Welcome to the Fresh Exchange podcast! 

Every week I will discuss topics that range from my own gardening experiences and things I am learning to how I work with seasonal rhythms to connect the dots of life experiences and we will even chat about parenting at times as well. Some weeks I will bring in amazing guests who inspire and challenge me as I ask questions to learn from them myself in hopes that by sharing our conversation we connect through a similar curiosity.

My goal is that together we will lean into these conversations to learn and grow in our pursuit of coming home to our selves in nature. 

My hope is these conversations inspire you to find a sense of grounding, purpose, humility, and growth in all sorts of new ways.&nbsp;

If you are excited about this and ready to head out on this adventure with me go ahead and subscribe!

I cannot wait to learn and connect together here!&nbsp;

Sign up for our email newsletter to keep up to date on episodes: freshexchange.com/subscribe
Follow on Instagram: instagram.com/freshexchange
Read the blog for more content: freshexchange.com

See you out there friends!


Introducing: Fresh Exchange

We begin today's first podcast by asking you to breathe! Just to take a few breathes. The beginning of this year hasn't been easy. My gosh has it not. But did we really believe that when 2021 arrived at our door everything that hung within 2020 would simply disappear? No. We knew better. 

That said, before we dive into the conversation about approaching intentions this year. I want to to identify where we are right now in our world. Not just in terms of the weather out the window, though if you need that you can have that with this conversation, but instead I want to discuss the cultural season we are in right now. We currently are enduring a hard winter in our culture and most likely you may be experiencing a hard winter of the soul as well. 

We discuss together what it means to experience winter in a culture and how nature teaches us everything we must know about the hard times we may face right now. I discuss lessons I have learned from the years of living in the north and even what I learned about running from winters. 

The importance of this is key when we dive into this podcast because we cannot set intentions without understanding where we are beginning. 

And when I say intentions, I do not mean goals. Instead, I am talking about the undercurrent we place to our year that gives us permission to arrive at our deepest longing and desires. 

Maybe you thought we would be discussing the garden in the episode and though we will next week, this week we must begin with setting these intentions and I explain why this contributes to how I personally plan and work in my garden. 

So how do we set that intention particularly in a year when it feels there is nothing we can count on? How do we do this when we are weary? 

Jump in today to learn just how I do this and the key question I ask, which seems simple but I promise the answer isn't that easy. 

My goal is by the time we end these 25 minutes in today's podcast that you feel a sense of grounding, purpose, direction, and even realize space you didn't even know you had. 

Books I suggest right now: 
Wintering by Katherine May
Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown

Thank you for listening to Fresh Exchange's podcast where we talk about connecting and grounding ourselves to seasonal rhythms, simple gardening techniques, and curiosities on becoming more connected to ourselves through nature. 

Follow Megan on the Fresh Exchange blog
Follow along on Instagram
See what Megan is loving right now on Pinterest

If you want to follow more of Fresh Exchange you can sign up for the FREE newsletter right here. You will receive a weekly, monthly, and seasonal email to meander your way through intentional living with the cyclical rhythms of nature. 

You can find Fresh Exchange's Beginner Garden E-book and a plan for A Simple Raised Bed Garden right here in the online store. 


Intentionally Approaching an Unpredictable Year

The long awaited 2020 garden recap is here! In today's episode on Fresh Exchange we will be recapping the last year in our garden in the midst of a pandemic. We fell for the bigger garden and build a chicken coop trends of 2020 and I am here to share everything I learned through the process. 

We begin the episode discussing seed shortages and I suggest checking out this blog post if you would like more info on it and what to expect but as a quick note. If you are beginner don't feel rushed to buy seeds and in fact I suggest buying them from local nurseries and farms instead this year just to take the load off if you can. Then for advanced gardeners it is best to buy what you need solely. Don't get to excited and start hoarding seeds. 

Lastly I suggest looking into seed exchanges. We will be offering a section of our community that will focus on this, but there are plenty of options to help you find seeds. Scarcity shouldn't cause fear in us, just to be identified as an opportunity instead to make a connection to others who we can learn from. Living in a mindset of abundance is a much more gratifying way to perceive our life. 

