4 the Soil

10/13/2026

🍞 Did you know every farm, bread, and soil has a story? Chef Kathryn "Kat" Jiang of Seylou Bakery and Mill joins Jeff Ishee, Summer Thomas, and Eric Bendfeldt to talk about their working relationships with farmers, millers, and soils as part of the Mid-Atlantic grain economy.

🥖 Einkorn wheat, an ancient wheat that is close to corn, and buckhweat are two cash and cover crops that Seylou Bakery and Mill sources from farms in the Mid-Atlantic region and freshly mill on-site each week as part of their sourdough long-fermentation process.

🌱 Tune in, like, and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts or 4thesoil.org/podcast

As always, we encourage you to cooperate with other farmers, graziers, and gardeners for peer-to-peer learning. We can all be 4 The Soil, for the future! Here is how with four principles:

1️⃣ Keep the soil covered -- Cover crops are our friends;
2️⃣ Minimize soil disturbance -- Be gentle, take it easy;
3️⃣ Maximize living roots year-round -- Keep roots growing; and
4️⃣ Energize with diversity -- Thrive with diversity.

If you are interested in art and framing the 4 The Soil posters for your office or home, the 16” by 20” posters are available for purchase and printing as single posters or a set of five posters. Additionally, 4 The Soil gear and swag is available for purchase at https://4-the-soil.printify.me/

Virginia Farming Media Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences Virginia SARE Virginia Cooperative Extension Virginia Cooperative Extension - Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation U.S. Department of Agriculture Social Impact Studios Virginia's Community, Local, & Regional Food Systems Team American Farmland Trust Seylou Common Grain Alliance

Did you know every farm, bread, and soil has a story? Chef Kathryn "Kat" Jiang of https://www.seylou.com/ joins Jeff Ishee, Summer Thomas, and Eric Bendfeldt to

09/29/2026

🌽 How can you interseed resilience and diversity into a family business and a cropping system whether you are in Nebraska, Virginia, or Upstate New York? Keith Berns shares about the history of Green Cover Seed with Jeff, Summer, and Eric and how building the internal infrastructure was so important as Green Cover grew from a family operation to having more than 60 employees.

🫛 Keith emphasized that resilience and having people with diverse skills and experiences are critical to success in business and farming.

🥕 Tune in, like, and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts or 4thesoil.org/podcast

🧄 As always, we encourage you to cooperate with other farmers, graziers, and gardeners for peer-to-peer learning. We can all be 4 The Soil, for the future! Here is how with four principles:

1️⃣ Keep the soil covered -- Cover crops are our friends;
2️⃣ Minimize soil disturbance -- Be gentle, take it easy;
3️⃣ Maximize living roots year-round -- Keep roots growing; and
4️⃣ Energize with diversity -- Thrive with diversity.

Virginia Farming Media Virginia Farm-to-Table Virginia Cooperative Extension Virginia SARE Social Impact Studios Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation Green Cover Seed Virginia Cooperative Extension - Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia

How can you interseed resilience and diversity into a family business and a cropping system whether you are in Nebraska, Virginia, or Upstate New York? Keith Be

09/15/2026

Get a short preview of our 4 The Soil conversations with Keith Berns of Green Cover Seed! Virginia Beginning Farmer & Rancher Coalition Virginia Farming Media Virginia Cooperative Extension Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences Virginia State University

09/15/2026

🍀 Are you always growing and evaluating what you want to accomplish? Keith Berns of Green Cover Seed shares his insights on that question as a co-business owner, farmer, and educator of diverse, customizable cover crop mixtures with Jeff, Summer, and Eric.

🫛 Keith and his brother Brian and their families started Green Cover in 2008 in Bladen, Nebraska and Iola, Kansas. Since that time, their core value of always growing has taken root in many tangible ways.

🌽 Today, Green Cover has 60 employees, specializes in 120 different types of single species cover crops, and helps keep more than one million acres of soil covered and continuously growing.

Tune in, like, and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts or 4thesoil.org/podcast

As always, we encourage you to cooperate with other farmers, graziers, and gardeners for peer-to-peer learning. We can all be 4 The Soil, for the future! Here is how with four principles:

1️⃣ Keep the soil covered -- Cover crops are our friends;
2️⃣ Minimize soil disturbance -- Be gentle, take it easy;
3️⃣ Maximize living roots year-round -- Keep roots growing; and
4️⃣ Energize with diversity -- Thrive with diversity.
Virginia Cooperative Extension Prince William Virginia Cooperative Extension Virginia Beginning Farmer & Rancher Coalition Virginia Farm-to-Table Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation Virginia Farming Media VABF Virginia Association for Biological Farming Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Virginia Cooperative Extension - Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences Virginia SARE

Are you always growing and evaluating what you want to accomplish? Keith Berns of https://greencover.com/ shares his insights on that question as a co-business

09/12/2026

09/02/2026

The world lost a steward of the land and community yesterday. May the words of Wendell Berry live on and our treatment of the soil bring them to life. "The soil is the great connector of lives" - Wendell Berry 1934-2026

09/01/2026

🌿As a fifth generation row-crop farmer in the Northern Neck of Virginia, P.J. Haynie III shares how important generational knowledge, networking, and technologies are to successful farming and business development. In this episode, P.J. talks with Jeff, Mary, and Eric about the farming legacy of his family and how they have adapted and innovated through the years to enhance the return on investment of their time, labor, equipment, and technologies.

🌽Along with storytelling, networking is a critical element for learning and staying competitive. Since joining and helping to found the National Black Growers Council in 2009, P.J. has benefited from his relationships and interactions with other black row-crop farmers.

Tune in, like, and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts or 4thesoil.org/podcast

We can all be 4 The Soil, for the future! Here is how with four principles:

☘️ Keep the soil covered -- Cover crops are our friends;
☘️ Minimize soil disturbance -- Be gentle, take it easy;
🍀 Maximize living roots year-round -- Keep roots growing; and
🍀 Energize with diversity -- Thrive with diversity.

Virginia Farming Media
Social Impact Studios Virginia SARE Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Virginia Cooperative Extension Virginia Tech Department of Agricultural, Leadership, & Community Education Virginia Farm-to-Table Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation

As a fifth generation row-crop farmer in the Northern Neck of Virginia, P.J. Haynie III shares how important generational knowledge, networking, and technologie