Roman Shapla, from Nature School Startup, joins me to discuss Nature Schools - where the outdoors is the classroom.

Roman recently shared on Twitter how he has taught tracking class: showing kids animal tracks in the dirt teaches kids about pattern recognition, thinking through timelines, as well as problem solving in their surroundings ("if this track is here, where did it come from, where is it going, and what is the animal doing?"). Definitely worth a Follow.

He teaches homeschooling parents and co-ops how to start their own weekend nature school or to help those looking to bring the outdoors into a traditional classroom.

Some of the benefits of outdoor schooling that we discuss:

• Engaging teenagers by giving them responsibility on tasks and even including them in mentoring younger children.
• Breaking the cycle of screen addiction and reawakening wonder through teaching outdoors.
• Teaching skills like pattern recognition, timelines, seasonality, and sense of place.
• Including marginalized or difficult children in a school outdoors significantly counteracts boredom, anxiety, and even ADHD.

He has more tips in his excellent Substack article on Valuing the Marginal - Designing for Children and Elders.

Show notes for this episode: Ep. 155 - Teach Kids Outside - with Roman from Nature School

Grow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.

Grow Nut Trees.com

NEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.

Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

In this episode I cover an overview of the different types of chestnuts. And why do customers prefer hybrids over Chinese chestnuts? I share what named varieties that I am growing this year. And I give you tips to start your chestnut orchard, including soil pH and how/when to fertilize your chestnut trees.

I forage buckets of chestnuts from local chestnut trees every Fall and store them in buckets of sand to sprout over the Winter. But in Spring 2024 my stored chestnuts were moldy and rotten - they had failed over the winter.

I learned a lot more as I have diversified my chestnut offerings in response to this loss, as well as expanded my knowledge through my in real life contacts. In this article I will share what I have learned so it will help you as well.

Varieties of chestnuts:

American, Chinese, Japanese, European.

Why are customers turned off by Chinese chestnuts? Why do they sell for less than hybrids?

Dunstan chestnuts and other hybrids.

Named varieties of chestnuts:

A named variety, or a known-parent, is a tree or seedling that is chosen for it's heavy production and larger nut sizes. That known (named) parent mother tree is open pollinated by the surrounding trees. It's nuts are saved and grown into seedlings. This is a common way to grow and sell chestnuts, much more than grafting.

Some sites call these named varieties of Chinese chestnuts Half sibs.

Qing, Gideon, Amy, Peach, and Resilient are examples of named varieties (known parent/Half sibs) of Chinese Chestnuts.

I am growing Qing, Resilient named varieties, and some Japanese hybrids this year.

I am sprouting from seed:

• Eaton, which is a Chinese, American, and Japanese hybrid.
• Gideon seed. This will produce large to extra-large nuts that are high in quality and flavor.
• Hope is a Chinese, American hybrid that is a sibling of "King Arthur", a cultivar from the Connecticut Ag Experiment Station's chestnut breeding program.
• Revival: a HUGE hybrid with chestnuts as big as my palm.

Tips to grow chestnuts:

• Chestnuts need moderately acidic soil, somewhere between 4.5 and 6.5 pH.
• Chestnuts need trace minerals like Boron, I have seen suggested that 1 tsp of borax, dissolved in water, poured on an 8x4 garden bed can help with this. I will experiment with adding boron this year.
• Do not put fertilizer in the hole when planting chestnut trees. You want the chestnut to grow out into the soil seeking nutrients. If you do fertilize, add some 10-10-10 fertilizer lightly to the top of the soil. Do not use long time released fertilizer.
• Foliar feed in the summer. This makes root growth and enhances the soil.

Show notes for this episode: Ep. 154 - Tips to Start Your Chestnut Orchard

Grow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.

Grow Nut Trees.com

NEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnut seedlings. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.

Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.

Believe it or not, it's never been a better time to reinvent yourself than it is now.

Sure, the job market looks bleak. Stories of downsizing nearly every day.

But you can learn new skills, often for Free.

John McCoy of John McCoy Writes tweeted a few weeks ago:

"Friday reminder: you can just learn a skill for free off the internet and start selling your services and people will pay you. Nobody can stop you."

Tips to learn new skills

Use LinkedIn Learning. You can often get it for free by using the library. Topeka/Shawnee County offer it for free. If you are veteran you can get LinkedIn Pro and LinkedIn Learning for Free.

Get some training and a certificate, either through Grow Google, or take a class that guarantees you will pass the certificate at the end.

Start small, work for a small company (or the State), and then leverage that experience in a couple of years to significantly increase your salary. Working in IT for a manufacturing company is how I started in IT.

Build your experience portfolio by freelancing on Upwork.

Facing Downsizing? Build Something for Yourself

In the second half of 2024, it seemed like downsizing was on the horizon (when you know, you know). Like Justin Welsh says: Build something for yourself.

I got tired of the fear and expanded Grow Nut Trees, growing and selling more trees than ever before. I started Thriving Food Forest Design (see details below) and had my first really big customer.

Check out the show notes on our website:

Ep. 153 - It's Never Been Easier to Reinvent Yourself - with John McCoy

Grow Nut Trees is now taking orders for Spring shipping or local pickup.

Grow Nut Trees.com

NEW for this year are more types of chestnuts, including Qing Chinese hybrid chestnuts. Qing (pronounced "Ching") is a Chinese chestnut Half-sib from a named tree that was open pollinated by other trees, including hybrids. The Qing tree is a heavy producer with sweet flavored extra large nuts. These seedlings were grown locally and are adapted to the Midwest.

Grow Fodder Trees! New this year are cuttings for fodder trees - mulberry and hybrid willow. These are fast growing and the leaves are edible as forage for animals (my horses love them - maybe a little too much). Plus the mulberries can feed chickens if planted near a chicken run. And they are good for chop and drop. Get your mulberry and willow cuttings from Grow Nut Trees.