The Regenaissance Podcast

I speak with Courtney Feigl of Green Pastures Cattle Co. about her family’s Texas Longhorn farm in Wisconsin, a proposed 765 kV transmission line raising questions for local landowners, and the community work she has helped build through Ranch and Root.

Courtney shares how she and her husband started their Longhorn herd in 2019 and how she moved from healthcare into farming, running a local farmers’ co-op and podcasting. We also talk about local food, direct-to-community beef, and why sharing farmers’ stories can help people understand agriculture.

The conversation returns to landowner outreach around the proposed line, Courtney’s reasons for choosing Texas Longhorns, building Ranch and Root during a period of beef surplus, marketing with an authentic voice, raising children around farming, and finding ways for people with different views to listen to one another.

Thanks for listening.

What we cover:
• The proposed 765 kV line and local organizing
• Raising Texas Longhorns in Wisconsin
• Leaving healthcare for farm life
• Building the Ranch and Root co-op
• Authentic marketing and farmer stories
• Raising children on the farm

Timestamps:
00:03 – The proposed power line
08:41 – Community organizing
11:21 – Green Pastures beginnings
17:02 – From healthcare to farming
19:48 – Telling farmers’ stories
22:33 – Why Texas Longhorns?
25:57 – Ranch and Root co-op
28:38 – Marketing and starting small
32:12 – Authenticity online
35:30 – Family farm life

Links & resources mentioned:
Green Pastures Cattle Co. — https://www.greenpasturescattleco.com/
Courtney on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/greenpasturescattle/
No 765 Line — https://no765line.org/
Ranch and Root Farmers’ Co-op — https://www.facebook.com/p/Ranch-and-Root-Sauk-61560544507312/
Ag’s Most Okayest Farm Girls — https://open.spotify.com/show/6gK7PVhq2WX7vl2GA073SH

I speak with Kelsey Beck Fernandez about moving from restaurant and wine work into homesteading in Southern California, and how raising a family on one acre changed his view of self-sufficiency.
We talk about why communal sufficiency lasts longer than going it alone, building a local network, scaling back before burnout, whole-animal butchery, preserving food, and bringing family and community together around shared meals and work.

Kelsey Beck Fernandez is a husband, father, homesteader, and founder of Tenfold Tallow in Southern California. On his one-acre family homestead, Kelsey and his family raise pigs, chickens, rabbits, and ducks while pursuing a more resilient way of life centered on traditional food, whole-animal use, soil regeneration, and learning to produce more of what their family consumes.

Tenfold Tallow grew naturally out of that lifestyle. What began as rendering animal fats from the animals they raised eventually became a skincare company built around simple, traditional ingredients, including regenerative suet tallow, pastured pork lard, and raw beeswax. The original products were created for Kelsey’s wife and their babies, and the brand continues to reflect his belief that agriculture, food, family, and personal care don’t have to exist as separate systems.

Through his homestead, Tenfold, and his online content, Kelsey documents the process of rediscovering practical skills, using the whole animal, working toward closed-loop systems, and creating a family economy more connected to the land.

Thanks for listening.
What we cover:
- From restaurant work and wine to homesteading
- Food, family and the search for a more resilient local food supply
- A one-acre family homestead with pigs, chickens, ducks and rabbits
- Self-sufficiency versus communal sufficiency
- Balancing farm work, a full-time job and family life
- Whole-animal use, food preservation and consumer expectations
- Ducks, shared meals and community ties
Timestamps:
00:16 – From wine to homesteading
03:08 – Food and family during the pandemic
05:32 – First pigs and a one-acre homestead
06:44 – From self-sufficiency to communal sufficiency
22:57 – Burnout, family and scaling back
24:19 – Whole-animal use and preserving food
39:22 – Why food is expected to taste the same
49:02 – Consumers and the food system
53:46 – Cooking and sharing what you raise
59:12 – Adding ducks to the homestead
1:02:13 – Focus, limits and farm plans
1:12:18 – Faith, family and homesteading
Links & resources mentioned:
Kelsey Beck Fernandez on Instagram
Tenfold Tallow

I speak with Jade Koyle of Grand Teton Ancient Grains about ancient wheat, regenerative farming, the economics of growing food, and why so many people are trying to understand what has changed about modern bread.
Jade is a sixth-generation farmer who runs Grand Teton Ancient Grains in eastern Idaho, where his family grows, mills and sells ancient grains including einkorn, spelt, emmer and khorasan, alongside other grains grown through regenerative organic practices.

