had really
has had a profound impact, you know, no pun intended on your life.
And as hard and as traumatic as that experience was, in many ways has opened you up to a
whole array of beautiful discoveries in your spiritual practice with meditation, and
you’re one of the, I consider experts, and I know a handful, around brain health, and
some of it, what’s going on with the neurology and the neuro biochemistry, and I was wondering,
if you might just share a little with us, what was that process like after the accident
of essentially bringing your brain back into optimal health and back into a state of vitality?
Well, thanks for that question.
Yeah, so indeed, the accident was a really impactful situation that left me basically
kind of stripped of my identity or any sense of just assembling reality.
So it really took me down to the core of, you know, what is this?
What is existence?
What is happening?
Who am I?
You know, although like most fundamental questions, you can kind of ask yourself.
And so that led me into a very curious and deep kind of journeying for really for the
last 10 years.
So I came to find a whole bunch of teachers that people much wiser than I, and more experience
on the topic, or topics, and just really got interested in all that.
And so we could get into a little of that, if you’re…
That would be great.
Yeah, I think it’s really helpful for a lot of us.
So one thing I’d like to mention was learning about Vipashana meditation.
And so I’ve written a couple things down about that just because I wanted to share.
So Vipashana, which means to see things as they really are, is an ancient meditation
technique that’s 25 centuries old.
It’s also called the art of living.
And the technique is taught at a 10-day retreat during which participants learn the basics
of the method and practice sufficiently to experience the beneficial results.
There are no charges for the course, not even to cover the cost of food and accommodation,
which is really remarkable, especially because these are happening all over the world.
All the expenses are met by donations from people who have been completed a course and
experience the benefits of Vipashana’s wish to give others the opportunity.
So I think that speaks a lot to the technique itself, you know, in a new age world of all
kinds of spiritual, you know, stuff out there ranging from great to terrible.
It can be really hard to know kind of what to spend your time with or your money on.
And this kind of demystifies that whole element of it.
So I did two 10-day silent retreats.
And so they call it noble silence.
So it is silent the whole time, which is just a really different experience.
You know, we open our mouths a lot and we, and our ears are being bombarded by all kinds
of stuff, you know, all the time.
And so just a simple 10-day period can actually be pretty profound.
And you know, I could get deeper into the technique, but I think for right now anyone
who’s interested in that maybe just visit the website, we’re going to have a link to
that website.
It’s called dama.org, so dhamma.org.
And you can look on there, you know, say you want to go, maybe you’re traveling and you
want to go to Thailand or wherever, you know, they’re holding retreats.
It’s literally all around the world.
It’s pretty amazing.
And yeah, I’ve really benefited, benefited from that technique.
Yeah, tremendously.
So and I think it’s worth noting too, Brian, that the type of injury you had is this DAI,
right, that fewer than 10% of folks who have it actually recover consciousness.
So like not only have you recovered consciousness, but you’ve progressed very far along that
spectrum of experience.
And what is, what is DAI if you can just tell folks a little bit about that?
Yeah, so that’s, that’s diffuse, accidental injury, which basically means when, when there’s
a violent like shaking of the head, in this case, it was a vehicle going 85 miles an hour
and another one going 55 miles an hour and those hit and then that one hit mine going 55.
So it was like a three car explosion really.
And so and the roof caved in all the way to my, I’m two inches from my seat back.
So I literally, I mean, when I, when I finally went to the salvage yard months later after
this because I needed photographs of the vehicle, they didn’t recommend I go, but I, I needed
to go and I wanted to see the car because I have no memory of this, any of this, anyway.
And yeah, I started laughing.
I had to be escorted with a police officer and I started laughing because I just couldn’t,
I just couldn’t believe that I survived.
It was just impossible the way that the crash or the way that the roof caved in like that.
And a funny side note, the, the police officer that I was with, his lip started quivering and
he actually started crying like, because it, so it was just a really interesting moment
in my life, but um, helped me believe that all this happened.
But anyway, so my brain was, um, all this happened.
