The number of farmers markets has grown 150% since 2000 when the USDA first declared National Farmers Market Week. And, according to a recent report in the Chicago Tribune, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recorded over 1,000 new farmers’ markets opening across the country in 2011. California is currently the leader establishing the [...]
It’s hot as the tropics and dry as the dessert here in the northeast. Maybe I’m being a bit extreme. But we’ve had extreme weather this summer. Record temperatures hit 103 degrees last week with thick, soupy air dragging you to a crawl when faced with the outdoors. From the NYT: “The sizzling weather [...]
I like the idea of celebrating Earth Day each year to promote global awareness, if only just for one day. And even if you tread lightly on the planet already, the hope is that on Earth Day we’ll be inspired and reminded to make little changes that continue to benefit the earth. Like thinking about [...]
Sometimes by the end of March I get stuck. Stuck on what to cook. What to eat. What to wear. It’s just that we are between almost spring and spring: spring is officially here, but I can’t officially feel it. Know what I mean? So to get unstuck, I begin planning. Planning meals for inspiration. [...]
It’s hard to conceive life in Japan right now. The devastation so dire, I turn away from the images. At the same time I about-face though, I want to help. In some small way if I can. Then I discovered Handmade For Japan. Ayumi Horie, a Japanese-American ceramicist, came up with the idea to raise [...]
Part three in a series of Seed Packet Art. Ken Greene and Doug Muller created Hudson Valley Seed Library so they could offer a network of organic and certified naturally-grown seeds to locals in New York State and surrounding regions. In fact, these seed savers aim to revive New York’s once-flourishing seed trade while preserving [...]
I love seed packet art. But, let me make one thing clear: I only buy high-quality seeds from small, family owned companies. I like them GMO-free, prefer organic, and while I love heirloom varieties, I do like trying colorful hybrids too—especially with my annual flower selections. What I sow is more important than the image on [...]
Seed packet art is centuries-old. If you’re a collector, you’re likely to have hand lithographed botanical art from companies like Burt’s seeds or Card Seed Company, two of the main seed companies in the 1900s that printed images from the garden on their packs. As early as the 1800s, though, D. Landreth Seed Company created [...]
I needed to bring a little spring indoors. Even though it is still cold and bulbs are forcing their way up through hard soil, I needed some spring. Forsythia branches came to mind. That’s because I visited a friend who had a single sprig in an old bottle. Immediately, I wanted one too. No, there [...]
I live in Southeastern, Pa., where it is now bone-cold, snow-dusted and in some places, ice-encrusted. But last September in a nearby field owned by Longwood Gardens, famed duPont garden estate and horticultural showplace, a beam of 400,000 sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) roused our landscape with a sea of yellow. The huge flowers began their morning [...]
