Category: Reviews

The Maine-based, award-winning children’s book author Kimberly Ridley shares her sense of wonder for the natural world with adults in her latest release, “Wild Design: Nature’s Architects.” By pairing brief essays on the forms of nature — including stalactites, coral reefs, pitcher plants and beaver lodges, to name a few — with reprints of antique

Have you noticed fewer bugs on your windshields? With 40% of insect species at risk of extinction, and an impending “insectageddon,” we need to take steps right now to “rebug” our planet, says Vicki Hird. And she has a book full of ideas about how we can do that. Like many of us, Hird uses

Year-round Maine residents might be skeptical upon encountering the title of Cathy Rees’s newly released  book, “Winterland: Create a Beautiful Garden for Every Season.” Is this aimed for gardeners in California? Texas? Florida? Rest assured; it is not. Rees is the cofounder of Native Gardens of Blue Hill in Maine and draws from more than

Here in Maine, and much of New England, we are so lucky to have access to herbal companies that grow the plants for their herbal products — right on this land. But, maybe you have found yourself searching for bulk herbs you couldn’t find locally, purchasing them online and wondering where they come from. Or

In nearly 10 years of farming, I’ve read stacks of business books, listened to podcasts and attended nearly every marketing workshop at farming conferences I could get to. I’ve learned from leaders inside and outside the agriculture sector. And I still feel like there’s always more to learn. “Redefining Rich: Achieving True Wealth with Small

Doug Bierend’s “In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms” was completed during the pandemic and takes the reader on a comprehensive, largely present-day tour of fungal enterprises, applications and subcultures, with well-placed backstories. I loved reading about the eventual discovery of halophilic fungi in Utah’s Great Salt Lake

I have to admit that I was a little taken back when I first glanced at “Build Your Own Farm Tools.” For some time now I have followed, with great interest, articles posted by Jeff Volk online, and yet here was something different. What I first failed to see was that this is a book

Acadia Tucker is a market farmer turned container grower. After helping to manage 2 acres of regeneratively grown produce in Point Roberts, Washington, Tucker returned to her home state of Maine. A plastic-potted basil accompanied her for part of her cross-country journey and, with it, her love of growing plants in pots was ignited. The

Sherri Brooks Vinton is an expert on all methods of food preservation. The author of “Put ‘em Up!” and Put ‘em Up! Fruit,” she has toured and taught innumerable classes on the topics. This book is inspired by all the questions she has answered from her audiences. I do not gravitate to single topic how-to

One of my favorite things to do is hop in my car and travel around Maine, not to the popular beaches or parks, or busy restaurants, but to homesteads and farms in remote areas. I pull in the driveway or wind my way up a dirt road until it ends, walk around a garden plot