In this episode of Rooted Wisdom, host Tish Mindemann sits down with Dr. Christie Poitra, a former academic turned specialty crop farmer in the Great Lakes region. As a first-generation descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Dr. Poitra shares her journey from university halls to healing soil, weaving together themes of stewardship, cultural preservation, and ecological balance.

Listeners will hear about the joys and challenges of starting a farm from scratch, the importance of respecting the land and its rhythms, and how farming can be a powerful form of activism.

Key Topics:

• Transitioning from academia to agriculture
• Indigenous approaches to land stewardship
• Building community through farming
• Symbiotic relationships in nature and on the farm
• Farming as cultural preservation and creative problem-solving

Why You Should Listen:

If you’re curious about sustainable farming, Indigenous knowledge systems, or simply love a good story about resilience and growth, this episode will leave you inspired and grounded.

Tish Mindemann 00;00;05;11 00;00;31;23 Welcome back to Rooted Wisdom. Today's guest is Dr. Christie Poitra, a former academic turned specialty crop farmer in the Great Lakes region. She's a first generation descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and she's traded lecture halls for lush fields, cultivating not just crops, but community, culture, and connection. From woodchucks in the tobacco beds to trailer hitch battles with tree stumps,

Tish Mindemann 00;00;31;23 00;00;42;08 this episode is packed with earthy adventures, deep wisdom and a whole lot of heart. Let's dig in.

Tish Mindemann 00;00;42;11 00;00;48;28 Hi Doctor Poitra, thank you for joining us today. Could you tell everybody a little bit about yourself?

Christie Poitra 00;00;49;00 00;00;58;09 Yeah, I am a specialty crop farmer in the Great Lakes region. I am a first generation descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

Christie Poitra 00;00;58;10 00;01;02;16 And yeah, that's me.

Tish Mindemann 00;01;02;19 00;01;16;24 That's awesome. So I know, but maybe our audience doesn't know that you were first in academia before you became a specialty crop farmer. What inspired your decision to leave academia and pursue full time farming?

Christie Poitra 00;01;17;00 00;01;25;04 There's the short answer, which is, you know, I was at a period of transition in my career where I wanted something different.

Christie Poitra 00;01;25;04 00;01;54;12 I wanted to try something different, and I had the privilege to try something different. But the sort of longer, more in-depth answer is, you know, I've always been around plants since I was a kid. My mom is incredible at propagating things. She can propagate a plant out of thin air. It's incredible. And so I always in my childhood had plants very present and I always had this interest, you know, when I would go do field work in my academic job, you know, I always had a camera on me.

Christie Poitra 00;01;54;12 00;02;16;17 I was always taking pictures of plants. And so it was always just kind of a present thing. And then, you know, when I had found myself at this period of a transition from my academic career, you know, that sort of backdrop, particularly during the pandemic, you know, I had gotten back into indoor plants and that eventually spread to outdoor plants.

Christie Poitra 00;02;16;17 00;02;40;11 And so, you know, I was just really engaged with the land. And then towards the sort of end of my time within academia, you know, my business partner and I, we ended up purchasing some land and then we had to figure out what we were going to do with the land. And that's kind of how the farm was born, was really through that.

Christie Poitra 00;02;40;14 00;02;56;22 So yeah, so it was sort of a lifetime journey, but there was a definite moment where, you know, I had the option to return to academia or, you know, try something different. And I decided to pick the road less traveled, so to speak.

Tish Mindemann 00;02;56;25 00;03;03;07 So being that we work in agriculture, we know that there are always challenges that producers face.

Tish Mindemann 00;03;03;08 00;03;09;10 What were some of the biggest challenges that you faced during your transition and how did you overcome those?

Christie Poitra 00;03;09;12 00;03;28;11 Yeah, so some of the more tangible things are, you know, inheriting a barn is pretty awesome. When you don't have a barn and you have to build it, that adds a layer of complexity. So, you know, that was like the tangible “do I have the facilities to grow the things I want to grow?”

