Looking for something to do? We have some of our favorite 'how to' projects — building a cold frame, growing mushrooms in your home, making your fridge carbon-free, or cooking kale and apples — ready for reading and viewing on our website.
We hope these projects will inspire you as they have thousands of others. And, as an added bonus we're passing along a special discount to our online community - 25% off your next purchase at our online bookstore. At Checkout, just enter the code DIY25 ...
Today I’d like to share a map with you (click on it and it will magically fill your screen), and I’m hugely grateful to Geri Smyth for giving me this. It is a map of the town of Guildford (or Guldeford as it was then) in 1793. Regular readers will [...]
This blog piece was written for my buddy, Dave Smalley, who acted like his brain might explode when I tried to explain to him how a counter-cultural Luddite might benefit from an e-reader. He asked me to write this up so that he could read it, instead of trying to [...]
The Occupy movement has focused public attention on the vast and growing disparity of wealth and power in the US, and increasingly in other affluent nations. You’ve all seen the statistics — essentially all of the increase in real wealth and income over the last 40 years has accrued to [...]
Shouldn't the CEOs of health insurance companies like Blue Shield have to sign under penalty of perjury that their rate hikes are justified? If the first online signature gathering for a ballot petition is successful, Californians will vote on that proposition in November, and are almost sure to approve.
One year [...]
When young Hamlet vented his anger against Ophelia, he shouted, "Get thee to a nunnery!" That was what had happened to young women when they were spurned by lovers -- their only recourse was to be condemned to a cloistered life.
Not so for Sister Elizabeth Candon. For 74 years, she [...]
Imagine a man who lived some time ago.* From an early age, he was drawn to religion. He went to the formal service every week, sometimes even taking notes. He believed everything his church taught him, never felt a need to challenge the teachings, and tried to live as he [...]
There is a growing realization in organized religion that something is awry in our industrial food delivery system. Churches are actively urging their members to become more involved directly in local and family gardening and farming. This is great news for those of us who have been fighting this battle [...]
Okay guys, here is a flow chart with some of the plethora of steps you might encounter when building a licensed cheesemaking facility. Some the steps are highlighted in pink- these you may only encounter as options or mandatory steps in California. The green steps should all be decisions made [...]
Physicians who prescribe opioid drugs to patients with neuropathy (nerve pain) ought to consider recommending cannabis as an alternative therapy, according to a peer-reviewed paper published online this week in the Harm Reduction Journal.
“There is sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy for the use of (cannabis/cannabinoids) in the treatment of [...]
Using the words “Science” and “Salvation” in the same breath needs some preparation so people in both camps don’t hyperventilate. “Science” means “knowledge.” It can’t guarantee that the knowledge is good, or that it will still be considered true in a year. “Salvation” can mean “to save,” or to make [...]
Here is the January Transition podcast, lovingly spliced together in order to offer a more in depth look at three of the stories from last month’s round-up. You’ll hear about how Transition Chesham’s local produce market was recently voted the greenest market in Britain, how Transition Town Whitehead are planning [...]
Recommendations:
1. Spread the word that the “terminator technology” is not dead – we must join the international campaign to stop it.
2. Sign-on to 2012 as International Year of the Family Farming with the UN and FAO
3. Set up a fund so that a delegation of US farmers can attend the [...]
President Obama is exceptionally lucky when it comes to the weaknesses of the Republican field and its stunning penchant for mutually assured destruction. Who would have expected, for instance, that Newt Gingrich's billionaire-backed super-PAC, aiming to destroy front-runner Mitt Romney, would produce a documentary advertisement on private equity slightly to [...]
We know that a baby’s birth and early life story shape behavioral styles that are often carried through adulthood. We express it through aphorisms: “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree”; “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Others link childhood trauma or abuse with adult behavior. [...]
Governor Peter Shumlin's efforts to challenge the safety of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant does not mark the first time that a Vermont governor went toe to toe with the plant. In 1985, when I was Governor, I learned that the plant had falsified inspection reports for years and [...]
CSA in the People’s Republic of China
Little as I know about Taiwan, I know even less about China and it is so vast and, like the US, so full of contradictions. I offer here what I observed during an intensive 4-day visit.
Little Donkey Farm is located in Ho Sha [...]
As we’ve learned the hard way, the core of our modern capitalist economy is finance, and finance is run entirely by a few large Wall Street firms. But here’s the ultimate irony: while modern capitalism depends on Wall Street, Wall Street no longer depends on capitalist principles. In finance a [...]
Dairy Farmer Spoils Cows with Waterbeds...Apparently, the cows are happier because their joints feel better, and make better quality milk. Who knew? Follow link below for a local news article and video clip.
