Today I weeded my very overgrown flower garden, and learned (the hard way) that stinging nettles are the most common weed there. But despite the fire in my hands that lasted for several minutes, I was so glad at the discovery! Here’s why…

An exciting development in agriculture and rural economies in recent years is the increasing desire and enthusiasm of consumers to buy food direct from farmers and producers, and with that, new businesses and new farmers entering agriculture. S.510 will effectively kill this positive trend.

This week in my CSA box there was, once again, a lot of greens: Swiss Chard, spinach, lettuce, parsley, broccoli leaves and… Wait! Something new: Mustard greens! In fact, by this time of year, there is a such a bounty of leafy vegetables like mustard, that using them all up before they wilt and turn to mush can be a real challenge.

‘Tis the season for greens, greens, roots, and more greens. This week in our CSA box, we got a lovely bunch of beets, and I picked up several more pounds of them at the farm market too. There is something about the grey of winter that has me in the mood for pickled beets

…It occurred to me that in a deep recession with looming environmental problems that seriously threaten our continued comfort on this planet, “voting with our dollars” is simply not enough. Not that anyone ever said it was. In order to truly transform our food system from a water and gas-guzzling industrial monoculture that benefits only agribusiness executives into a more sustainable and humane polyculture, it is necessary to leverage the full range and force of private and public activity.