A Growing Passion

Brewing is all the rage in San Diego County. Beer recipes start with a few basic ingredients: water, grains and hops. In this episode we’ll visit a local hops farm, discover the process of how and why hops is used in beer, visit a local brewing supply store and more.

We stroll through the zoo with some of the staff who point out plants they harvest on-site, then we go off-site where they grow and harvest more. What there isn't room to grow on-site gets collected along highways and in neighborhoods around San Diego County. We visit reserved koalas on strict eucalyptus diets and tortoises that enjoy a range of fresh greens.

Honeybees are the best-known and most recognizable insect pollinators in our farms and gardens. Without them, we'd have no peaches, nectarines, apples, almonds, lemons, oranges, eggplants, tomatoes, etc. Get to know their role in native ecosystems, farms, and gardens.

Walk into the produce section of the grocery store and you'll see big, beautiful heads of broccoli. Why are store bought and home grown fruits and vegetable so different? Learn about the four different target markets for vegetable breeders: commercial farmers, home growers, farmer's market farmers, and the growers who grow the seedlings that we buy in a nursery.

Aquaponics is a mashup of hydroponics and aquaculture. It is the practice of using fish wastewater as fertilizer for plants, whose roots filter the water, cleaning it sufficiently to be returned to the fish. In this episode, we visit homeowners, a non-profit, and even a restaurateur using this highly efficient system to grow a stunning array of fruits, vegetables, and freshwater fish.

The words "urban" and "forest" may sound like contradictory terms but our urban environments are, or could be, vast forests of street trees,park trees, and backyard trees. Trees are very important in the urban environment, where they serve many valuable purposes. Meet the founder of Tree People, learn about San Diego's urban forestry efforts, and how to select trees for our own gardens.