What?
It’s just that all this, wait, sorry, what did you say?
I just want you to complete that statement.
Oh, I’ve led you to believe that all this happened.
Oh, well, for a reason.
Yeah, I just meant happened period because I didn’t, it was hard to believe, you know, that
this, when people were telling me, when I woke up in a hospital and people were telling
me all this, I was like, what are you talking about?
I’d been out for seven, seven full days with no memory of anything.
So, um, but yes, to what you were getting at, absolutely, um, and so diffuse, the diffused
part just means it’s widespread.
So there, I had contusions on the right frontal lobe and the orbital frontal cortex, I believe,
and the right ponds and some other ones, specific injuries, but then the diffuse axonal injury
refers to widespread shearing of axons.
And so that’s the real, that’s when it’s really bad.
And so, and that’s what made my prognosis or recovery looking kind of so grim.
But I really believe through the course of action that I’ve taken with just thousands
of hours of learning and, um, and drumming, uh, that’s a big one.
And, uh, getting in the garden and then the whole nutrition part, um, and the rhythm
of the garden, you know, the, the watering and the, the seasons and the, uh, the rhythmic
aspect of that, like, and then the meditation, the brain training, that’s what I like to
look at it as brain training because the word meditation is so, so misunderstood, um,
in our culture, I think, uh, and, uh, the way I look at it is just brain training.
Like, in the same way, you would go to the gym and exercise your muscles and keep your,
your body healthy.
Um, there are ways to do that with the brain and the ancient techniques I like a lot because
guess what, we’re not the first to suffer, you know, we’re not the, people have been
having hardship and real challenges for ever.
And so, why not learn from the techniques that have stood the test of time?
I think there’s a lot to be said about that, um, what I also love to mention Dan Siegel
and a couple of other things if I, if I can, maybe that was the right time to do that.
Yeah, so another thing that, uh, has been life changing for me is the work of Dan Siegel
and he started a, a field called interpersonal neurobiology, which is basically a fancy
way of saying the brain, the mind and relationships and he’s the, uh, clinical professor of psychology
at UCA, at UCLA School of Medicine and he’s the director of the Mindsite Institute, which
I’ve done, I’ve completed a course there and I want to do more, um, the Mindsite Institute
is just a fantastic resource and, uh, there’s a lot to gain from getting into that.
Also, um, some really cool things happening like the Mind Up program, Goldie Hahn was
in on that one and that’s more for youngsters like bringing in, um, some awareness and
knowledge of like the brain and the mind to kids in curriculum.
So instead of the standard curriculum that we have, um, they’re, the Mind Up program
is bringing in things to teach people about the tools they have, you know, and, um, if,
you know, ways to manage frustration or anger or, you know, giving children like tools
to, and, and methods, uh, to deal with life, you know, and, uh, when things get hard.
So that’s another thing.
So his books, I’ve read almost all of his books.
I’ll just mention a few here, um, the mindful brain is the first one I’ve read and it really
just hooked me up.
I’ve never been much of a reader, honestly, um, but I was just turning the pages like crazy
because that was so just fascinated by all this stuff.
Another one called MindSight, that’s probably the easiest one.
MindSight, uh, the new science of personal transformation and then there’s, his newest
one is called Aware, the science and practice of presence.
It’s a great one, oh my gosh, really great, um, and there’s one called No Drama Discipline
which is, um, for, you know, folks who have children and, uh, how to approach that.
I don’t have children, but I read that one anyway.
I thought it was really fascinating.
And then another one called The Mindful Therapist, which I read, um, and that is also amazing.
So yeah, it can’t say enough good things about Dan, Dr. Dan Siegel, uh, and what he’s
doing with IP and B, interpersonal neurobiology.
Uh, so great, and we will include, you know, some links and references in the show notes
as well so people can, uh, easily find some of these resources.
Fantastic.
So thank you for sharing all of that.
Absolutely.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Wonderful.
Um, wow, well, and, and, you know, I think there’s something that probably is, uh, going
to be of great benefit to all of us, right?
