Francine is a farmer, mom of four, and co-founder of the Mulberry Tree App - a farm-to-fork platform that lets consumers buy ingredients directly from local farms, with no listing fees, no middleman, and no data selling. She and her husband built it from scratch, self-funded, while navigating mold illness, alpha-gal syndrome in their family, and a bunch of scammers! They launched the app in January 2025.

We talk through how the app works, why convenience is the real barrier between consumers and local farms, and what it actually takes to build something like this without outside funding or corporate backing. Enjoy :)

What we talk about:

- How the Mulberry Tree App works - farm-to-fork recipes, local farmer discovery, 24/7 farmers market
- Why they don't charge farmers listing or marketing fees
- Facebook censorship of farm products during COVID and why it pushed them to build their own platform
- The grassroots marketing approach: vendor events, merchandise, one-on-one outreach
- Alpha-gal syndrome - what it is, how misinformation is hurting people, and why the app has 300+ alpha-gal-safe recipes
- Mold illness, raising four kids on a farm, and the tribulations behind building the business
- The case for food sovereignty and why 77 farms closing per day is a national problem

Timestamps:

0:00 — Intro
1:10 — What is the Mulberry Tree App?
6:45 — How it handles the convenience problem for consumers
12:00 — The origin story - a dream, a husband, and no coding experience
18:30 — Facebook censorship and why decentralization matters
26:00 — Grassroots marketing: vendor events, shirts, 400 downloads in two weeks
32:00 — Consumer patterns and what makes the app experience different
39:00 — The town square, courses, live animal listings, and cottage industry sellers
47:00 — Growing up on farms, moving to Arkansas, raising kids outside the system
54:00 — Mold illness, alpha-gal, and the year their son was on steroids
1:04:00 — Why most businesses fail and why they didn't
1:09:00 — Final thoughts: know your farmer, know your food

How to Support Francine:

Download the app via their website
Connect with her via X

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