Christie Poitra 00;03;28;13 00;03;52;20 But there was also sort of the knowledge of how do you commercially grow, which is very different than gardening. And so there was a lot of sort of trial and error and learning just how to work with the land, how to work with plants. How do you do that in a way that isn't harming the soil? How do you do that in a way that utilizes water appropriately?

Christie Poitra 00;03;52;23 00;04;19;28 So there was a very steep technical learning curve, and then there was also, you know, the practicalities of like, I don't have a barn to store my things or carry my crops. And I would describe it as not necessarily challenges in a negative way, but sort of an exciting adventure of learning about things that, you know, I really had very little knowledge about, you know, thinking about like, how do we design these spaces?

Christie Poitra 00;04;19;29 00;04;47;03 It's not just that we have access to solar. It's more of how do we consume less, how do we use our energy efficiently that's available from the sun. And so that includes, you know, how do we place windows, what orientation is the building, and then what are you going to use the building for? Are you going to use it in the morning or are you going to use it in the late afternoon?

Christie Poitra 00;04;47;05 00;05;04;01 And, you know, how can you also use building orientation and surrounding vegetation to regulate the temperature within the building? And so those are all so deeply rooted in the Indigenous knowledge system in various ways, as you were kind of showing me with your work.

Tish Mindemann 00;05;04;04 00;05;19;00 Yeah, absolutely. Like, I see these very cool buildings that they're building in some different countries where they've completely encapsulated the outside with moss because that really does help regulate that temperature.

Tish Mindemann 00;05;19;00 00;05;46;02 It helps them use less, less energy. And then also there's something so deep in our core about being around things that are green. And so having that extra like green that people can see where it's not just, you know, concrete buildings and those kinds of things, I think also helps heal our insides, not just the land.

Christie Poitra 00;05;46;02 00;06;06;01 Truly. And making this transition, at the point that I was sort of making this career transition, yeah, the land was the land, but it is what kind of healed me in this process of, you know, choosing a different path and, and some of that is just being present with greenery.

Christie Poitra 00;06;06;04 00;06;34;17 Yeah. Getting to see it and being outside and hearing birds. You know, I read a study that was talking about, you know, humans hearing birds like lowers blood pressure and, you know, has some health outcomes and things like that. And that's where, you know, there's a lot of years of evolution that we're wired to associate certain things with certain things, and required for outside, and to see plants and to see greens.

Christie Poitra 00;06;34;17 00;06;49;07 And, you know, I read something that was talking about like the humans, the human eye’s ability to see different variations of green and things like that. But then, I mean, it's interesting if you kind of dig into the science end of it.

Tish Mindemann 00;06;49;10 00;07;08;06 Well, even in my space of education, humans learn best outside quickly and in danger. Well you can't put your students in danger necessarily.

Tish Mindemann 00;07;08;08 00;07;26;06 But, you know, I used to hold class outside because they really, like, retained a lot more of that because they were like, there is that healing and calming properties of just being, you know, with the land and with the outside.

Christie Poitra 00;07;26;09 00;07;35;25 It's interesting because like, you know, in academia you'll have academics talk about, you know, having like a relationship and intimacy with the land.

Christie Poitra 00;07;35;25 00;07;56;19 And I think about how I walk that space regularly of our property, you know, I know it really well. I know where all the fallen logs are and I know where all the things are and I know where, you know, ground wasps are nesting and whether or not to go at certain times of year. And you just get really familiar with the space.

Christie Poitra 00;07;56;19 00;08;08;19 And then when you see a different plant, you're like, “What's that?!” You know, it like sticks out like a sore thumb, you know, And you're like, “What is that? I've never seen you.” Yeah, like who are you?

Tish Mindemann 00;08;08;22 00;08;15;14 Like having a new kid in class, they like, they come and sit down. You're like, Wait a minute, that's not... that's different.

Christie Poitra 00;08;15;17 00;08;15;28 Yeah.

Christie Poitra 00;08;15;28 00;08;36;01 And I imagine how, you know, ancestors must have encountered that in their own sort of stewarding of land. You know, your custom that certain things are certain colors at certain times of year. There are certain things present and then you see something new and you're like, “What is that? Who are you?” You know, “Introduce yourself!” Yeah. You know, I got to find out who you are.