Like not all of us have had a traumatic brain injury and a car accident course, but all
of us are suffering from different ailments and things assaulting our neurobiobio, uh,
well-being.
Sure.
And some of this is technology and media related.
Some of this has to do with the widespread toxins and poisons in the environment and the
food supply, et cetera, totally in the water even in many cases.
And so here you are, you’re, you’re doing a lot of music, playing a lot of drums.
And I’m excited.
I think we’ll be able to share a little bit of your drumming at the end of the episode
because you’re not just banging one, two, one, two.
I mean, they’re doing polyrhythms and syncopations and all very beautiful, complex, highly finessed
drumming and it’s exquisite to listen to you.
Clearly, there’s a lot going on in the brain when that’s happening.
You’re connecting with the living biome of the soil.
You’re eating super fresh, nutritious food, just, you know, several paces away from your
kitchen.
Seems to me like you’re onto a handful of life practices that may enhance all of our
qualities of life and may in fact be key to creating a much more sustainable world together.
Well, thank you.
That’s a huge compliment and I just want to emphasize how much inspiration I’ve drawn
from other people like yourself and like a thousand other people that, you know, like
the way I found out about this company was through a video, you know, it was a YouTube
video and I just couldn’t believe it.
I watched it like five times and it was with a woman named Bree.
I since have looked for it.
It was quite a few years ago and I can’t find it but it was somewhere down south in Colorado
and I just couldn’t believe that they were able to actually grow year round in harsh, you
know, environments and everything and so I think that’s the important point I’m trying
to make there is just that we all inspire each other and I think it’s important to like
whenever you can to take that opportunity to show someone what you’re up to and also to
be open to learning.
I think that’s a huge thing is to just, you know, always be open to learn some new hobby
or some, if it, if it excites you, then follow that, you know, there’s not enough time to
wait.
Yes.
Yes.
So why is it you and curiously a segue into talking a little more about some of these
ancient practices like you’ve mentioned, the poshana meditation and brain training practices
and also you’ve had some really interesting experiences with different food forests that
you have found all around the world.
Yeah.
And we know the archaeology right now is getting so exciting about understanding what native
peoples were doing in both North and South America.
The Amazon rainforest is very much a human engendered food forest that turns out in many millions
of acres and so in fact they were using biochar.
But you’ve, you’ve had some incredible encounters with food forests, some very, very old in different
spots around the world.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Well, so I think the, the oldest one that I interacted with was in a dream I had, which
ultimately led me to, to this greenhouse is pretty amazing actually.
I had a dream kind of in that initial recovery period when I had come home from Craig Hospital
and I was, you know, I was home.
I was still doing outpatient therapies, speech therapy, occupational therapy, pool therapy,
physical therapy.
I mean, it was like, it was intense, but so my sleep was a little funny.
But I had a dream one night about a food forest and I had never heard of that.
I didn’t know what that was.
So I was, it was such a beautiful dream and I, so I got up and I, it was like four in
the morning and I, I googled that and came to discover this 2000 year old food system
in Morocco and it’s incredible.
There’s a, I think his name is Jeff, I wrote it down here, Jeff Lawton, yeah, L-A-U-T-O-N.
If you, if you search 2000 year old Moroccan food forests, you’ll see this little short
video that he explains the food system.
But basically it’s, it has different layers and like a canopy working all the way down
into like root vegetables.
But it has an enormous amount of outputs with very minimal inputs and it’s a system.
It takes care of itself and so I, I was super inspired by that and just thought that was
like one of the coolest things that I’d ever heard about in my life.
So that led me to, I also found out about a 200 year old food forest in Vietnam, which
I do want to visit at some point.
And then I did actually go and visit a food forest in, in Hawaii that was 10 years old at
the time.
Now it’s probably, I guess, 16 or 17.
And that was just amazing, you know, eating star apples and all kinds of different fruits
that I’d never heard of.
So that’s another part that has been, just as a side note, like through this whole project
I’ve found, I’ve learned about all these rare fruiting varieties.
