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The extraordinary Churchtown Dairy in New York is restoring dairy farming in a context where such farms are still closing around them. They are doing it with nature, family, food and festival at its heart. With organic and biodynamic methods, they are keeping cattle together in their families to amazing benefit, cultivating myriad farm products including medicinal plants, restoring a diverse landscape, designing beautiful buildings including a store onsite, and hosting an extensive set of gatherings at their spectacular barn venue. That’s where we’d attended an event the night before, with guest-of-honour and friend, the globally renowned author of Cows Save the Planet, Water in Plain Sight, and The Reindeer Chronicles, Judith Schwartz. It’ll also host the Real Organic Project conference on September 28, amongst Shakespeare productions and varied concert events.

Today we meet Churchtown’s herd and farm managers – Eric Vinson and Steffen Schneider respectively. I already knew a bit about Steffen - Co-Founder of the Institute for Mindful Agriculture, and Director Emeritus of Farm Operations at Hawthorne Valley Farm, up the road from Churchtown (having spent 30 years there). And Eric? Well, this 36 year old former journalism major used to run a successful event hire company in the city. But when covid hit, the realisation hit that he needed to live out something more meaningful. He landed at Churchtown, prepared to do anything to get a start. And two years on, he’s managing the herd, with a big vision, and an appetite for sharing it with people.

Eric’s our main guide here, as Steffen just had a short time with us, and Judy is my esteemed unofficial co-host.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.

Recorded 29 August 2024.

Title slide: Judith Schwartz, Olivia Cheng & Eric Vinson (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

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The evening before we recorded the main episode with Pedro, we went out on the Plains to shepherd the buffalo to their next patch. This is a rare chance to hear one of the world’s most respected bison wranglers – and the animals themselves – at work. And there were some very special moments too, in this condensed 20-minute special extra to episode 220.

The wind can be mighty on the Plains, and as we went further towards the buffalo it did push the microphone I had on me at times. But given how rare and special this was, and that our voices, and at times the buffalo voices, can still be heard clearly enough, I’ve left in as much as I can of the good stuff, and decided to run with it. I hope you enjoy it. We pick it up as we drive out to the herd, already in awe at the scale and wonder of the Great Plains.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.

If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Pedro, ‘The Great Buffalo Restoration on the American Prairie’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.

Recorded 29 July 2024.

Title slide image: Among the buffalo (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Thanks for listening!

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!

Send us a text

Pedro Calderon-Dominguez is regarded as an extraordinary horseman. Though as fate would have it, his life took a series of unexpected turns, through wildlife ecology as the first to further Aldo’s Leopold’s work with black bears, into holistic management with some of the legends in Mexico and beyond, and ultimately into working with buffalo. Now he’s regarded by some as the world’s top bison wrangler.

Pedro is currently based at an ambitious project called American Prairie, in the north of Montana, managing its bison restoration program on the Great Plains. We visited him and his brilliant wife Flora a few weeks ago, and were blown away by the presence of the bison again on this country, and Pedro’s subtle connection with them.

Mexican-born and raised, with his own indigenous origins and expert horse-handling pedigree, Pedro was recruited to American Prairie to play this key role in their mission to coordinate and leverage, across varied land tenures, the restoration of 3 million acres of essential grasslands. And it’s turning up some remarkable outcomes, including relationships with First Nations, and connections with the broader bison restoration work across the continent. At the same time, we’d also been hearing about the controversy and discontent amongst some locals feeling like big money from outside is supplanting family ranches. Save the Cowboy billboards line the highway as we approach.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.

Recorded 30 July 2024 (intro recorded at Judith Schwartz’s home in Vermont).

Title slide: Pedro with the buffalo (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Find more:
Tune into a special extra to this episode, Out Among the Buffalo, later this week.

For more on Pedro, tune into Back to the Land with Cody Spencer - World's Top Bison Wrangler - Pedro Calderon Dominguez.

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!