Sustain Your Land: Subsistence Strategies for the Long Haul
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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New Age Farm Partnerships: Finding and Keeping One
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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Composting with Animals: Common Applications
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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Young Farmers: Back to the Land and Down to Business
If you haven’t been working on a farm since childhood or weren’t lucky enough to inherit one from your family, it can be difficult to build one from the ground up. Farming takes more planning and thinking than meets the eye, but it’s not impossible. We’ve got aspiring young farmers covered with how to proceed…
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Why Farm Infrastructure is Important: A Farm is More Than Land
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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Farmers Aren’t Created Equal: The “American Farmer” Fallacy
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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Black Rural Land: Black Land Matters
As a young black girl, Leah Penniman struggled to understand who she was and where she fit in with the world. There was one thing she did know— when she was connected to the land and earth she felt at home. But what did that mean? Was the land trying to tell her something about…
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Winter in the Forest Beer: Creating Unique Drinks from Nature’s Ingredients
The art of brewing can explore far beyond the usual ingredients into a vast and luminous galaxy of wild and cultivated fruits, berries, grains, and herbs, which once provided a variety of fermented drinks as broad as the world. Now fermentation fans and home brewers can rediscover these “primitive” drinks and their unique flavors in, the…
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The Evolution of Earth, Humans, and Our Natural Resources
We have long been taught that evolution is a process that occurs gradually over millions of years, that change happens slowly without much attention. We’ve come to learn that in reality, evolution happens in fits and starts — very slowly for long periods, then in sudden spurts of rapid change. It may be triggered by…
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Composting: Breaking Down the Core Principles
Composting is about more than just flinging your food scraps into a heap in your backyard. It’s about figuring out a way to give your unwanted food a new purpose while also helping the environment. And the best part is, the fundamental building blocks of composting systems are the same regardless of scale. The following…
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Hydroponic Versus Soil Growing: Which Should You Choose
You probably learned when you were young that plants need soil to get the essential nutrients needed to grow. However, there is another way you can give your plants what they need to flourish. A hydroponic system uses water-based fertilizer as opposed to soil fertilizer. This practice is relatively new to farmers, though it is…
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Hunger Moon-Inspired Recipe: Roasted Root Vegetables
If you love to cook with fresh produce but happen to live in a climate where it’s nearly impossible to access during the winter months, we feel ya! Here in the northeast, chilling winds and heaps of snow make it hard to leave the house, let alone grow fresh produce, but that doesn’t mean we…
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How to Use Climate Maps to Navigate the Winter Harvest
Continuing to grow your crops and harvest them well into the winter months seems like an impossible task. How can they grow when weather conditions are far from warm sunny days? It’s all about adapting to what the season gives you. With the proper techniques and studying the patterns of your area’s climate, growing and…
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Four Books for Growing Food in Winter
Don’t let cold weather stop you from enjoying and growing food! For many, the coming of winter simply means cultivation moves indoors or under cover. Small farmers, homesteaders, home gardeners, and commercial growers can extend the growing season by following just a few of the techniques outlined in the books below. And, there’s no need…
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In Remembrance: Matthew Stein
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Matthew Stein, author, environmentalist, MIT-educated engineer, green builder, and beloved member of the Chelsea Green family. Matthew died on December 19, 2018, while out in nature pursuing one of his many passions, rock climbing. In 2000 Matthew published his first book with Chelsea Green,…
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Healthy Culture, Society and Mother Earth: Agri-Culture
In Call of the Reed Warbler, Charles Massy’s stunning observations of interaction between nature, culture, and society is nothing short of eye opening. “By arrogantly having placed ourselves outside the functional operating parameters of Earth’s systems, we now see nature and the Earth as separate from us and so just available for use – while all the…
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What is Massive Small?
It’s more than an oxymoron. Massive Small is a framework for urban development that can make cities more sustainable and resilient. But how does it work and does it make sense for the future? The following excerpt is from Making Massive Small Change by Kelvin Campbell. It has been adapted for the web. The Massive Small…
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An Interview With Eliot Coleman: The Original Organic Pioneer
With over fifty years’ experience in agriculture and a penchant for inventing new tools and techniques, Eliot Coleman has solidly established himself as an organic farming pioneer. He has authored several books on his practices, including The Four-Season Harvest, The Winter Harvest Handbook, and his magnum opus, The New Organic Grower, which will celebrate its…
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Sustainable Food From Local Greenhouses
The Netherlands—a country two-thirds the size of West Virginia— is ranked second in agricultural export volume behind the United States. Their secret weapon? Greenhouses and hoophouses. These protected structures allow you to control the environment, resulting in maximum resource efficiency, higher yields, and ultimately higher profits. Drawing inspiration from Dutch agricultural practices, Andrew Mefferd has…
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The wonderful world of lemons
We all need to give lemons some more credit because they are truly one of the most versatile fruits. Think of how many foods and drinks you can incorporate lemons into. If you live somewhere warm and sunny year round, you better get outside and start looking for some lemon trees (we recommend Meyer lemons!).…
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A Call for Regenerative Agriculture: From the Group Up
Farmland covers 38 percent of the Earth’s land area and is a major contributor to climate change. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Soil and plants have the capacity to store huge amounts of carbon in the ground, thus how we grow food can be one of the key solutions to our climate…
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Recipe: Salmon Cakes with Lemon Pesto
This salmon cake recipe makes for a simple and flavorful dinner. Delicious, golden-brown patties made with salmon are a tasty alternative to crab cakes. Need a side dish? Check out our recipes for Summer Vegetable Tian and Ginger Carrots. The following excerpt is from The Heal Your Gut Cookbook by Hilary Boynton and Mary G. Brackett. It has been adapted for the…
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Everything You Need for a Grab-n-Go Survival Kit: Prepping 101
We know a lot of people are wondering what’s coming next in the US, as well as the world, given terrorism, politics, and global warming, among other threats. Given the uncertainty, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared at all times. This 72-hour survival kit will help with any initial emergencies and includes medicine, water cleaning…
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The Life of Patience Gray: Gathering Honey from a Weed
Iconoclastic food writer, forager, and force of nature Patience Gray always found the good in the simple. In Fasting and Feasting, Gray’s biographer Adam Federman discovers that her life was never simple. “Struck by Patience Gray’s mind, her vision and her prose, Federman went in search of her past. . . . He’s done the…
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Lessons in Resilience: How to Plan a Successful Farm Business
Humans specialize in resilience. We have the capability to create wondrous things out of seemingly nothing and continuously reinvent ourselves. However, when the world is against us, it may seem impossible to accomplish our goals. Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, wanted nothing more than to be able to provide nourishing food for her…
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