Oh, and that’s a perfect opportunity for me to plug one green world.
So there’s a company called One Green World and their website is OneGreenWorld.com and
they’re out of Oregon and they have been collecting rare fruiting varieties from around the world
since the 90s.
And they have a fabulous website, very informative with great pictures and it tells you whether
it’s, whether or not it’s self pollinating and just all this information, which some,
you know, some of the other companies I found don’t have all that.
And you can hear the clouds are going by, so the solar, waterfall and the fan are turning
on and off.
That’s driven by the sun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we’ll go, I’ll show you some of the features of the dome here in a little bit.
But One Green World is just a really cool company and you wouldn’t believe how many berries
and fruits that you’ve just never heard of.
I’ve got one growing right here called Golden Silverberry and I haven’t gotten it to
fruit yet, but it makes these jelly bean looking fruits that are like polka dotted and they
must taste amazing.
Who knows?
I hope to find out, but it’s a Mediterranean plant and it’s got a beautiful leaf structure
and each leaf looks like a painting or something.
So really fun to discover just how vast all this gets, you know, it’s not just apples
and oranges and blueberries, you know, and there’s all kind of stuff you can grow.
It makes me think about, you know, we have grown up in a Western cultural milieu and a common
story most of us are familiar with is this getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden experiencing
apparently.
Interesting.
It seems to me that one of the big opportunities we have in these times is almost recreating
the Garden of Eden, almost reconnecting in a way to that creative, generative force of
nature, of some greater powers and perhaps that’s also part of the key we have now to
not only healing our own selves, but also our communities and our relationship with the
world and in my senses, food forests and Interior living spaces like this are going to be more and more important as we go forward. Yeah, I would agree, you know, I think
Going back to the basics is is always going to be a good idea
You know as we progress as a you know
species and everything
I think there’s at the end of the day, you know, we get hungry every single day. Yeah, right? So
So we might as well know how to grow something. Yes, absolutely
Well, let me uh, I just I want to give a little shout out to you to our friend
Dr. Jandell Allen Davis who runs Craig hospital
And is responsible for all kinds of medical care workers who are working with folks who are dealing with these
traumatic brain injuries and neural
Issues and she’s been on the podcast twice now
As an African-American leader she actually came on a few weeks back to
Talk with us about what’s going on
With the protests with the Black Lives Matter movement and with the murder of George Floyd and it had just an exquisitely
Wise way of speaking to all of this and when she grew up in DCs you remember some of the
The race riots back then decades ago
So just want to give her a shout out because I know she and others are
Are you know dedicating their professional lives to helping folks heal from those kinds of of traumas
And I know the rest of us out in community the more we can help
Create community gardens and access points to some of these experiences is also really helpful for the society as a whole
Absolutely, I mean I couldn’t be more grateful
Uh for Craig hospital and what they I mean what they are doing is just
unbelievable
Like the things that they see on a daily basis
and
You know doctor Barry and
A handful of other people there really just brought me back to life you know and it’s
Really amazing work. So I’m extremely grateful
For really anyone who’s helping with healing like you said like whether it’s the planet or other people
Or themselves, you know
I think that
Healing is a is something that
Should come into the forefront of everyone’s lives
Everyone has something that they need to heal from
And it’s I think it’s a beautiful process
And it takes courage and bravery and hard work and a lot a lot of enduring pain
But I think ultimately
Has been Tino Massara would say
Pain and pleasure are equal confirmations of awareness
So um
Yeah, yeah, absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing that
Um, I know that you’ve got also another resource that
folks who are interested in the dome
Growing environment will will find very helpful to connect with and this is a growing dome enthusiast’s Facebook group, right? Oh, yeah
um
Facebook.com slash groups slash growing.dome.intusiest. Yeah, it’s really cool. There are people
in
like
All over the world, you know
But I mean especially in Colorado because that’s this company is out of Pugosa Springs and it was you know
discovered oh my gosh, we can grow in the Rocky Mountains, you know at whatever elevation
I think they’re
7,000 something but either way harsh winters and
um
But not only um, we find people with amazing greenhouses in Colorado, but
States, you know, like Wyoming and other places. I mean really these can
