To sum up the lyrics, this girl is living a pretty crummy existence, and the only thing that makes it better is starting a garden. As I mentioned, our garden was too wet to till for a long time—one of the inconveniences of trying to garden in a valley...
Myles' conversational style is immediately engaging, and you'll likely find yourself charmed by his stories and the cast of The Meat Hook characters right off the bat. It has a massive photo of a well-marbled raw steak on the cover, and after perusing...
The inoculation process consists of sprinkling food wastes with either a dry or wet starter, called bokashi bran in its dry form, and then basically sitting back and letting the process take control.
Where Will They Hang Out? If your farm operation is growing, a farm apprentice might be able to help lighten the load, but ask yourself these questions first. A long season with a good apprentice can be great for you, the farm and the apprentice.
Learn your limits and be careful not to take on too much. Obviously you can't safeguard yourself against the chaotic nature of happenstance, but you also don't have to invite injury into your life.
The school, which opened this fall after nearly a year of construction, was born out of “both a dream and a need,” says Sara Tracy, Locust Trace's community liaison. This exposure includes access to facilities, such as the school's aquaculture lab.
Some make it—I have, somehow—but many others don't. If you want to be a farmer, you've got to put in the time to learn your craft—only then will you find true success. I get that—I had it.
The upkeep of any farm comes with its own set of eccentricities and challenges. All the while, we're getting our garden ready for transplants , setting up effective fencing and considering what to do about some of the invasive growth we have around the...
Upon further investigation, I found out wasn't a turkey vulture at all but a wild turkey. The trail leading back to home began to show spots of color: yellow and orange and white daffodils popping up in tufts along hillside slopes, pink tulips softly...
Deep litter allows droppings to accumulate in the litter material, composting it right inside the coop. For a deep-litter henhouse, ventilation is key; I've got open eaves (screened with hardware cloth) and a window in the back door to allow cross-ventilation,...
He is the former director of the Leopold Center and has held numerous appointments, including to the USDA National Organic Standards Board and the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, operated by the Johns Hopkins School of Public...
Despite that, there are more than 80,500 farms across the state producing 400-plus commodities and nearly half of the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the U.S., according to the California Department of Agriculture .
Weed Like Crazy Rachael Brugger The reality of a farm in transition, particularly at the end of spring/beginning of summer, is that not as much farm maintenance happens as it should.
I'm looking for ways to beat the heat–and slow the warming. Drive less (especially my gas-guzzling truck!) Who knows? I'm picturing the whole lot of us succumbing to heat stroke, vultures circling like in those old westerns.
Get your boots on the ground, in the dirt, and fast. Looking at the business side of things, there is so much to think about: land acquisition, capital investment, finding the markets , et cetera.
Some of the items that have “Dump Day” designation written all over them include old cans of paint, a mountain of plastic planters, scrap netting, and piles of odds-n-ends wood pieces that we've had a hard time even giving away .
Beavers try damming the creek, but floods always wash them out. In that instant, the otter rolled into the water and surfaced with one of my pet bass clutched to its chest. My life's dream became to one day have my own farm with a pond to raise vegetables,...
Truman) “It isn't compost when it's still steaming.” —Susan Younger “Never put eggs in your coat pocket! No matter what, you will crush them and have a gooey mess.” —Andrea Bergdoll “Use some type of sunscreen when out weeding! I didn't...
Eight of the 10 Missouri counties with the highest rate of late-stage breast cancer incidences are defined as rural by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. To others, it means taking time off work for the whole day without pay.” The challenge of...
A propane leak can be identified by a sulfurous odor that smells not unlike, you guessed it, a dead animal. Is there anything else I may be overlooking here that I should be checking into?
However, the weather must must must comply. I try to remember that as I sit in the almost but not yet. With more than half of the year thus far in rain, take your best guess at the state of our soil.
Heck, we might blow right past 9 billion. I rarely feel comfortable using an indefinite pronoun, but I can say confidently that no one knows for sure what 2050 will be like. Hopefully, though, we won't get to the fishless oceans or the 24 percent fewer...
But those failures haven't gotten me down, and I'm eager to do more with my starter. One thing it's also allowed me to do for the first time is make bread—something I'd argue requires a great deal of presence in order to accomplish it well.
Some people think the bees develop the attitude toward the keeper in the same way they imprint on their home hive, generation after generation. Before hives lived at my house, there were always a lot of honeybees in and around The Fortress Garden .
Phosphorus Supports Root Growth and Flower/Seed Production How much phosphorus your plants can eat up is affected by your soil pH. I wander around muttering to myself and scaring the pets and kids.
I hear this “only if we're going to lose a crop” response a lot, and it always bothers me. Politely, the vendor responded, “Well, we're not certified…,” cleverly allowing the sentence to trail off incomplete.
I live in a town where local ingredients aren't found on the menus of our restaurants, where politicians don't see the value of our local farmers' markets , and where even though we're surrounded by beautiful farmland, we still get most of our vegetables...
