Wilding (aka wildcrafting) is the new word for what our hunter/gatherer ancestors did naturally – eating what nature provides in the wild. The online urban dictionary defines wilding as doing something crazy in public. But our rural dictionary begs to differ. The new wilding is about harvesting food you won’t find in the supermarket. At…
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Stinging Nettle; What’s the Point?
Grab even just one stinging nettle leaf and you’ll get not one point but thousands of tiny glass-like needle points filled with histamine and other irritating chemicals. Even a slight encounter with a leaf will embed your skin with needles and will give you a quick lesson in herbaceous plant defenses. Certainly, stinging nettle is…
(Very) Soon to Come: Veggies, Watercress, and Ramps
We have a bumper crop of veggie seedlings poking their way into the world. And out in the woods, ramps and watercress add their wildness to our domesticated goodies. Playing starring roles in the springtime adventure are our greenhouses within our greenhouse. Based on a design we came up with a few years back, they…
Spring is Here – Hemp is Soon to Follow
Today we saw our first robin. Geese honking overhead. And a mating pair nesting on the banks of farm pond. Green shoots are pushing up everywhere . All that plus the mud-puddles and the mushy ground underfoot mark the official start of new growing season. Suddenly, sitting in front of the fireplace has lost its…
Beauty and the Beast
The glistening snow is beautiful and unlike snow in cities, it stays pretty clean until it disappears. But here’s a messy situation. The rear tire of our trusty bucket tractor leaked out some of its filling — beet juice, molasses, and windshield wiper fluid. Don’t ask why tractor dealers use that combination of fluids. But…