The Original Transplants Podcast Episode 68: Rookie Numbers finds Satoyama Homestead stewards Will and Sarah surprised to discover that Feedspot has named us #8 in the 20 best horticulture podcasts in the world. We introduce plans for a NCAA-style fruit bracket to determine once and for all what is the best fruit produced on the homestead. We visit the apiary, where Will is treating for varroa mite and recounting his adventures speaking about bees at a library with a resident observation hive. Will's beekeeping thriller, Here, the Bees Sting, is available everywhere books are bought (...and even on some pirating sites!). Almost one-year-old Lucy enjoys tea-time visits to the chicken coop, where matriarch seven-year-old black australorp brooder hen Mayapple still lays the occasional egg. Sarah is embarking on a pasture management project to establish white clover and replace encroaching weeds. In the edible landscape, tomatoes, peppers, okra are performing well, while summer and winter squash and melon are struggling along. Sarah discovered a new favorite way to prepare okra, with a tomato-yogurt sauce as the north Indian dish dahi bhindi. The stewards are busy reclaiming the yard from nature after Sarah's pregnancy-induced hiatus, and are trying to 'mulch all the things' before this winter's snowpack. For homestead fun, the stewards enjoyed watching a family of wrens raise their fledglings in the bark cavity of a natural white oak fence post along their garden, and are looking forward to filling the chest freezer with produce, chiles rellenos, sustainably farm-raised meat, and venison. For homestead chores, Will has been on varmint control, while Sarah has installed downspout diverter kits on both rain barrels to stave off foundation damage. In agriculture news, Will shares a detective story about a persimmon orchard submitted by listener Wyoming (now Georgia) Jo, and Sarah goes nuts for nut trees with the Northern Nut Growers Association and Chestnut Growers in America when Lancaster Farming reports on their conference in Reading, PA.

Episode Notes

• Feedspot - 20 Best Horticulture Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/horticulture_podcasts/ 
• PennState Extension - Weed Management in Pastures https://extension.psu.edu/weed-management-in-pastures
• Pooja - Dahi Bhindi/Tangy Indian Okra in Yogurt http://poojascookery.com/dahi-bhindi-tangy-indian-okra/
• elizapples - "In the early 1900s, there was an Illinois attorney, Floyd Sonneman, who had it bad for persimmons."
• Dan Sullivan for Lancaster Farming - Nut Tree Growers Converge in Reading, PA for Annual Conference https://www.lancasterfarming.com/news/main_edition/nut-tree-growers-converge-in-reading-pennsylvania-for-annual-conference/article_77d486f4-1827-11ed-bc0f-c35fe142fde9.html