Getting into the meat of the garden recap, we talk about garden journals and how I perceive them when it comes to my garden. Another thing we will be covering in our community site beginning in March and I will touch on within an episode here as well. 

I then disclose everything we tackled, what surprised me, what I learned, and the biggest failures I had. 

We head into the plan for 2021 and talk about what my main plan is and then eventually finish up by discussing HOW I plan my garden and though it sounds super calculated you may be surprised by the way I perceive the garden planning process. 

Next week we will dive deep into how I thrive in a season that takes me far from the garden and how winter is the season I have learned is less about surviving and more about healing and coming home. Yes! This means I will teach you how to actually live really well in winter. It is easier than you may believe. 

See you out there friends!

Blog Posts Referenced:
How to build a up a soil bed
How to fill a raised bed box
All About our Steel Raised Beds
My 2020 Garden Recap

Reading suggestions:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Visit my Pinterest page for ideas to help with Companion Planting and Guilds

Thank you for listening to Fresh Exchange's podcast&nbsp;where we talk about connecting and grounding ourselves to seasonal rhythms, simple gardening techniques, and curiosities on becoming more connected to ourselves through nature.

Follow Megan on the&nbsp;Fresh Exchange blog
Follow along on&nbsp;Instagram
See what Megan is loving right now on&nbsp;Pinterest

If you want to follow more of Fresh Exchange you can&nbsp;sign up for the FREE newsletter&nbsp;right here. You will receive a weekly, monthly, and seasonal email to meander your way through intentional living with the cyclical rhythms of nature.

You can find Fresh Exchange's&nbsp;Beginner Garden E-book&nbsp;and a plan for&nbsp;A Simple Raised Bed Garden&nbsp;right here&nbsp;in the online store


My 2020 Garden Recap and Looking Toward 2021

I was born and raised amongst the winter and experiencing them challenged me so much that when I became older I ran from Winter. The challenges were too uncomfortable. I didn't want to embrace it. 

Today on the podcast we are jumping deeper into how winter is our opportunity to learn how to thrive in hard times. I share what I have learned from running from winters and coming back to them because I craved them. The ways they have taught our family resilience and brought grounding to our years. 

I promise today that when you leave you will find a new appreciation for this season and a new way to thrive when it feels sometimes we are simply holding our breathe in hopes that we survive. 

You can read more on the blog in this post: 
Thriving in Winter and Hard Times - Fresh Exchange

Books I suggest right now:
Wintering&nbsp;by Katherine May

Thank you for listening to Fresh Exchange's podcast&nbsp;where we talk about connecting and grounding ourselves to seasonal rhythms, simple gardening techniques, and curiosities on becoming more connected to ourselves through nature.

Follow Megan on the&nbsp;Fresh Exchange blog
Follow along on&nbsp;Instagram
See what Megan is loving right now on&nbsp;Pinterest

If you want to follow more of Fresh Exchange you can&nbsp;sign up for the FREE newsletter&nbsp;right here. You will receive a weekly, monthly, and seasonal email to meander your way through intentional living with the cyclical rhythms of nature.

You can find Fresh Exchange's&nbsp;Beginner Garden E-book&nbsp;and a plan for&nbsp;A Simple Raised Bed Garden&nbsp;right here&nbsp;in the online store.


Thriving in Winter and Hard Times

In the first edition of our Garden Tour Interviews we have Megan Stubbs who is a professional sexologist and certified body image expert. Megan writes for many well known publications such as Cosmopolitan and Teen Vogue along with many others, but when not working Megan has an incredible garden in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan where she grows incredible things including lemon trees, hibiscus plants, and more. So today we chat about how to get inspired to grow while also discussing sexual stigmas and identities of self that the garden gives us notes on how to reframe. 

To see Megan's gorgeous garden you can see it in our Garden Series on the blog. 

You can find out more about Megan below:
Megan's Website
Megan's New Book
Megan's Instagram

Thank you for listening to Fresh Exchange's podcast&nbsp;where we talk about connecting and grounding ourselves to seasonal rhythms, simple gardening techniques, and curiosities on becoming more connected to ourselves through nature.

