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PODCAST

Char Chit Chat

Char Chit Chat is created by Dylan Graves and explores char in New Zealand and beyond. The podcast aims to interview a range of people involved in biochar, activated charcoal, carbon anodes, and so on. The main subject will tend to be biochar as that is most accessible and scales from individuals making char in their woodstove over the winter to large industrial pyrolysis units outputting several tonnes per day. Biochar is also a great soil conditioner and improver and so is relevant to gardeners

education

All Episodes

00:48:41

CCC S1E17 with Trevor Richards

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/11/02

Trevor is one of the founding members of Biochar Network New Zealand (BNNZ) and the secretary since its inception in 2019. He joined me for a chat and talked about his journey with biochar and many insights into its prevalence in SouthEast Asia and New Zealand. Another flame cap method using Warm Heart kilns, that I hadn't heard of before, was described in detail and the Warm Heart organisation is doing superb work in promoting biochar in Thailand and in some countries in Africa. Their resource

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00:19:04

CCC S1E16 - Biochar benefits Composting - audio...

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/10/16

In this episode Dylan reads the article now on the BNNZ website that outlines the benefits of adding biochar into any composting system. Dylan was paid by BNNZ to create the article and a couple of versions of it to help promote biochar being used in composting. It outlines 10+ ways that biochar benefits composting. Aeration, nutrient adsorption, biology habitat promotion, pH improvement, carbon sequestration, less smells, quicker completion, and so on. Every benefit is backed up with links to

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00:46:17

CCC S1E15 with Huhana Smith (Waikōkopu Grove & Orchard)

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/09/24

Excited to release this chat with Huhana so you too can enjoy her passion for biochar and growing good food. Huhana is an artist, university professor, farmer, kaitiaki, biochar enthusiast, and more...We explore a recent stream rehabilitation project made into an art project that has probably exposed thousands of people to biochar with an exhibition in Wellington. We go into some detail on making biochar paint and how it was applied to the hemp and wool roll with a design inspired by pukeko

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00:56:35

CCC S1E14 with Cameron Smith

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/09/11

Episode 14 featured Cameron who lives on a lifestyle block near Pukekohe in the Auckland region of New Zealand. I liked Cameron's answer to what is biochar: "I like the coral reef analogy - I think it's something people understand. They have a strong visual image of what a coral reef is... and full of life, a structure, a habitat..."Cameron is super passionate about biochar because of the results he gets after adding it to his growing areas.We talk about the practicalities of

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00:51:03

CCC S1E13 with John McDonald-Wharry

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/08/30

John is a researcher and academic so it was great to hear his perspective and explanations of biochar knowledge that he has gained from doing a PhD tackling 3 aspects of biochar; investigating how biochar changes on a molecular level at different carbonisation temperatures, quality testing protocol development, and composite materials innovation.Ket takeaways for me: 1. Higher temperature pyrolysis (600-800 degrees C) gives higher surface area biochar which is better for soil.2. Biology influences

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00:36:36

CCC S1E12 with Simon Day

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/07/29

Episode 12 was an inspiring chat with Simon from Waiuku (40km south west of Auckland city) who uses biochar to enhance his pastures as well as feeds it to cattle to improve their health. The success is evident in the increased pasture regrowth times and animals not needing drenching, having high fertility rates, and growing faster. Yes, it is work to make biochar, but the benefits are obvious to Simon and this recording advocates for more people to try it out. Livestock are also excellent

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00:48:14

CCC S1E11 with Dale Redwood (Rivendale Wood)

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/07/21

Episode 11 of Char Chit Chat features a chat with Dale from the Bay of Plenty area of New Zealand. Dale is an ecologist with a strong interest in tree systems and biochar. We delve into his hands-on, low budget methods of making biochar from tree branches on the family farm. Dale has started his own business called Rivendale Wood where he sells products from the treed landscape of the farm.We also talk about Hazelnut tree production that his Dad has been doing since the 1980s, Dale's favourite

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00:53:51

CCC S1E10 with John Wraight

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/06/27

Episode 10 (into the double digits!) is with John from Paekākāriki on the Kāpiti Coast. We chat about his discovery and immediate fixation with biochar around 2020 and then the formation of a local char group as an offshoot of the community gardens. CharPae applied for grants from local council to get the gear to go and demonstrate and educate about biochar in the community. Something all councils should be doing in my opinion. John talks about their Char-B-Que as an intergral part of the

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00:41:29

CCC S1E9 with Helen Dew (Living Economies)

