Gretchen Kruesi

crops growing

Grow Vegetables Like You Mean It

By Gretchen Kruesi / March 4, 2021 / Comments Off on Grow Vegetables Like You Mean It

In the United States, 40 percent of the food we produce is wasted. Ben Hartman is trying to put a dent in that dismal statistic. Inspired by Toyota’s “lean” approach to manufacturing, a production strategy designed to minimize waste and maximize efficiency while increasing profits. In his practical how-to manual, Hartman shows how he has…

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Drying Organic calendula

Want to Become an Herbalist? Drawbacks of the Herbal Renaissance

By Gretchen Kruesi / February 25, 2021 / Comments Off on Want to Become an Herbalist? Drawbacks of the Herbal Renaissance

From tulsi to turmeric, echinacea to elderberry, medicinal herbs are big business—but do they deliver on their healing promise—to those who consume them, those who provide them, and the natural world? If you’re interested in become an herbalist, check out this insight to get started. The following is an excerpt from Following the Herbal Harvest…

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Magic Mushrooms: A History

By Gretchen Kruesi / February 24, 2021 / Comments Off on Magic Mushrooms: A History

When the word “mushroom” comes to mind, “magic” isn’t far behind. But what started this almost immediate association between mushrooms and illicit drugs? While there are some truly magic mushrooms out there in the world, not all of them cause LSD trips when ingested, yet that is the common connection people make. Doug Bierend explores…

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Say Vegan Cheese! The Basics of Vegan Cheesemaking

By Gretchen Kruesi / February 19, 2021 / Comments Off on Say Vegan Cheese! The Basics of Vegan Cheesemaking

Whether you eat dairy products or not, the vegan cheese recipes will surely knock your socks off. Some people even say they’re better than regular cheese. With a little fermentation knowledge (and practice), you’ll be making delicious vegan cheese in no time! To get started, all you need is a culture starter recipe (with this…

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The Barn: Cathedrals to Nature

By Gretchen Kruesi / February 18, 2021 / Comments Off on The Barn: Cathedrals to Nature

When renowned craftsman Robert Somerville moved to Hertfordshire, in southern England, he discovered an unexpected landscape rich with wildlife and elm trees. Nestled within London’s commuter belt, this wooded farmland inspired Somerville, a lifelong woodworker, to revive the ancient tradition of hand-raising barns. This is a tale of forgotten trees, a local landscape, and an…

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From the Ground Up: Using Soil Amendments

By Gretchen Kruesi / February 17, 2021 / Comments Off on From the Ground Up: Using Soil Amendments

It may be too early to plant your garden, but it’s not too early to PLAN your garden! Beyond what and how you will plant, it’s important to have a plan for enriching your soil. For us, soil amendments are the perfect solution. Do you add compost to your garden? Congratulations! You’re using soil amendments.…

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plantain blender pancakes with raspberries on top

Video: The Best Blender Plantain Pancakes

By Gretchen Kruesi / February 16, 2021 / Comments Off on Video: The Best Blender Plantain Pancakes

Want to try a twist on a classic breakfast favorite? Try using plantains in your pancakes! With this recipe, you’ll make healthy and nutritious pancakes that will have you and your taste buds dancing. With no grains, dairy, or added sugar, these pancakes are wholesome enough to feed to your family on a busy weeknight,…

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Listen! Towpath: The Podcast

By Gretchen Kruesi / February 8, 2021 / Comments Off on Listen! Towpath: The Podcast

Did you know that one of our books has a podcast? Authors Lori De Mori and Laura Jackson talk about their London-famous restaurant Towpath in their podcast of the same name. They share some of their favorite recipes too, giving aspiring cooks a chance to listen as they explain some of their trade secrets. The…

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mushroom

Fungi: All Around and Among Us

By Gretchen Kruesi / January 28, 2021 / Comments Off on Fungi: All Around and Among Us

Fungi are fundamental to life. As decomposers, they are critical to the formation and sustenance of soils and ecosystems. As endlessly innovative chemists, they devise and secrete enzymes that can break down a vast variety of materials, mitigate bacterial and viral infections, and interact—for better or worse—with the bodies and brains of animals that consume…

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meatloaf

The Best Meatloaf You’ll Ever Taste… Ever!