Christie Poitra 00;08;36;01 00;09;05;28 And yeah, I think when we heal land, you know, when we share seeds with the land, when we consciously spread seeds while walking in the woods, we heal a piece of ourselves. Because, I mean, for me, there's something to be said. You know, I had seeded a wildflower area on our farm, and I used a commercial seed mix, and I had amended the commercial seed mix with some of my own, you know, things I was interested in seeing.

Christie Poitra 00;09;05;28 00;09;31;07 And there's something to be said. I put that out in, I want to say early February or early to mid February. We had put the compost out and things like that for that seedbed and yeah, to see like the flower blooming and things pop up and to know, you know, I put that there, there's something very healing about that.

Tish Mindemann 00;09;31;09 00;09;38;17 Absolutely. Absolutely. Were there any unexpected joys or discoveries in your first year of farming?

Christie Poitra 00;09;38;22 00;09;56;08 Honestly, just getting to be outside for long periods of time. And so you get familiar with the plants and the animals and sort of their schedules. So like for me, I know on the farm it's fall when the yellow finch is bouncing on the flower heads to pick out the seeds.

Christie Poitra 00;09;56;11 00;10;23;13 And so like I had no idea when I first set out in farming that finches bounced on cone flower and ate the seed. That just wasn't part of my professional life at all. I didn't have time to notice that, I didn't have a need to notice that. I think in those early years it was really just noticing, noticing the land, noticing what the land had to share and realizing that, you know, animals keep their schedules for things.

Christie Poitra 00;10;23;15 00;10;41;23 They know when things are in bloom, they know when things go to seed. I like to think of them as tending to garden in the same way that I do. I had grown some ceremonial tobacco for my personal use, and I remember it was right before a thunderstorm was coming in, in the middle of the night.

Christie Poitra 00;10;41;23 00;11;10;21 And I went outside to look at the thunderstorm coming in and there was this woodchuck and he was in my tobacco beds, and he was just sort of touching the tobacco. And he hadn't noticed me, you know. And I was like, What is that woodchuck doing? And so you just learn interesting things about the land and about animals in just those early years because you're approaching it as someone who doesn't know a lot yet.

Christie Poitra 00;11;10;23 00;11;29;11 And so everything is like, exciting. It's a totally new world. Everything's exciting. You don't really understand what's going on. And so you notice these things. And so I'm watching this woodchuck, you know, around these tobacco plants. I still don't know what he was doing. He didn't eat them, he didn't damage them, but he was in there.

Christie Poitra 00;11;29;11 00;11;44;22 And you know, I wonder. And I think about those tiny moments of “Why was that?” I wonder. And I don't understand, you know, and then usually I'll look it up later and be like, okay. That's part of, you know, some other - Pollinating or something. Yeah.

Tish Mindemann 00;11;44;25 00;11;52;11 So how did your identity as a first generation descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa influence your vision for the farm?

Christie Poitra 00;11;52;13 00;12;34;18 So I definitely wanted a farm that wasn't just sort of focused on yield. For me, I want the land to remain healthy and the way I interact with it, I want it to be, you know, in a good way. As I was taught. You know, my dad is an avid outdoorsman. He's an avid fly fisherman. And so I was really taught from a young age, you know, the connection between, like the mayflies that hatch on the river and how you use those things to catch fish and that it's important that the mayflies hatch and, you know, there's this whole sort of balance and connection among things within the land.

Christie Poitra 00;12;34;26 00;12;59;24 And so I really wanted to honor that with the business. And part of that was sort of definitely stewarding, paying attention. You know, what plants are present on the land. Some of those plants are considered invasive. And so how do we include more relatives into the space? And so that was really the focus was just stewarding and learning.

Christie Poitra 00;12;59;29 00;13;26;01 It took a couple of years, though, for us to really kind of like understand just the land itself, you know. Like: what were the areas that needed to be tended to specifically with specific types of support, and you know, what areas were more healthy? The farmland that we have is sort of mixed. So I have swamp, forest, grasslands.

