A 16 year old girl walked me through the butchering of four roosters this morning. I watched, she taught, I practiced, she helped. I’m sure it says something about me that I am nearly twice her age and have probably eaten twice as many chicken dinners in my lifetime. That afternoon there was a snake…
One of the things that has come up over and over again in our reading up on sustainable food systems is the cultivation of perennials. While we happily plant seeds for an annual garden, we are also trying to establish long-term food sources in the form of perennial trees, shrubs, and plants. There are the…
It felt borderline devastating last year when we lost fruit tree after fruit tree and vegetable after vegetable. Chickens, cows, grasshoppers, drought, a new baby… clearly it was not meant to be. The heat of summer was fully upon us in June when Stewart walked in from his morning chores. He had that pragmatic, stiff-lipped,…
Seeds are miraculous little things. They stay dormant, so long as you treat them well. They give life, so long as you give them what they need. They are tools used to grow food and then produce seed again… to grow more food. I thought I knew that. And then I read The Seed Underground…
