Gretchen Kruesi
Groups of piglets running around a farm or homestead seems like a dream come true. When it comes to making sure each one is healthy and growing properly, it can get chaotic trying to figure out which pig is which. Using identification strategies to keep them organized is not only in your best interest but…
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Unhealthy diets, poor exercise habits, and environmental factors have led to a rise in metabolic conditions in the younger generations–a trend that is only increasing. Some of the food we eat contains high amounts of sugars with low nutrition, and when consumed over a long period of time, can be very harmful to your health,…
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We don’t often think about how, long ago, the towering and strong trees we see around us in communities and the rows of Christmas trees on farms began as tiny seeds. Much less often, do we think about the people who dedicate their lives to planting and caring for these tress. The first important step…
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Living a healthy lifestyle can be challenging, especially when it comes to buying and sourcing food. You want to keep a budget but don’t want to sacrifice good quality or you’re not sure where to get the best products? The first step is to take the time and see what you have access to– farmer’s…
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In the past decade, there’s been more time and research dedicated to understanding athlete’s health and working to implement safety measures to ensure their well being on and off the field. Accomplishing any athletic goal is more work than just working out and eating right. No longer can we look at sports and nutrition apart.…
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The list of issues impacting Earth’s rapid decline continues to grow at a highly alarming rate. Environmental concerns are entering the world of politics and business. Our quality of life will not be the same five years or ten years in the future; we are nearing the point of having to think about simply surviving…
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Water is always changing and impacting the environment around it; storms form, droughts occur, and floods damage. It seems that the level of water on Earth is bouncing between extremes. These shifts are tied to the state of our climate. In the past, climate change seemed like a far-off concept; now it’s becoming more present…
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As the rate of chronic illness skyrockets, more and more parents are faced with the sobering reality of restrictive diets. And because everyone is busy, many families come to rely on store-bought “healthy” products to make life simpler, but many of these are loaded with sugar and hidden toxins. When faced with her own family…
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The American chestnut may well be the greatest and most useful forest tree to ever grow on this Earth. Its decline is considered by many ecologists to be one of the greatest ecological disasters to strike the US since European contact. But how did it happen? And are we on track to bring back this…
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Far before the release of her book Farming While Black, Leah Penniman had been helping countless Black and Brown farmers reclaim their right to the land. For years, Leah has been educating, inspiring, and working alongside so many individuals to make sure they truly understand the customs and traditions of their African farming ancestors and help…
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We’ve always known that if you sit around all day eating candy, you will get fat. Conversely, cutting down on sugar, which is a carbohydrate, will contribute to weight loss and other benefits of a low-carbohydrate diet. However, the extent to which sugar, that is, sucrose, or its component fructose, contributes to obesity and other…
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Most of us are not mindful of the importance of gut health, or just how far we in the modern world have been distanced from it. Many of us were not breastfed; we received countless simultaneous vaccinations as children and were overprescribed antibiotics and medications from the start. Any one of these phenomena could contribute…
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If you’ve been following a ketogenic diet for a while now you probably have a few hacks of your own when it comes to cooking up delicious low-carb breakfast options. If you’re new to the program, you’re probably wondering how many different ways you can cook an egg because that’s the only thing allowed. (You’re…
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More than 80 percent of the US population now resides in urban areas. This number is projected to rise in the next few decades. Finding ways to maximize use of existing open space is imperative, and increasing access to food through sustainable management of edible landscaping is one important approach among many that are underway.…
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Fermentation is the transformation of food by various bacteria, fungi, and the enzymes they produce. People harness this transformative power in order to produce alcohol, to preserve food, and to make it more digestible, less toxic, and/or more delicious. It’s played an instrumental role in human cultural evolution and has become a cultural phenomenon of…
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We’ve all seen multiple iterations of food pyramids highlighting key food groups; read hundreds of articles about the next big thing to avoid if we want to follow a healthy diet; tried to practice better eating habits and yet, we’re still feeling lost. All of the information is conflicting. It changes all the time. And…
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If you’re a loyal Chelsea Green customer, and haven’t been living in a dam for the last year, the likelihood that you’ve heard about Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb is high. But if you’re still not sure what all the hype is about, let us enlighten you.…
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As the average age of America’s farmers continues to rise, we face serious questions about what farming will look like in the near future, and who will be growing our food. Many younger people are interested in going into agriculture, especially organic farming, but cannot find affordable land, or lack the conceptual framework and practical…
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Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter has won the 2019 PEN America E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing! A first book by journalist Ben Goldfarb, Eager has received several accolades since its release last year, including being named an Outside Magazine’s “Best Book of 2018” and a “Notable Work of Nonfiction”…
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In order to rescue ourselves from climate catastrophe, we need to radically alter how humans live on Earth. We have to go from spending carbon to banking it. A secret unlocked by the ancients of the Amazon for its ability to transform impoverished tropical soils into terra preta—fertile black earths—points the way. The indigenous custom of…
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Peasants, indigenous agriculturalists, and old-time American farming families farmed first and foremost to feed their own families and those in need in their communities—only secondarily, if at all, for a market. They may have practiced shifting agriculture or were settled permanently in villages; they may have been members of free, “primitive” or “tribal” societies, or…
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Anything involving farming almost always requires the help of another person, whether you’re feeding the animals or trying to decide if you want to expand the barn. Partnerships not only help with your personal life but the success of your business in the long run as well. Having someone to share the work and ease the…
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When you think of a typical farm, you probably think of going out to feed the animals with a bucket of scraps. This has been one of the most common ways to recycle food for many years and helps reduce your waste footprint. However, composting with the help of animals is another technique used on…
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The basis for a good farm isn’t just about finding a piece of land with great soil. No, to truly succeed on the farm you need a well-planned and implemented infrastructure coupled with hard work, dedication, and will-power. As farming practices continue to change, it’s important for the next generation to remember that insight and…
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For those who aren’t in the know, it may seem like all farmers are created equal, but that’s simply not the case. In fact, there is such a wide variety of farmers that it’s nearly impossible to put a label on them. But that doesn’t stop organizations from trying. The following is an excerpt from…
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