Follow Megan on the&nbsp;Fresh Exchange blog
Follow along on&nbsp;Instagram
See what Megan is loving right now on&nbsp;Pinterest

If you want to follow more of Fresh Exchange you can&nbsp;sign up for the FREE newsletter&nbsp;right here. You will receive a weekly, monthly, and seasonal email to meander your way through intentional living with the cyclical rhythms of nature.

You can find Fresh Exchange's&nbsp;Beginner Garden E-book&nbsp;and a plan for&nbsp;A Simple Raised Bed Garden&nbsp;right here&nbsp;in the online store.


Garden Tour Interview: Megan Stubbs

On today's episode we discuss the topic of Seasonal Eating. The first of many episodes where we will talk about the ways we can connect deeper to nature through our diet. Though this is a BIG topic we are beginning by just discussing what Seasonal Eating, why we should know about it, and how even as parents we can take steps towards this becoming more and more apart of our day-to-day life. 

We also chat about how to begin the process of Seasonal Eating. It may surprise you but it isn't about shifting your whole diet. Instead we talk about a judgement-free way to start this process and it begins with observation, curiosity, and awareness before we make any move in any direction. 

This topic to me is one of the most powerful pieces in the puzzle of climate change and I believe without a doubt we can be effecting our climate in the largest way through how we eat and the picture begins with seasonal and local eating. Even one shift in our yearly rhythms of eating could have an effect! 

Listen more today and to the questions I ask from our community at the end of the episode as we address things like Organic or Local and How to be successful with this even in a small space or city. 


Post and Websites Referenced:
Seasonal Eating - Fresh Exchange
What is a CSA - Fresh Exchange
Local Harvest
Seasonal Food Guide

More info on Carbon Drawdowns and Carbon release with Tilling land for monoculture crops

Books I suggest right now:
Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Thank you for listening to Fresh Exchange's podcast&nbsp;where we talk about connecting and grounding ourselves to seasonal rhythms, simple gardening techniques, and curiosities on becoming more connected to ourselves through nature.

Follow Megan on the&nbsp;Fresh Exchange blog
Follow along on&nbsp;Instagram
See what Megan is loving right now on&nbsp;Pinterest

If you want to follow more of Fresh Exchange you can&nbsp;sign up for the FREE newsletter&nbsp;right here. You will receive a weekly, monthly, and seasonal email to meander your way through intentional living with the cyclical rhythms of nature.

You can find Fresh Exchange's&nbsp;Beginner Garden E-book&nbsp;and a plan for&nbsp;A Simple Raised Bed Garden&nbsp;right here&nbsp;in the online store.


Seasonal Eating - What, Why, and How

In this Garden Tour Interview we have Kelsey Johnston who manages the lifestyle blog, My Simply Simple, where she shares about motherhood, the pursuit of a simple and eco life, and various tips on living minimally and intentionally. Kelsey is a wealth of information about building a life of sustainability through minimalism and intention. She and her husband and young daughter, live on 8.5 acres in Rural Indiana and we discuss what are some of the very real things about choosing a more rural life and as a little hint it is one of the reasons she started her garden, which we also discuss on how she approaches it as well as what is ahead this year. This is without a doubt a fun and easy conversation to digest as you begin thinking through setting intentions for your garden and life in this new year. 

To see Kelsey's gorgeous garden is featured today on the blog via the Garden Tour Series. 

You can find out more about Kelsey below:
Kelsey's Website
Tour Kelsey's Modern Farmhouse
Read Kelsey's 2020 Garden Recap
Kelsey's Instagram

Thank you for listening to Fresh Exchange's podcast&nbsp;where we talk about connecting and grounding ourselves to seasonal rhythms, simple gardening techniques, and curiosities on becoming more connected to ourselves through nature.

Follow Megan on the&nbsp;Fresh Exchange blog
Follow along on&nbsp;Instagram
See what Megan is loving right now on&nbsp;Pinterest

If you want to follow more of Fresh Exchange you can&nbsp;sign up for the FREE newsletter&nbsp;right here. You will receive a weekly, monthly, and seasonal email to meander your way through intentional living with the cyclical rhythms of nature.

You can find Fresh Exchange's&nbsp;Beginner Garden E-book&nbsp;and a plan for&nbsp;A Simple Raised Bed Garden&nbsp;right here&nbsp;in the online store.