Link: http://www.fox8.com/news/petplace/wjw-dairy-farmer-spoils-cows-with-waterbeds-txt,0,2493141.story [...]
‘In Transition 2.0? is nearly ready to be unveiled to the world! We are very excited about this inspiring reweaving of the Transition story, and want to tell you more about it here, and about how it will be rolled out over the coming months. To get us started, because [...]
A few weeks ago I was bumming around on Amazon.com, reading a few of the reviews that readers can post after reading (hopefully thoroughly) someone’s book. The particular author in whose reviews I was snooping around is a favorite of mine. His book on life with goats is particularly poetic [...]
Few people would expect a radically modern attitude toward religion or the gods from the oldest story in the world. The epic of Gilgamesh is a story over a thousand years older than the Iliad or the Bible. It was only discovered – written in Cuneiform on hundreds of baked [...]
Part I: Taiwan
Today’s citizens of China, Korea and Japan whose agriculture of a century ago F.H. King described so vividly in Farmers of Forty Centuries have almost forgotten the traditions that inspired so many of us in organic farming in the west. Fortunately, the traces have not totally disappeared. [...]
After the conversations we had here recently about old tractors, I began to hear about a problem that really does affect their longevity. Ethanol in gasoline is not the wonder fuel it has been made out to be. It is causing problems when used in off-road vehicles— lawn motors, chain [...]
In the run up to the Republican Convention, we've heard everything and nothing. We've heard Newt, Mitt and Ron go on about issues that have little if any impact on jobs and national security, but not a single word about the real reason we have massive and permanent unemployment. We've [...]
MIT engineer warns of nuclear Armageddon, urges preventative measures
There are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more either under construction or in the planning stages. Imagine what havoc it would wreak on our civilization, and the planet's ecosystems, if we were to suddenly experience not just one [...]
Although most countries abandoned the practice of forced fluoridation years ago, the debate is still a lively one here in America, where cities and states are still wondering whether to add the chemical to their water supplies. A bill being presented in New Jersey would, if passed, mandate that all cities start using fluoride. The argument for fluoridation is ...
What the heck is a slow wine? Is it a vino you portion out drip-by-drip? Is it anything like a sloe gin?
Well, no. It is none of those things. But it is a new set of guidelines that might help you drink a little bit better, a little more easily.
This past week, some friends across the Atlantic – you know, the ones who know a thing or two about wine and food (think Italian, not French) introduced for ...
Even though these are tough times for tens of millions of Americans, there’s reason for hope. That’s the message of my new book from Chelsea Green, Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity, which showcases dozens of ways individuals, businesses and communities are reinvesting their money locally and creating new jobs. To give you a little taste of what’s in the book, let me share my Top 10 Reasons ...
The Peer 2 Peer University is a grassroots open education project that organizes learning outside of institutional walls and gives learners recognition for their achievements. P2PU creates a model for lifelong learning alongside traditional formal higher education. Leveraging the internet and educational materials openly available online, P2PU enables high-quality low-cost education opportunities.
"Half a year ago we teamed up with Anya Kamenetz to bring a social wrapper to her ...
How2Heroes is a how-to online video destination that celebrates people’s passion for food – the flavors, the presentation, the secrets to success, the cultural inspirations, and of course the “heroes” who share their knowledge and experience.
Didi's passion for wildly innovative and radically fresh flavors really shines in these videos, as it does in the book ...
Submitted by jmccharen on February 3, 2012 06:46 AM
"Michael Shuman answers a lot of questions I've always wondered about, and in the process paints a practical vision of exactly where we need to be headed in this country. Consider this book an excellent investment!"—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth and The End of Nature
Submitted by jmccharen on February 2, 2012 07:00 AM
Author Mat Stein joins FTMWeekly Radio to discuss his latest book, When Disaster Strikes: A Comprehensive Guide for Emergency Planning and Crisis Survival. Mat shares disaster survival skills and his insights into why emergency planning should be a vital component of your family's overall gameplan. The show specifically discusses the disaster potential of a major solar storm or an EMP (electromagnetic pulse).
Submitted by jmccharen on February 1, 2012 09:00 AM
In their February/March 2012 issue, Herb Companion magazine is printing an excerpt from Peg Schafer's new book, The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm. It's available to read on their website now.
Here's what some growers and herbalists have to say about this exciting new book:
"Peg Schafer is the best artisanal grower I know. For this book, she has distilled the knowledge of the small group who, over the past two decades, has pioneered North American production of Chinese medicinal herbs, and tested it through direct experience. This ...
