This appears in the December/January edition of Organic Gardening magazine. For great gardening, cooking, and living tips, pick the issue up today! I learned about flowers from my mother. Her goal was to get the flowers planted before the Indy 500 was over, in late May, and up until her last few years she was […]
Gardening Thoughts
A Harvest of Healing
Why do we do it—garden—when it makes us sweaty, sore, and often cranky? By the end of the harvest season, our faces are red from cooking tomatoes and putting up food either into the pantry or the freezer. Our hands are calloused and nails dirty. And yet…and yet…when it’s all said and done and autumn […]
Raising Guinea Hens (Including the Great Guinea Surprise!)
We started keeping guinea hens about three years ago because we live in the woods, and I wanted something to eat the ticks. Guineas eat more ticks than any other bird, including chickens—probably because they come from Africa, where there are tons of ticks. (We have a few friends from Africa who always threaten to […]
How Gardening Teaches Patience
The other day I was weeding my asparagus patch. Asparagus takes three years to get going enough for you to start eating it. The first year you plant asparagus, it takes its good old time getting going, and you have to fight the weeds and mulch like crazy. The second year, the asparagus gets a […]
Back to the Nursery…It’s Planting Time!
It’s only early April, but global warming has given me a serious case of spring fever. It started last week when I knew I was going to give a speech to the Pennsylvania Land Conservation Association, about 10 minutes away from my favorite nursery, Waterloo Gardens, in Exton, PA. The speech was Friday night, so […]
The End of Farmer’s Market Season…Waaaaaaah!
November is here, and the last farmer’s market of the season in Emmaus is on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This week things are already winding down. The vendors are thinning out, and the crowds are filled with hard-core regulars rather than the summertime occasional shoppers. In the few short years that this market has been […]
Ruthless Gardening: A Must!
Every summer around this time the same thing happens. I head out to the garden after a busy work week (or three), and take a look at my vegetable garden and go, “Oh *%$!” Once again, I have let sentimental, kind-hearted generosity screw up my patch. It starts simply enough, with the idea that I’ll […]
Scratch
Raised on America’s first organic farm, Scratch author Maria Rodale learned how to make everyday favorites from, yes, scratch — the way you remember them; the way they turn out best.
Order NowOrganic Manifesto
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment.
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