By Gretchen Kruesi / January 25, 2021 / Comments Off on The Best Meatloaf You’ll Ever Taste… Ever!

It’s a staple in almost every kitchen. It has hundreds – nay, thousands – of variations. It’s delicious, nutritious, and packed full of protein. It’s meatloaf!! This meatloaf recipe from London restaurant Towpath is sure to delight everyone in your household. And who knows, it may even end up taking the place of your tried-and-true family recipe. The…

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school

What If Schools Nurtured Imagination?

By Gretchen Kruesi / January 21, 2021 / Comments Off on What If Schools Nurtured Imagination?

Imagination is central to empathy, to creating better lives, to envisioning and then enacting a positive future. Yet imagination is also demonstrably in decline at precisely the moment when we need it most. In his book, author Rob Hopkins asks why imagination is in decline, and what we must do to revive and reclaim it.…

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Organic Calendula Field

Medicine as a Process, Not a Product

By Gretchen Kruesi / January 19, 2021 / Comments Off on Medicine as a Process, Not a Product

What do you picture when you think of medicine? Pharmacy shelves filled with plastic bottles promising cures to your every ailment? A doctor’s office? Whatever you think of, you probably don’t picture fields of medicinal herbs or bookshelves covered in jars of amber-colored liquid or trained hands drying leaves and cutting roots. What if, at…

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tools

The Evolution of Tools: Rock, Paper, Scissors

By Gretchen Kruesi / January 4, 2021 / Comments Off on The Evolution of Tools: Rock, Paper, Scissors

We’ve all played Rock, Paper, Scissors; whether it’s to decide who’s goes first, who’s doing the dishes, or simply a way to pass the time– we all know the rules. While it’s a child’s game on the surface level, Nick Kary gleans a deeper meaning to this game of tools. The following excerpt is from Material…

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people running

The Power of Positive Self-Talk

By Gretchen Kruesi / January 1, 2021 / Comments Off on The Power of Positive Self-Talk

Are you starting off the new year with an athletic resolution? Maybe you want to get stronger or run faster and further, or maybe you just want to incorporate more movement into your daily life. If this sounds like you, it’s important to remember that your mindset is equally as important as your physical prowess.…

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Mugs of lambswool wassail.

Brew Recipe: Lambswool Wassail

By Gretchen Kruesi / December 23, 2020 / Comments Off on Brew Recipe: Lambswool Wassail

(Mugs of Lambswool Wassail. Photo by Jereme Zimmerman) Wassail! Whassat? We’ll tell you! From brewing genius Jereme Zimmerman, we have another out-of-the-barrel brew for you to try at home. Especially on those colder nights. This recipe is an excerpt from Brew Beer Like a Yeti by Jereme Zimmerman and has been adapted for the web. Winter…

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Miso under Electron Microscope

The Complexity of Membranes and the Beauty of the Unseen

By Gretchen Kruesi / December 21, 2020 / Comments Off on The Complexity of Membranes and the Beauty of the Unseen

It can be comforting to define things using strict categories; black and white, tasty or gross, good or evil. Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Fermentation as Metaphor, knows that this isn’t really the case in real life. Taking another lesson from the act and art of fermentation, Katz dives into the complexity of membranes and…

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Sage and Chili Butter on Fried Eggs (and everything else!)

By Gretchen Kruesi / December 17, 2020 / Comments Off on Sage and Chili Butter on Fried Eggs (and everything else!)