Christie Poitra 00;13;26;03 00;13;48;06 So it definitely has different personalities depending on what side of the property you're on. And so each of those areas have kind of different needs. They have different, you know, animals present and things like that. So yeah, culture played an important role in shaping how I wanted to just interact with the space, care for the space.

Tish Mindemann 00;13;48;09 00;13;58;09 Yeah. So stewardship is a huge part of traditional ecological knowledge and how has that informed your crop selection and your land management?

Christie Poitra 00;13;58;12 00;14;10;02 So it's kind of a complicated thing because, you know, I started out and I wanted to grow, you know, one thing and I realized, you know, some stuff is just not going to grow in a space.

Christie Poitra 00;14;10;04 00;14;37;06 And so part of it, part of the adventure was kind of figuring out, okay, what grows in this area? That makes sense for me because I had a stance that I didn't want to use a lot of chemicals. That was just my personal choice. And culturally, you know, that's kind of where I sit on that. So that does change when you're commercially growing on what you can grow.

Christie Poitra 00;14;37;09 00;15;02;28 And so my personal stance was I wanted plants that pollinators liked. I grow a lot of ornamentals. I have colleagues who are very committed to growing native plants from the area. I also grow native plants. But, you know, for me as a grower, as a business, you know, unfortunately, a business has to sell things that people are interested in.

Christie Poitra 00;15;02;28 00;15;16;16 And so for me, I really kind of looked at what plants do pollinators like, what plants to feed birds with their seeds. And then I tried to pursue those plants.

Tish Mindemann 00;15;16;16 00;15;24;02 Yeah, really trying to make sure that everything was working together in an ecosystem as opposed to like, working against it.

Christie Poitra 00;15;24;04 00;15;41;13 Yeah. To sort of round out kind of what were some of the native plants that are already growing on the property, you know, and how could I support those plants and enhance the ecosystem while also existing in the realities of what businesses within, you know, an American system.

Tish Mindemann 00;15;41;16 00;15;46;21 So what advice would you give to other Indigenous people interested in starting a farm?

Christie Poitra 00;15;46;23 00;16;09;01 I would say taking time to be with the land is the first step. To just sit and observe. Observe how the seasons change, observe what animals are out in the morning versus what animals are out at night. Yeah, I would just say bw with the land is step one and there's a lot of sort of scaffolding after that.

Tish Mindemann 00;16;09;01 00;16;10;28 For sure.

Tish Mindemann 00;16;11;01 00;16;19;06 What role does community play in your farming journey, whether that be community with the land or community with other Indigenous people?

Christie Poitra 00;16;19;12 00;16;36;08 Yeah. So I would say there's a lot of community in farming. You have, you know, products that spoil very quickly, so you got to have a good community in order to literally move your products. I would say for me personally, I really enjoy bringing students out to the land.

Christie Poitra 00;16;36;10 00;17;07;26 I think it's really fun. So I brought some Indigenous students and other folks out there just to hike around and kind of talk about some of the issues that we deal with in stewarding the land. I've also had the opportunity to bring out some Indigenous faculty and other faculty to kind of just do the same thing and just learn about, you know, what are the intersects between when you have a problem or when you have something that you're trying to solve or cultivate, You know, the sort of the complexity and the layers that go into it.

Christie Poitra 00;17;07;26 00;17;27;17 And I think there's a lot of similarities between, you know, farming and other sort of careers. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all trying to move towards a way we want to go. And there's, you know, things that we encounter that can support, but also stifle progress. And so you've got to think critically on how you're going to navigate that.

Christie Poitra 00;17;27;17 00;17;53;10 And so farming is a very creative field. You use various things to solve complex problems that you encounter all the time, whether that is, you know, figuring out how to fix a piece of equipment or, you know, how do you trap water on the properties that you can utilize for irrigation. Just a lot of complex problems that you encounter that are strange.