um
Fit any growing environment or any uh
Agzone pretty much. I mean it you wouldn’t want one of these probably in a tropical environment because
You know, I mean maybe keep the rain out or something. I don’t know but but um, so it is kind of designed more
For the extreme gardener I guess with you know with um
Living at altitude or what or what have you but um or even in Denver, you know or Boulder. Oh, yeah
And I’m thinking even places like Minnesota, New York. Oh, yeah, the winters get pretty intense. They get harsh. Yeah
So that page is is really fun and it’s it’s amazing to see what people have
Have going in their gardens every single one is totally different on the interior and
um
The more experienced growers are
So inspiring. I mean, like I feel like a newbie after six years, so
Yeah, I’m sure it’s a lifelong pursuit for many. Yeah. Well, I’m already daydreaming about a bigger dome
Down on the flats one day. So
um that might that might
Come to fruition. We’ll see
Great. Well, let me just take this opportunity to
Thank some of our sponsors and as I mentioned earlier
Growing spaces is sponsoring this podcast episode and if you’re interested in getting a dome
You can get a 5% discount by going through the links you find on the yunners.org
pages the podcast page and or the sponsorship page
Or if you just reach directly out to growing spaces if you mentioned yunners
Uh, they’ll honor that 5% discount and they’re at growing spaces.com
Of course, want to mention earth coast productions as a sponsor and we have today
uh, both Ardom and nickel cob the founder and jordan groth
With us here in the dome behind the cameras. So hey guys, we’ll give a quick shout out. How you guys doing?
Hey great awesome. Thank you guys so much. It was fun being here with you
um a big shout out to the lich family foundation
uh as well as to purium
and uh, earth water press
uh, waylay waters and
If uh, you’d like to join our monthly giving program which many folks have done so thanks to all of you who
Are part of the yunners dot org monthly giving program if you join at certain levels will also send you
Monthly shipments of the waylay waters
CBD infused aroma therapy soaking salt as a thank you and those come from waylay waters there at waylay waters.com
um
So a huge thanks to everybody for making all of this work possible and and what we’re doing with the winers community
Is all about community mobilization for soil regeneration, climate action, neighborhood resilience
Culture of kindness and this is about our health, our healing internally and our communities and
Working with soil and plants. So uh invite you all to get even more engaged in the work that we’re doing
In communities all over the place
um
And brine i’m so excited that uh, not only do we get to sit and chat with you today
But we’re also going to get a tour of the dome and we’re going to see some of the amazing
Planchard growing here some of my favorites actually
And then we’re also going to close out with a sneak peak
Tour of your music and recording studio by the way folks. I’m excited that uh it was brion
And uh his good buddy mike who put together the soundtrack we use at the intro and outro of every podcast episode
So you’ll see the room where that was first
conceived of as an idea and that’ll be a lot of fun to share but uh i guess before we jump up and do the tour brine
Is there is there anything else you’d like to to share?
Hmm it’s a good question. Let me look if i
If i’ve got anything on here we’ll go through the features of the dome obviously oh
Uh, i do have a quote
That i want to read if that’s cool please yeah
Kind of relates back to like the the self identity stuff that we were talking about a little bit
And uh, i just really like this quote. It’s made a huge impact on my life
The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self
So that’s the alborinstein and i really i really like that one
We might have to include that and show notes
Okay, thank you for sharing that as beautiful as i see it as some of my most favorite quotes
Yeah, i just thought that’s really succinct and for for me it just
oops um it just uh it penetrated it resonated and it yeah it helped me
Beautiful, thank you
So i know we’ll get a chance to say goodbye later on brine, but i just i want to thank you from the
From my heart
For taking this time with us and and for sharing your your story with us and sharing part of your home with us
And my hope is this is a great inspiration to a lot of folks out there
And so thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your friendship and you know, this is a vulnerable
interview, but uh, i think it’s all a part of
Uh the process and you know kind of getting over myself a little bit
Well, you know, you mentioned courage earlier and it’s one of my favorite words because i was digging into the
etymology a little and it comes from this word kuhair which means heart
And so in the way having courage means having heart
And you’ve got it in droves. I know. Oh, thank you. Appreciate you. Likewise, man. Yeah. Thanks so much
So uh should we do some tour? Let’s check this out great
Yeah
So how long did it take to build this?