Spice up your fried eggs with this delicious caramelized sage and chili butter! Not only is this butter great on eggs, but also on pasta, roasted veggies, and an array of other great meals. Much like the sage chili butter in its kitchen, Towpath has a way of enhancing everything it touches. From planting gardens…

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Renewable Energy

The Energy Consumption Crisis

By Gretchen Kruesi / December 14, 2020 / Comments Off on The Energy Consumption Crisis

At the rate humanity is currently burning fossil fuels, we will create an uninhabitable earth long before we run out. So if the pressure of a finite resource doesn’t push us towards a renewable energy revolution, what will? And what will this revolution look like? This is an excerpt from A Small Farm Future by Chris…

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Bank Job

Big Bang 2: The Debtonator

By Gretchen Kruesi / November 20, 2020 / Comments Off on Big Bang 2: The Debtonator

(Photo: The ‘debt in transit’ van, filled with paper notes representing £1.2 million of toxic debt, mid-explosion: Big Bang 2. Credit: Graeme Truby.) Art hacks life when two filmmakers launch a project to cancel more than £1m of high-interest debt from their local community. Bank Job is a white-knuckle ride into the dark heart of…

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How Loving Labor Leads to a Brighter Future: Sourcing a Solution

By Gretchen Kruesi / November 17, 2020 / Comments Off on How Loving Labor Leads to a Brighter Future: Sourcing a Solution

Drawing on a vast range of sources from across a multitude of disciplines, A Small Farm Future analyses the complex forces that make societal change inevitable; explains how low-carbon, locally self-reliant agrarian communities and loving labor can empower us to successfully confront these changes head on; and explores the pathways for delivering this vision politically. Challenging…

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What You Didn’t Learn About “Leaves of Grass” in School

By Gretchen Kruesi / November 13, 2020 / Comments Off on What You Didn’t Learn About “Leaves of Grass” in School

In her book Outrages, Naomi Wolf shows how legal persecutions of writers, and of men who loved men affected Symonds and his contemporaries, including Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, and the painter Simeon Solomon. All the while, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was illicitly crossing the Atlantic and finding its way…

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Pills Medication

Treating Addiction: From Opium Poppy to Morphine to Naltrexone

By Gretchen Kruesi / November 5, 2020 / Comments Off on Treating Addiction: From Opium Poppy to Morphine to Naltrexone

LDN, originally prescribed in higher doses as a treatment for opioid addiction, works by blocking opioid receptors, thereby stimulating the production of endorphins, mitigating the inflammatory process, and stabilizing the immune response. Prescribed off-label and administered in small daily doses, this generic drug has proven useful in treating many different ailments. This excerpt was taken…

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Microbiome

Understanding your Microbiome: The Garbage in Your Gut

By Gretchen Kruesi / November 3, 2020 / Comments Off on Understanding your Microbiome: The Garbage in Your Gut

When treating multiple sclerosis, Dr. Michaël Friedman does not promise a miracle cure but instead provides the personal prescriptions he follows that are delaying the disease process and radically improving his quality of life, including dietary measures and supplements to support a healthy microbiome and hormone therapies that can reduce neuroinflammation and possibly promote neurorestoration.…

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Looking for Answers

By Gretchen Kruesi / October 29, 2020 / Comments Off on Looking for Answers

Since his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis a decade ago, Dr. Friedman has been searching for a cure for the disease. After years of research, he realized that he had some of the answers right in his naturopathic medicine toolbox, and others, surprisingly, lay in the realm of conventional medicine. Before all of this, he first…

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What Does a Sustainable Future Look Like?

By Gretchen Kruesi / October 22, 2020 / Comments Off on What Does a Sustainable Future Look Like?

In a time of looming uncertainties, what would a truly resilient society look like? Farmer and social scientist Chris Smaje argues that organizing society around small-scale farming offers the soundest, most sustainable, and most reasonable response to climate change and other crises of civilization—and will yield humanity’s best chance at survival. The following excerpt is…

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