Tish Mindemann 00;17;53;12 00;18;06;03 Yeah. Yeah. So speaking of land stewardship, how has your understanding of stewardship evolved since you began farming and starting your farm?

Christie Poitra 00;18;06;05 00;18;21;24 I sort of always had an appreciation for the land longstanding because I had grown up in a rural area. You know, my parents had land and so I had a sort of longstanding view of stewardship.

Christie Poitra 00;18;21;27 00;18;51;12 But as an academic, as I sort of transitioned into being faculty and a university administrator, for those, those knowledges were less relevant to me day to day. And when I engaged in my research where those things came up, it was all very theoretical. And so an example I would give, as you know, a lot of times we talk about Indigenous studies and within the community we talk about respect for plants.

Christie Poitra 00;18;51;14 00;19;19;21 And I learned in farming, particularly when I was working with some of the more cultural plants that respect is safety. So, you know, an example would be, you know, I grew this particular strand of tobacco and it's potent. And so if you don't handle it with the correct gloves and PPE at the correct time of day, i.e. respect, you could get a little bit sick.

Christie Poitra 00;19;19;23 00;19;53;05 And so, you know, that was one thing I learned was, you know, the theory of being respectful versus the practicalities of being respectful. We're very different in land stewardship. And it was exciting to notice that difference and experience that difference. And I think that's part of the reason why I really try to bring people out to the farm is because I want to sort of help the theory along of like there's a practicality to this, of like the practice of stewardship.

Tish Mindemann 00;19;53;07 00;20;22;20 Yeah, I think that a lot of people don't understand that respect. And so, like, my husband is very allergic to poison ivy. And so he has to respect where that grows. Whereas I didn't have that sort of respect for that plant because I'm not as allergic as he is. And so, you know, he's hyper aware of where it grows and what it looks like and those kinds of things.

Tish Mindemann 00;20;22;20 00;20;42;04 And for me, I didn't have to, but now I have more of a respect for that plant, knowing that, you know, he has to watch out or else he gets what we call the plague arm, where he gets real swollen up. So yeah, just being respectful of those plants.

Tish Mindemann 00;20;42;04 00;20;50;08 In what ways do you see farming as a form of activism or cultural preservation?

Christie Poitra 00;20;50;10 00;21;11;25 So I just want to revisit really quick about the poison ivy. We also have similar plants that will cause hives and things like that and it's interesting because I too am less allergic, so I'm less reactive. And so I've learned to be more respectful of just not tracking it into the house because others can get it.

Tish Mindemann 00;21;11;28 00;21;15;02 Yeah, well, and I thought it was really cool,

Tish Mindemann 00;21;15;05 00;21;42;05 I learned from one of our Cherokee individuals that we work with about the plant that grows next to poison ivy, that you can use as a healing, since they grow together, you know, it kind of has a natural immunity to it. And so when you squeeze it and put it on there, it actually pulls the oils out.

Tish Mindemann 00;21;42;07 00;21;52;12 and so that was cool to see how like even plants are in relationship with each other and, you know, they're respecting each other and we're just out here.

Christie Poitra 00;21;52;12 00;22;02;27 We need to have the knowledge to be able to, to know those things. We have a grove of poison ivy that we've - because the seeds, the birds really like the seeds of poison ivy.

Christie Poitra 00;22;03;00 00;22;29;04 Although it's toxic for humans, animals really like it. And so we have a grove of it in the back of the property. I mean, it's everywhere. That's kind of what happens in disturbed soil. But the vines that we have are huge. They stretch like, you know, 30 feet in the air, they're significant. And so they wrap around, you know, a lot of the old growth trees on the property.

Christie Poitra 00;22;29;07 00;23;01;02 You know we've kind of arrived at - it's a plant to be respected, and respect is, you know, be able to identify it, know that it grows as a vine attached to things. So you can tell by its unique hairs that it has as it attaches to another plant and you kind of just know, and that helps sort of reduce contraction of a rash. Of just knowing and being able to identify it and being respectful.

