Andie Marsh was searching for an internship when she remembered a neighboring booth at the farmers market where she used to sell bread. Texas Worm Ranch made compost with worms. She picked up the phone, asked if they could use an intern, and found a place to begin working with the soil life that had caught her attention in college.
That summer gave her experience making compost and helping establish community gardens. Growing food became something she wanted to keep doing. Opportunities in small farming brought her to Austin, where she continued developing the interests that would become her work with land stewards and soil biology.
Andie tells Tab how a microscope helps her look at what is happening below the surface. She works with people who want to understand and improve the biological life in their soil, bringing attention to an ecosystem that is easy to walk past without noticing. Tab follows that idea into questions about growing food, caring for a yard, and the relationship between everyday choices and the land around us.
Her interest in explaining science goes back even further. As a child watching the Discovery Channel, she loved hearing someone make a complicated subject understandable. Later, studying bioenvironmental sciences at Texas A&M, a class in soil microbiology gave her a subject she wanted to keep exploring. Through Soil Is Sexy, she has been finding ways to share that curiosity with people who may never have looked through a microscope.
Their conversation also turns toward composting, gardening, and the opportunities children have to get their hands dirty. Andie describes community events where people build a compost pile together and talk through the process while doing the work. Tab brings in his own children's interest in farms and the small creatures moving through compost.
Andie wants people to become curious about something they cannot easily see. A handful of soil can lead to questions about the plants growing in it, the food coming out of it, and the people caring for it. She remembers a college class that opened those questions for her. Now she gets to help someone else take a closer look.