Yes, so the planning and everything took
better part of a year
uh, but it only took us two days to actually erect the structure
wow
and then
well, and i was um
me and a friend and
what they call a supervisor at growing spaces, so that’s basically a builder
and um
Yeah, so two days we had this thing up
and then i had a big empty
geodesic structure
So it was kind of like okay, uh, now what do i do?
And i became a fun process of
designing
darkened beds and
Watch off of the phone the various uh
the various tiers
Like the center bed that we can show you
Okay, so come on inside. Let’s check it out
It’s kind of a little jungle right now
um
But i guess we could all start by explaining this front garden bed
um, this is where the warm season crops go right now in this case tomatoes
eggplant squash
um some other ground covers
and um
So that’s kind of what’s happening in this front chaotic bed
um
And then behind that it’s hard for you guys to see probably but the i’ve built with my friend um
and neighbor a
a box it’s a hardwood box
and it’s lined with sheet metal on the inside to contain the roots of the fig tree
and the other fruit trees that i have
So that’s kind of in the center back there
And the idea was with that was to just have some different tiers to it
um
So in the tallest one there’s the brown turkey fig tree
And i don’t know if you guys can see some of those figs that are emerging
up a little higher um, we can get
some footage of that at some point and then
um
There’s also i’ve got golden silverberry
in that same box and also pineapple guava
Which is one of my favorites i found out about that in New Zealand when i was
volunteering on a ten acre farm for a couple months
On great barrier island
But it’s a white for uh green on the outside and white on the inside and it tastes like guava
if you know that flavor but it has a pineapple
Tinge to it i also have dwarf pomegranate
over here
um on this side
Still waiting for this guy to fruit so a lot of this is you know learning as i go
um
Working with different nutrients to
Optimize yields um and sometimes you don’t get yields you know sometimes things don’t work out
And that’s all part of the process too for sure
As is pest management in greenhouse gardening you will have pests no matter what so it’s just a matter of accepting that and learning how to manage it
um and
Like we had talked about before erin a lot of times the pests can indicate
um
You know deeper levels of what’s happening in the garden or in the system so
Another one that i’m really excited about is over here right when you walk in the
the grapes are
Going crazy. There’s a bunch of i don’t know probably 20 or 30
clumps of grapes
And uh the first time i ever
toured one of these greenhouses
uh i opened the door and i was literally like hit in the cheek with a clump of grapes and i thought that was
super
amazing and so i trained the grapes over the the doorway and
Low and behold here we are six years later and so that’s kind of meaningful and fun
So we better eat one of those
Oh, yeah
Yeah
Nothing like straight off the vine
So yeah, there’s all kinds of things i want to show you guys
It’s a little chaotic in here, but uh this one’s lemon verbayna. You know that one just electric smell
Um really good in salads and stuff
Um, i’ve got some ornamental stuff happening here
Which i like to do cut flowers and flower arrangements and things just for friends and family
um
This one’s called curry plant
It’s you can see i pruned it and then let some of it go to flower, but this one’s a Mediterranean
It’s good for Mediterranean dishes and stuff. I honestly i haven’t used it as much as i
um