Tish Mindemann 00;23;01;04 00;23;26;22 Well, and I love that symbiotic relationship, like that symbiosis in nature and like three sister style is what I always think of as that beautiful symbiotic relationship of helping everything to grow at once. Are there any of those symbiotic relationships that you use on your farm to increase yield or anything like that?

Christie Poitra 00;23;26;24 00;23;35;12 I mean, definitely to reduce sprays for me is, is we have really dense and diverse plant communities.

Christie Poitra 00;23;35;15 00;24;10;12 And then the reason we have that, we sort of create plant beds to harvest from and those beds bloom various things that we harvest from throughout the year. And so we do less row cropping. We do have some row cropping, but we do less row cropping. And within those plant spaces, because it's sort of a relationship among plants and those plants bring in certain insects and those insects bring in certain birds and, and sort of to keep insect damage down,

Christie Poitra 00;24;10;14 00;24;33;02 We have those diverse plant beds. So we know that, you know, certain birds will eat certain invasive species that damage our crops. And so by having this like, you know, diverse plant bed we're able to kind of keep that down. And then we sort of account to sort of culturally on the farm, you know, our joke is everyone gets a cut.

Christie Poitra 00;24;33;05 00;24;54;19 And so, you know, we think about yield, we think about: there is a percentage that the animals are going to take as our gardeners and we accept that. And we try to manage it, you know, that it's a reasonable, you know, 10 to 15% rather than a 30, 40%. Yeah, the realities of farming is, you know, everyone's going to get their cut.

Christie Poitra 00;24;54;19 00;24;58;07 So there's no point trying to stop it.

Tish Mindemann 00;24;58;09 00;25;04;28 So how do you hope that your farm will impact future generations, both within your community and beyond?

Christie Poitra 00;25;05;01 00;25;15;14 So one major thing is I would hope that at the end of my career of working with the land, that I leave the land in a better condition than when I found it.

Christie Poitra 00;25;15;16 00;25;41;10 That is that is a main thing for me. I want it to be healthy, and by healthy for me that means, you know, a diversity of plants that are attractive to animals and insects and, you know, a healthy ecosystem. Managing, you know, just how we treat the land and how we build on the land. You know, the types of things - my business partner is an engineer, a civil engineer.

Christie Poitra 00;25;41;10 00;26;07;13 And so, you know, we think pretty deeply as we construct things on the land of how can we construct things to last not just for us, but for whomever takes this over in the future. And so I think there's a lot of considerations around that of just being sustainable and thinking about how can we make this a better place.

Tish Mindemann 00;26;07;16 00;26;16;22 What's one story from your farm that you feel encapsulates your journey so far, or is like your favorite story about your farm?

Christie Poitra 00;26;16;24 00;26;38;03 So it was early on in farming and we were constructing our first structure that we were going to use to sort of dry and cure crops. So just a covered structure that, you know, would help us out when we harvested and we could put crops in there to dry out and cure.

Christie Poitra 00;26;38;05 00;27;10;18 And so we had to do the foundations. So this is early on. And, you know, we're working together to save money and being, as farmers do, making it work. And so we had used a game trail, and we cut that game trail into a road. And so we needed to bring like 5,000 pounds of concrete bags down this thing, down this road that was once a game trail for deer.

Tish Mindemann 00;27;10;20 00;27;13;07 Get the donkey.

Christie Poitra 00;27;13;09 00;27;32;06 And so, yeah, we were a little crazy and we decided that we were going to drive the trailer, that we could make this, you know - And it was a very, very short road. So we were like, We can do this. And there was this stump in the middle of the road that we didn't pull.

Christie Poitra 00;27;32;11 00;27;55;03 You know, we had just dropped this tree. It was an unhealthy tree. And so we dropped it and we didn't pull the stump. And so we proceed to take our trailer down with this. And the trailer hitch gets caught on the stump with this 5,000 pounds of concrete. And mind you, this is the only road in the only road out.

Christie Poitra 00;27;55;03 00;27;59;20 So if we block this road, we're carrying the concrete.

Tish Mindemann 00;27;59;22 00;28;02;00 Yeah, there's like no turn around there.

