Streak of Lean

A new year and new season of mystery, intrigue, and tales of high adventure on the farm. After a long layoff, we review the arc of our lives over 2019 and make some minor resolutions for the future. It turns out when you go with the flow, things get easier. Follow your bliss, don’t fret the small things, be kind to your spine. Donn professes his love of retro synthwave. Brandon explores the promise and intimidation of the writing life. Plus, we touch on those dire occasions when a sow might need a cold beer to cure her savagery and the cool savor of a Winston cigarette. The show starts with a passel of peepers and ends with a live recording at the mystical navel of the SOUEGA flatlands — the Waverly Minit Mart. Selah.

Brandon delivers pastured pork in style, his current chariot of swine a curious effect of Amazon’s long tentacles within the economy. Donn traffics in acronyms and updates everyone on the lamentable state of grant programs and malfunction at the USDA. The episode winds down with a fairly substantive conversation about farm conferences and the specious language of good food. Plus, quick Savannah trivia, dang Bluffton traffic, and a brief sunset interlude. No added animal sounds this go-round, and we’re still learning how to think and speak good. But the audio is crisp and clean, and you can practically smell the barbecue smoke wafting over the Cumberland Sound.

Early reviews of this episode are in, and critics are raving: “So lo-fi it was almost incomprehensible, but I loved every minute of it.” The De Soto Gazette-Herald calls it, “A surprisingly pleasant hour considering so little preparation went into the final product.” Coop walks across town while trying out new audio equipment that makes him sound underwater. Brandon is following his normal route, speeding away from cellular signals and into the lost coastal backwoods. Together they weave experimental sonic textures about ANTIFA, the pitiful things that farmers kill accidentally, littering and Southerners’ inability to embrace environmentalism, and new developments at Farm’D. We made this one short; so when it stops, it just sort of stops.  

Episode sponsored by Lang’s Marina Restaurant in St. Marys (@langsrestaurant).  

We here! We didn't give up the podcast game, just got hella busy over the summer. The kind of busy where you're wore-ass out but can't remember what you accomplished. Brandon starts us back with discussing his pesky neighbors, Theresa and Daryl, and their complaints about his dogs. Theresa and Daryl, UGH. Then we get down to some solid farm talk, including: feral swine damage in South Georgia, USDA grants and local food systems investment, the inevitable trash and worn-out equipment that accumulate on every farm ("shame piles"), and sundry other topics along the way. Authentic outdoor sounds, too. 

What is this episode about? What is truth? Can we ever really know another person? We don't talk about none of that. Instead, we cover laughable Yankee tourist traps (we see you, Peach World), vague memories of Midway and the lost Sunbury Road, the cruel turn of weather in Georgia, the possible effects from African Swine Fever’s rampage through China and Southeast Asia, human doodoo, and the salubrious possibilities of human doodoo transfer. Plus, there’s the standard drivel, whatnot, clatter, and noise. But name another podcast with so many loud and abrupt animal sounds. 

Part the Second: We follow our plucky hero through the next stage of his journey to small farm glory. Good fortune strikes as a corporate distributor comes calling for that local yardbird. Brandon moves the flock and fam from their suburban homestead to the wide-open pastures of Southeast Georgia (SOUEGA — God's country, per the Bird Mane). Will this path lead to untold riches as foretold in the prophecy? How can one man compete with the scale and efficiencies of Big Chicken? Find out in this week's episode! Plus, more Florida talk and tantalizing details about a "sweet" outhouse.

Please smash that five-star rating, and we appreciate y’all for listening. Website is on the way (real real real soonish). 

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