The ratio of how much this how much space this takes up to how much i’ve used it is off
But so i might pull that one, but if the cool plant smells it curry
um
Over here
I’ve let this big chaotic mess right here
This is fennel, but um this one
Is a red Russian kale plant and you can see it has gone i’ve let it go to seed so it flowered
um
Nice yellow flowers that look similar to this one or yeah, these are the the kale flowers
And they’re fragrant and the bees love them, but then i let that happen
and then
You let these
You let the seed pods go until they dry out and
They’re like little canoes with uh these little seeds in there
so
Pretty amazing design actually this pod would fall before it was broken open and then it would warm up and
germinate and that’s how it would
Keep going
So i’ve let this one go to seed so that i can offer these seeds to
clients
Over the winter i’m gonna
Package these and as long as they’re viable i’ll test them of course, but
It was a really healthy red Russian kale plant and so i’m excited to offer
Those same genetics
um
This is a mire lemon tree that i started from seed
Um it looks like something’s getting to it a little bit
But this one’s special to me just because i started it
For literally from a mire lemon that whoops that i
Got from natural grocers and uh i don’t know it’s maybe three years old now, but
Just pretty cool to be growing that at this elevation and uh
The leaves
Have a really amazing citrus smell and i’m gonna get some
Mire lemons off that one of these days
So
Moving right along there’s a ruby-rood grapefruit tree i got from a guy off Craigslist for five bucks
Which i got to kick out of i was like man can i give you ten and come on this thing’s like four years old
But i kept that to myself
um
Anyway
This one yeah, i mentioned this before, but this is pineapple guava
I’m psyched about that now that you have a good angle on it
These these blooms
It’s just if flowered and so it’s a self-pollinating variety and that part will turn into the fruit
Right there underneath the flower
So i’m hoping for a bunch of pineapple guavas
You can see the the figs coming in right here
I
Really excited about the figs
And i guess maybe there’s a good time to check out the pond i haven’t fed the fish today yet
So hopefully they’re hungry and say hi so throw a little
Koi fish food in there and i don’t know if there’s just this is kind of the one spot that doesn’t have aquatic plants
Um and i’ll throw some fish in there
Hey fishy fishy
Come on buddy
Yeah, there they come
You see them
They’re hungry i love the fish
Um
They help with keeping the pond ecosystem in check
um
By eating you know algae and
Just various kind of just cleaning things up and
And then the fish emulsion is
You know, i’m watering from i’m hand watering the garden from this
pond so i dunk my
My watering can in here and i’m getting the benefits of the of the fish emulsion too when uh with the
Fertilizing or the you know the nutrient quality of that
So that’s kind of fun. They’re a little skittish when other people are here so
They know you yeah, they know me and they know and
When there are other people here. It’s funny. They’re sensitive. They’re shy. Yeah, they’re koi fish
How did they do in the winter? Yeah, they get a little dormant
Um, but then i don’t feed them nearly as much during that time
Maybe every other like maybe every few days or even you can even
Human go longer. It’s fun in the springtime to watch when the water temperature rises they start to like
Behave differently and start to actually swim around and do radical maneuvers and you know, you can tell that
that they have fun
Do you ever bring ladybugs in here to deal with things like this?