Christie Poitra 00;28;02;03 00;28;13;14 There's no turning back. And I remember, you know, I stopped and I was like, Let's put up some tobacco because I'm not sure we're going to be able to make this. So we stop. We put out some tobacco.

Christie Poitra 00;28;13;14 00;28;49;28 We're like, Please help us get this concrete down this road and this stump. So the trailer hitch catches on the stump. I see the back of the truck go into the air completely into the air. And the wheels are spinning and, you know, I yell at the driver, Punch it! And so they punch it. And magically this truck, I don't know how it did it, but it got through, you know, and got over the stump and it like - it damaged the trailer just a little bit.

Christie Poitra 00;28;50;00 00;29;14;04 We did need a welder. But so we got this concrete in and magically this stump wasn't even bothered. It was just, you know, here we were driving this big machinery and the strength of nature - you know, the stump was completely unbothered. It didn't even chip it, but, you know, done pretty good damage to our trailer.

Christie Poitra 00;29;14;04 00;29;34;07 And, you know, we got the concrete off. Thankfully, we did not have to carry this. And, you know, we got the foundation poured and all was fine. But I'll never forget that, that the back of the truck was just in the air. It was, nature was completely unbothered. We gave it our best shot. And, you know, we were fortunate enough that the stump let us through.

Christie Poitra 00;29;34;07 00;29;38;27 But, yeah, you know, nature is unbothered by some of our best efforts.

Tish Mindemann 00;29;39;04 00;29;46;09 Absolutely. So what's next for you in your farm? Any new projects or dreams on the horizon?

Christie Poitra 00;29;46;15 00;30;02;27 Yeah, I mean, we're in the middle of constructing - we're finishing up a building, and then we will construct another building that will have a greenhouse attached. And so we'll be able to increase our production of what we can produce from seed in the greenhouse.

Christie Poitra 00;30;02;27 00;30;27;10 So I'm pretty excited about that. That's been a few years in the making. And yeah, that's pretty much the main thing, and just kind of tending to spaces. Our big dream is we want to have a series of retention ponds throughout the property and utilize sort of natural water runoff when it rains into those ponds, and then be able to utilize that water for irrigation of crops.

Christie Poitra 00;30;27;10 00;30;45;06 So that's kind of our long term goal is, you know, stormwater management. And then our shorter term next few years goal is to expand our greenhouses so we can expand our season for two months before and kind of two months after, because up here it can get pretty cold.

Tish Mindemann 00;30;45;08 00;30;58;02 Well, is there any piece of advice that you'd like to leave for those listening about farming and land stewardship and those kinds of things?

Christie Poitra 00;30;58;05 00;31;08;06 I would say we all kind of have our role, I think, in this ecosystem, everyone plays a role, every animal and every insect.

Christie Poitra 00;31;08;06 00;31;29;00 And we do too. And engage with the land when you can. Sometimes your role can be as simple as “I walked on a trail and helped this native plant spread its seed in the fall” and it can be is as simple as, you know, planting some things in your garden or learning a little bit about overwintering seed and things like that.

Christie Poitra 00;31;29;03 00;31;43;15 So just being a more active participant, I think, with the land even it's that isn't your job, but just as a healthy sort of relative, that's part of the space. That’s what I would say.

Tish Mindemann 00;31;43;17 00;31;53;28 Awesome. Well, we really appreciate you joining us for this episode of Rooted Wisdom, and we can't wait to see what else your farm does.

Christie Poitra 00;31;54;00 00;32;03;19 Yeah, Thanks so much. This was really fun. I'm glad we could sit down and chat.

Tish Mindemann 00;32;03;21 00;32;24;24 That's a wrap on this episode of Rooted Wisdom. A huge thanks to Dr. Poitra for sharing her journey from academia to agriculture and reminding us that stewardship starts with observation, respect and a little bit of grit. Whether it's those bouncing finches, some ceremonial tobacco or building greenhouses and stormwater drains,

Tish Mindemann 00;32;24;26 00;32;31;08 her farm is a living story of resilience and reciprocity. Until next time, stay rooted in wisdom.