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This replay is a must listen episode about building soil health that was originally published February 2017. It is Monday, January 2nd, very early in the morning and I am headed back to school today. I know you are going to love this guest from Black Swan Organics and Grow Ohio Valley in Appalachia! What a great guest to follow up after http://organicgardenerpodcast.com/170-jm-fortier-the-market-gardener/ (Jean-Martin Fortier) because Danny is basically doing everything JM Talked about. A great educator and farmer you are going to love this episode as much as I did! http://growov.org (Grow Ohio Valley.org) is a nonprofit organization working to improve food justice in Appalachia.http://growov.org (Grow Ohio Valley) is working to fashion a new economic landscape, one offering increased prosperity, improved health and a better environment. Things they do is change: • Vacant city lots become fertile and productive. • School children who think it is “normal” to grow and eat healthy food. One thing I am curious about is their “Food Stamp Challenge” http://www.blackswanorganics.com/ ()From http://www.blackswanorganics.com/ (Black Swan Organics) andhttp://growov.org (Grow Ohio Valley) here’s Danny Swan. Tell us a little about yourself. Sure, I’m living here in Wheeling West, VA. It’s kind of  hybrid Appalachia Coal town and mid west Rust Belt town. Has a lot in common with some of it’s larger brothers, like  Cleveland and Akron. Had lots of steel mills which have largely gone away and coal mines, that are dwindling, kind of post industrial situation. I grew up about an hour away, and I came to live in the big city about 10 years ago. At that time kind of found a love for organic gardening trying to share that with other people since in a variety of ways. Sharing the Love One of which is http://growov.org (Grow Ohio Valley), a company founded with other people here in Wheeling, West VA to bring this local food movement, which is pretty fringe here. You’d call it a rust belt climate…. What does that mean a rust-belt climate? Wheeling, it’s been a hard up town. It was pretty prosperous up until the 60s and 70s and before. As factory work moved overseas, and as coal ran out or other forms of jobs, there are: high unemployment rates everything that goes with that poverty low scores on health performance low educational performance high drug usage which is a big thing we’re seeing right now. It’s a kind of mentality where people just want a job … want things to get back to normal as they remember it … so things that relate to long term health, don’t get on the radar screen I would say, if you look at it as an average across the town as it is in other places as frequently.  People are not thinking about farmers markets not thinking about organic food growing own food more immediate and pressing concerns … way to address these concerns … direct these  …. business opportunities in farming and gardening …. that’s the obvious one …. under employed to do something… either a backyard garden to support their home …. economics or kind of a market venture like were up to here…. there’s also that empowering energy that comes with doing something that is live giving for your and your family … putting your flag in the ground that you have control over … something I have power in in this sort of complex challenging world… for decades now… We’re in a similar situation because the timber industry has left and our mills have shut down. I think that this is a popular topic whether they are interested in creating their own green jobs or supporting their farmer’s market.  Tell me about your first gardening experience? My mom had a small flower – vegetable garden, my grandfather was a farmer and I spent time as a kid … but it was all sort of part of the background as a child and not something I had a keen interest until I moved... Support this podcast