I am the World’s Worst Beekeeper, for sure. The only part of “keeper” that I am not so bad about is that I actually do proudly in fact, keep bees (Did, till 2009, Ed.). And that should count for something when the average age of most beekeepers is in the upper 50s and I am […]
Jasmine with Cici Ten or eleven years ago (now 25 years ago, Ed.), shortly after we moved onto our own acre in the country, I began to hear the phrase “chicken tractor.” Of course, if you do not know what this is already, the image it probably conjures up is one of a shiny, red, […]
This is an ode to all women who live in the country, and chronicle the exciting and the mundane, and entices the rest of us to raise a lamb, plant a bed of asparagus, aspire to grow an entire meal’s worth of food, or at least eat locally for a year. These women have been […]
This is the part of the relatively sweet non-innocuous collection of posts where I turn off the honey and step onto the soapbox. I fear it may sound and feel like vinegar, but it is a reality here in Farm Country, and it is called drought. Very few places that have agriculture as part of […]
This year (Back in 2007, Ed.) Michael and the girls asked me what I wanted for Mother’s Day/ Since we’d fenced the front garden in, I could no longer see the big pond (which, if you read my post on Drought, has been pretty low anyhow), so I wanted a smaller, more aesthetically pleasing pond. […]
One gorgeous day last Fall, my youngest daughter Jasmine and I took a trip an hour south to Farmville for an open house at a large, diversified farm. There were pastured chickens, a petting zoo, people demonstrating spinning and weaving, musicians, dancers, food, and reps from different farms and farming interest groups, sharing their knowledge […]
The first natural medicine I recall growing and using is probably the Aloe Vera plant. While my mom grew all manner of succulents to surround our patio creek side in Norfolk, Virginia, once we moved North the only plant related to them that I recall seeing is the aloe, and it didn’t live outside in Michigan…it lived on […]
Cover of a Va Beach Master Gardener newsletter, art by Ajah Courts, c.1997. Somewhere in the Bible (Deuteronomy 24:19-21, Leviticus 19) and other ancient histories, there are references to the act of gleaning. For definition sake, gleaning is basically taking the leftovers in a field or garden after its initial harvest or processing. So, someone […]
Everywhere across the world when dusk begins to cast shadows, the unprepared parents and caretakers all begin to ask: What’s for supper?” Personally, I detest the word ‘supper’; it conjures a less thought-out meal, and for some reason brings to mind smacking lips and overly-hungry families, hunched over the groaning board. But there it is, […]
A bit about sheet mulching…I am about as addicted to something as you can be to something that you don’t do all the time. I am able to wait patiently for the materials, but as soon as they end up at our house, I am already thinking about the good soil they will one day turn […]