You know, i just did um, i performed last night and be retreat with bonfire dub and uh the the drummer from that band
Um, well, i was the original drummer and then he took over for me in the accident
So it’s kind of worth noting here with since we’re telling the whole story
um
But he has a beautiful rose garden down in our vata and he brought
1500
Ladybugs up here recently
And he helped me with a bunch of
Work in the in the greenhouse and uh, so we released that we missed it everything
You know, so they would have a nice wet environment. We released them across the dome and the next day
I couldn’t find one
So i don’t know what’s going on with that um
I don’t know if there just wasn’t enough food in here for them
uh, pest-wise
because i don’t really have um
In the past i’ve had a lot of aphids um pop up
This season i haven’t had as many there are a few on this tomato plant and a couple other plants
But by and large the aphids are not my problem right now. I have a a smaller white
Insect that i’m not i don’t know i haven’t been able to identify yet what it is
Um, but anyway, yeah, the ladybug
Disappearance. I don’t know. I mean
They all yeah, I have no idea. It’s really interesting
So i’ll have to research that a little bit more
I would love to get some close-up footage of this plant over here at golden silverberry
Just because the leaf the leaves on it are so cool
Never never really seen anything like it
um
And it makes a beautiful little flower that hangs like a bell
And has just an incredible fragrance
Um hard to describe what it smells like, but i am
I’m going to jump for joy when this thing fruits
So that’s a cool one moving over there to the right. Yeah, watch your stuff. There’s plenty to trip on
This is
the fan
um
That i was talking about earlier the solar powered fan and so this is drawing air from the coolest part of the environment
Which is on the north side of the dome and bringing that air into the space
And so that’s a crucial part of this system breathing with circulation
Air circulation another variety that i’m
psyched about is this one
Ginkgo the loba
And Aaron and i were talking about this um
There are some really good properties for brain health
With this plant and i haven’t yet figured out how to harvest
Um the ginkgo, but it’s it’s big enough now
I need to train this a little bit out of the walkway, but
It’s big enough now to where i could get enough to
ingest or however, however you use it
It’d be cool to hear some
And take to our friends hiler over at mara herbals
Oh, that’d be great. We’re in carbon mill and maybe you can make a sudgeric
Hmm kind of tincture X-cock or something from it
I’m sure i’m sure he’d be willing to do it
We can see how much he needs in the bringing some
Yeah, that’d be great and we could leave him with some this one. I’m also really excited about
Pretty sure this is one of the healthiest plants i’ve ever grown. It just has kind of a personality of it of its own
And uh, this is the romanesco
It’s in the brassica family
I can save your geometry right there. Yeah, I’m forgetting the Latin name right now. It’s uh brassica
Okay, senia, oh man, I wish I i’m close, but no cigar
But uh that’ll get a little bigger and then
It’ll go in my stomach
These are nasturtiums. These are edible. This is considered an herb um and
You can yeah, they’re delicious
Little spicy. They’re spicy like wasabi
You guys want to try one?
Yeah, I just said I love the flavor. It’s really interesting
And it it all happens fast and then goes away fast. You want to try one? Sure. Thank you. Sure
They’re beautiful. Aaron, do you want? Sure, I’d love one super playful
Good I’ll see
Isn’t that interesting? Wow really floral and like
Spicy and then it finishes with a whole different flavor and then it’s gone
So oh one last thing I want to show you guys
This passion fruit flower
Oh, yeah, it’s all that
Wow
Isn’t that great here take a whiff of this one and get some footage on that
It’s
Sure
Such a beautiful design
How did that come into existence
Those those simple things in life bring me great joy, you know
So that’s the tour. I know the audience can’t taste everything we’re tasting
But let me tell you that we have just tasted some
Incredible flavors these grapes are just delicious. Yeah, I’ve been as you were talking over there
I’ve been kind of nibbling on a few things over here. I’ve been cutting a few clumps. It’s been nibbling
So hey everybody here we are in Brian’s music and recording studio and
Behind the cameras is the drums that you’re going to hear Brian play that a little later on
And right around here is where a lot of the recording magic happens mixing table and
we actually
Basically conceived of the intro and after music here many many moons ago with Brian and the good buddy Mike Barnhart
and we thought it would be fun to kind of
commemorate that by playing the intro from one of our recent podcast episodes and
Yeah, the sound system in here is pretty amazing too. Cool. So here we are on the one on earth page and
That was a fun piece to make it was challenging to make such a short piece
You know it like 10 seconds or something
So it’s like how do you tell any kind of story in such a small amount of time
But we and you layered in like 12 or 15 different sounds, right? Yeah, yeah, okay here goes
Oh, gosh, who’s that guy?
So uh that uh at the end is so nice little seating breath of relief or something and that deep bass that comes in toward the end
I love it nice
We’re talking about how it was a little inspired by that afro cult sound system
Music that I listened to a lot. Yeah. Well, hopefully there’ll be some more music in the future. That sounds great
All right, awesome. Well listen. Can we uh, can we hear you hit some drums? Sure. Yeah, let’s do it cool
All right, cool
Here we go
You
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