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/05/23

Dylan chats with Helen Dew (now 87) who featured in the documentary called Being the Change at 85. Helen speaks with conviction about how important healthy soil is, and how biochar, bokashi, compost, and mulch in combination all help soil health. We talk about her upcoming autobiography and her plan for a natural burial as well as an alternative to the current, but unnecessary economic growth paradigm -> Savings pools as an example of interest free debt (Living Economies). I hope you will be

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00:57:17

CCC S1E8 with Klaus Lotz (PermaDynamics)

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/05/08

Klaus and his family run PermaDynamics Farm and Education up in Northland and we chat about his long history with biochar and agroforestry. Permaculture comes up too. I really recommend having a look through their website after the podcast and also seeing what is on offer on their youtube channel. They offer a paid educational service helping people to learn about Syntropics as well as a planning tool called SAPP.An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biocharThe national

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00:53:57

CCC S1E7 with Cornelia Holten

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/04/26

Cornelia (and Kai) run KoruKai Herb Farm in Banks Peninsular, near Christchurch. We had an excellent chat about how they make and use biochar for their animals, compost toilet, worm product, and composting in general. Also, about their homesteading and small home business selling herb related products as well as live compost worms!Resources mentioned:Phyto Farm: bringing plant medicine back to its rightful place in garden plots and promoting the kitchen as a pharmacy (Little River)Crafty Gatherer:

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00:47:18

S1E6 CCC with Betsy Kettle

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/04/15

Wow - what a great project Betsy has going on - City to Farm is all about collecting food resources in the city and using it to build soil on a banana farm! The project is on a mission to see if Terra Preta can be created and how it long it will take as well as educating primary school students about biochar and composting food scraps.The episode features the excellent video by Nicholas Monk called Soil Revival - The Terra Preta Research Project.An introduction and overview of Biochar:

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00:55:09

S1E5 CCC with Ben Elms

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/03/20

Ben is known as Dr Compost and works in education, landscape design, permaculture, and with biochar. He is also treasurer for Biochar Network New Zealand.We chat about who Ben is, what he does, and heaps about his biochar passion. Links to topics mentioned:Wanaka WastebustersDr CompostNZ Tree CropsIthaka InstituteFrank StrieRing of Fire kiln by Kelpie Wilson

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00:36:19

S1E4 with Joany Grima (The Good Carbon Farm)

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/03/08

Joany is one of the founders of The Good Carbon Farm and we chat about how she got into biochar, the work her charity is involved in, and what she looks forward to for the future.The Good Carbon Farm on LinkedIn and Instagram. Projects mentioned in the chat:Oke school gardens (https://oke.org.nz/)Restoring Takarunga Hauraki (https://www.rth.org.nz/)Slash for Cash, Tolaga Bay (https://www.slashforcash.co.nz/)Enviroschools (https://enviroschools.org.nz/)Upper Hutt community gardens

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00:31:53

S1E3 CCC with Dennis Enright

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/02/11

Dennis Enright is Managing Director of New Zealand Biochar Ltd and promotes organic and sustainable growing practices, and the role that biochar can play in such systems.He has over 40 years of experience in agriculture and horticulture that ranges from researcher to commercial producer. In addition, he has sat on the committees of various local and national organic organisations in NZ as well as Biochar Network New Zealand and ANZBIG.Dennis mentions Paul Taylor and the Good Carbon Farm in our

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01:05:02

S1E2 CCC with Phil Stevens of Slow Farm

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/02/02

This episode with Phil covers where he is from, how he got into char, his favourite method of making it, what he uses char for on his lifestyle block, benefits of char, interesting new research about decontamination of pfas using char and iron, what he thinks is needed for biochar to go mainstream, and his role with Biochar Network New Zealand.https://slowfarm.co.nz/ Biochar Network New Zealand Support/donate: https://checkya.com/char_chit_chat

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00:12:57

S1E1 Intro to host (Dylan)

Char Chit Chat ·

2025/02/02

A short introduction to the host of Char Chit Chat - Passionate Permie Dylan Our website: https://passionatepermies.wordpress.com/ Listen to more from Dylan: 31 July 2024 Reskillience: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/retire-by-35-with-dylan-graves/id1723090226?i=1000663884860 9 May 2024 Quorum Sense: https://www.quorumsense.org.nz/content/podcast/38-transforming-waste-into-biochar-with-dylan-graves Support/donate: https://checkya.com/char_chit_chat

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