Ashley Armstrong is a first-generation regenerative farmer and co-founder of Strong Sistas, a health platform born out of her own autoimmune diagnosis. She built Angel Acres Farm in Southwest Michigan from the ground up, producing corn- and soy-free eggs, and went on to found Nourish Food Club - a cooperative network of small regenerative farms supplying clean, transparently raised food directly to families.

What We Cover

• How Ashley went from graduate school to building a regenerative farm from scratch
• Why conventional chicken and pork now have a fatty acid profile closer to seed oils than real meat
• The 100-year shift in dietary fats and what it's doing to human metabolism
• How Nourish Food Club is reviving the farm cooperative model to support small farmers
• The bureaucratic bullying small farms face daily - and why the system is designed against them

Timestamps

00:00 – Ashley's health crisis and path to farming

06:30 – Building Angel Acres from scratch

13:00 – Lessons from 12 years of competitive golf

18:45 – How Nourish Food Club works

26:00 – Why cheap and quality food can't coexist

33:30 – The 100-year shift away from saturated fat

42:00 – How corn and soy changed pork and chicken

49:30 – Phytonutrients in pasture-raised meat

56:00 – Why grocery labels are meaningless

01:03:00 – The problem with indoor farming

01:09:30 – Bureaucratic bullying and the jerky incident

01:17:00 – Why small farm costs are structurally higher

01:28:00 – Where consumers can start

Links

Website
Instagram
YouTube

Regenaissance YouTube Channel

About The Podcast: The Regenaissance Podcast explores the people, farms, and ideas rebuilding our food system from the ground up.

Baird Maple Syrup Farm in Vermont has been producing maple syrup for over a century. I visit with farm managers and sugar makers, Jacob and Jenna Baird. Jenna is the fifth generation of her family to work this land.

What We Cover

1. How maple syrup is made (and why most people have it wrong).
2. The modern sugar bush (100+ miles of tubing, vacuum systems, and leak-chasing).
3. Reading labels (how to spot fake or blended "maple" products at the grocery store).
4. The full production season why it's a 6-week sprint, what starts it, and what ends it).
5. Farm succession and conservation (how the Baird family is transitioning a 107-year-old farm to the next generation).

Timestamps

00:00 — Welcome to Baird Farm: 107 years of maple and dairy history

02:00 — Why it's so hard to keep a farm across generations

08:00 — Sap vs. syrup: what you're actually pulling from the tree

09:00 — How to read a maple syrup label (and spot the fakes)

11:00 — How vacuum tubing works and why it doubles production

17:00 — How tapping actually works: drilling, spouts, and tree health

21:00 — The production season: a 6-week window from February to April

34:00 — Farm succession: leasing to own and navigating family transitions

43:00 — Reverse osmosis and the sugar house: how sap becomes syrup

47:00 — Sugar maple vs. red maple: how to tell them apart in the bush

Connect with Jason & Baird Farm:

Website
Instagram

Follow our Youtube Channel

Farmer Stories pulls the best conversations from The Regenaissance archive - real voices from American farmers on the systems, economics, and communities shaping food and land in the US.

Triple Oaks Farm is a family-run regenerative farm in Virginia, raising pastured pigs and other livestock with a focus on food sovereignty, stewardship, and community.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Biblical dominion and why he left USDA butchers
06:00 – PSE meat explained: what stress does to pork quality
09:00 – Electro stunning abuse and burn wounds on the meat
16:00 – USDA butcher threatens to ice him out as a customer
19:00 – The final straw: filthy shop, wrong pig returned, going full PMA

Connect With Bryson:

Website
Instagram

Follow the tour on YouTube