We get into what makes a grain “ancient,” how the modern seed and commodity system evolved, and why Jade has invested in cleaning, storing and preserving his own seed. We also talk about farm subsidies, insurance, land prices, leasing farmland and why finding a viable business model matters more than simply owning acreage. From there, Jade explains how Grand Teton approaches crop rotations, companion crops, soil fertility and profitability, along with the reality of weather, pests, diesel costs and losing crops.
Towards the end, we get into modern bread and wheat more directly: glyphosate, grain storage, milling, the removal of bran and germ, fortification, preservatives and why Jade prefers whole-grain, fresh-milled bread.
What we cover:
Ancient grains, einkorn, spelt, emmer and khorasan
Seed saving, subsidies and how modern grain farming became centralized
Land prices, leasing farmland and the economics of starting a farm
Regenerative grain farming, crop rotations, soil health and profitability
Modern bread, milling, additives, glyphosate and whole-grain flour
Timestamps:
Links:
Grand Teton Ancient Grains — Website
About the farm — About Grand Teton Ancient Grains
Shop grains and flour — Shop
YouTube — Grand Teton Ancient Grains YouTube
Farm story — How Grand Teton Ancient Grains Began
Jade's X - X handle
Resources mentioned:
Grand Teton Ancient Grains — farm, grains and shop ancientgrains.com
Grand Teton Ancient Grains — grain guide — einkorn, emmer, spelt, khorasan and other grains Ancient Grains Guide
USDA FSA Beginning Farmer & Rancher Loans — the type of farm ownership financing Jade mentions for newer farmers Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Loans
USDA FSA Farm Ownership Loans — land purchase, development and down-payment programs Farm Ownership Loans
USDA Whole-Farm Revenue Protection — the farm-wide revenue insurance Jade discusses as an alternative when individual ancient-grain crops are harder to insure Whole-Farm Revenue Protection

I chat with Chaz Self of Grassway Organics about his fight to keep selling raw milk in Wisconsin, the decline of small dairy farms, and what the future of farming might look like amid consolidation, regulation and new technology.
Chaz is a first-generation dairy farmer who runs Grassway Organics with his wife in East Troy, Wisconsin, managing roughly 640 acres and milking around 50 cows in a grass-based, seasonal dairy system.
A lot has changed since Chaz was last on the show. Grassway is now in an ongoing dispute with Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection over how the farm sells raw milk, with Chaz preparing for a legal fight that he believes could become extremely expensive. We get into how his ownership model works, why he believes the farm has operated legally, and why he has decided to keep pushing rather than step away. 
We also look at what has happened to Wisconsin dairy more broadly: fewer farms producing more milk, increasing consolidation, overproduction, subsidies and whether relatively simple changes like putting more young cattle back onto pasture could begin moving the system in another direction. We talk about Farm Bureau, social media and the growing political divide around food, before getting into the future of agricultural technology. 
Thanks for listening. 

What we cover:
Grassway Organics’ raw milk fight with Wisconsin
The decline and consolidation of Wisconsin dairy
Subsidies, grazing and possible paths forward
Farm Bureau, social media and polarization around food
AI, farm technology and what farming is actually for
Timestamps:
00:00 – Catching up with Chaz Self
02:01 – The raw milk fight in Wisconsin
10:07 – The cost of fighting regulation
19:48 – Lobbying for raw milk
26:28 – What happened to Wisconsin dairy?
29:23 – Could grazing help fix dairy?
34:31 – Does Farm Bureau represent farmers?
37:28 – Social media, politics and agriculture
44:52 – Rebuilding community around farms
53:41 – AI and technology on the farm
57:58 – Agricultural data and automation
1:01:29 – What is farming actually for?

Links & resources mentioned:
 
Website
Instagram
Facebook
Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) — rawmilkinstitute.org
Mark McAfee / RAWMI team — RAWMI team page
Vernon Hershberger raw milk case — Wisconsin Court of Appeals case
Green Lake Association / John Strauser — Green Lake Association team
Joel Salatin / Polyface Farm — Polyface Farm
Wisconsin DATCP — Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation — Wisconsin Farm Bureau
Wisconsin Farm Bureau policy page — Farm Bureau agricultural policy

I chat with Mark Ellison of Grandad Farms in Emmett, Idaho, about how a health-driven search for better food eventually led him to start raising his own chickens, pigs and laying hens.
Mark started with a borrowed patch of ground and a few hundred meat chickens. Today, Grandad Farms is raising animals on pasture, developing corn-and-soy-free feed, working toward organic certification and trying to build a farm to guide people to know exactly how their food was raised. 
We get into the economics behind his roughly $35 chickens and why comparing that directly with a $5 Costco rotisserie chicken misses a lot of what goes into each system. Mark explains his argument around subsidized corn and soy, labor costs and why he is willing to raise a slower-growing, more expensive bird.
We also talk about why he moved away from Cornish Cross chickens toward Freedom Rangers, what organic certification does and doesn’t tell you about how an animal was raised, the surprising reality of pasture-raised pigs, and what he has seen happen to his land after repeatedly moving poultry across it. 
Towards the end, the conversation gets into broader topics around raising children in a family business, Mark’s Christian understanding of stewardship, and why producing food for his neighbors is tied closely to how he thinks about faith and responsibility. 
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: Mark Ellison, Grandad Farms
00:17 – Why Mark started farming
04:18 – Processing chickens and animal stewardship
06:29 – Corn-free, soy-free chicken feed
10:35 – Why a pasture chicken costs $35
18:47 – Labor and immigration in agriculture
25:01 – Stewardship and regenerative farming
27:00 – How chickens improve pasture
29:08 – Cornish Cross vs. Freedom Rangers
32:26 – What organic certification actually means
36:15 – Pasture pigs and factory pork
44:42 – Growing Grandad Farms
45:35 – Raising a family on the farm
48:00 – Farming, faith and Christianity
53:08 – Why customers seek out their food
Links
Website
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