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Finding Genius Podcast

Sarah James Shares the Challenges of Running an Off-Grid Sustainable Farm in Western Australia

Finding Genius Podcast

Richard Jacobs

Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.41K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sarah James co-founded Jacaranda Hill Farm, an award-winning, off-grid, self-sustaining farm one hour from Perth in Western Australia. Mrs. James juggles her career in technology and engineering consultancy while helping her Husband Robert run a permaculture farm that uses agriculture technology and renewable resources and services. The farm is open to campers, which provides an opportunity to share permaculture and Holistic farming concepts.

Click on play to learn:

  • How technology and nature work together on 108 acres.
  • Why partnerships with neighbors and local businesses are essential to the growth of Jacaranda Hill Farm.
  • What future upgrades are in the works for the farm.

Nestled on just over one hundred acres outside of Perth, Jacaranda Hill Farm is a work in progress. Sarah and her husband value the importance of using technology in agriculture and are firm believers in the benefits of regenerative farming. They are in the process of transforming their land into a completely sustainable farm without using pesticides through partnerships with neighbors, local businesses, and technology.

Running a self-sufficient farm requires the essential elements: electricity, water, and sustenance. The James family has an ambitious approach to becoming self-sufficient by irrigating their crops using the three dams on the farm and exchanging resources with neighbors and visitors. Noteworthy accomplishments include the recent installation of a lithium-ion battery system, establishing 20 beehives on the farm, and raising ducks and chickens. You can read more in Sarah's book.

Jacaranda Hill Farm is part of a growing community of like-minded people who provide opportunities to others to get out into the wide-open spaces and enjoy all nature has to offer. Currently, the farm is open to campers through Hipcamp, and Sarah James and Robert Cass hope to add two glamping tents in the future and more technology and livestock.

To learn more visit:

Facebook: Jacaranda Hill Farm

Twitter: @JacarandaHill

Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Forget frequently asked questions.

0:02.0

Common sense, common knowledge, or Google.

0:05.0

How about advice from a real genius?

0:07.0

95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified in license.

0:11.0

5%?

0:12.0

Go above and beyond.

0:13.0

They become very good at what they do.

0:15.0

But only 0.1% are real geniuses.

0:18.0

Richard Jacobs has made his life's mission to find them for you.

0:22.0

He hunts down and interviews geniuses in every field.

0:25.0

Sleep science, cancer, stem cells, ketogenic diets, and more.

0:29.0

Come the geniuses.

0:30.0

This is The Finding Genius Podcast.

0:33.0

The Richard Jacobs.

0:38.0

Before we begin, a note from our sponsor.

0:40.0

I'm Richard Jacobs, executive director of the Nonprofit Finding Genius Foundation, and host

0:45.0

of The Finding Genius Podcast.

0:46.0

In late 2016, I was re-rendered at 65 miles an hour by a truck on the highway, which sent

0:52.6

me off-road into a ditch.

0:54.8

The impact of the collision gave me a concussion and other injuries.

0:58.0

At the hospital, a CT scan showed that I had thyroid nodules, which turned out to be cancer.

1:03.0

It was then, when I had a biopsy, my neck, that I realized, even if I was a million there,

...

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