Will Bonsall holds a ‘Gigante’ storage kohlrabi. Photo by Yaicha Cowell-Sarofeen Summer kohlrabi varieties are much smaller than the storage types and should be eaten within a few days of harvest. English photo By Will Bonsall The so-called “cabbage family” – actually the species Brassica oleracea – has given us several botanical monstrosities we enjoy
Please Send Us Your Garden Tips! Roberta Bailey is compiling the most interesting and useful garden tips that MOF&G readers send to her for publication in our fall issue. Do you have a unique way to grow pole beans? How do you thwart weeds organically? Please share your tips by emailing Roberta at [email protected]. Thanks!
At MOFGA’s Spring Growth Conference, Eric Sideman (left) moderated a panel of young growers who are addressing climate change in their operations. From the left: Bill Errickson, Mike Bahner and Tasha Brodeur. English photo Tasha Brodeur uses cover crops extensively at Tasha’s Veggies. Here, on the right, she grew a plot of buckwheat before installing
My source of water is city water, which can be expensive if watering a large garden. I have a sump pit in my basement, so I set up a rain barrel and attached a sump hose from the pit outlet pipe to the rain barrel through an opening I cut in the rain barrel cover.
You can start hundreds of native plants in a small area to create your own nursery. Heather McCargo photo By Heather McCargo The traditional nursery industry has been following an ecologically destructive trajectory similar to the path of conventional agriculture. Most plants are mass produced using an arsenal of synthetic chemicals; many varieties are
Pigs forage in the woods at the Deer Isle Hostel. Photo by Anneli Carter-Sundqvist A Tamworth pig grazes a wooded area at certified-organic Frith Farm in Scarborough, Maine. Photo courtesy of Frith Farm. By Anneli Carter-Sundqvist The end of our homesteading season has for five consecutive years been marked by the butchering of our pigs.
An amaranth inflorescence. Amaranth produces nutritious seeds, and plants can be part of sustainable cropping systems. Photos by Will Bonsall. By Will Bonsall Amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) is a New World crop, a staple of the ancient Aztecs, who popped it and mixed it with honey to make a treat somewhere between marzipan and Cracker Jacks.
Pole beans growing up sunflower stalks. English photo. By Will Bonsall I’m amazed that so many gardeners plant a row of sunflowers along the edge of their garden to feed the birds. What amazes me is that they plant only for the birds (and perhaps for a windbreak on the north side) and that they
Toki Oshima illustration By Grace Oedel A celebration of abundance took place at the annual Seed Swap and Scion Exchange held at MOFGA in March. People arrived with bundles of scionwood neatly labeled or jars of seeds rattling cheerfully. Toddlers helped thresh beans by jumping on dry shells; musicians fiddled as dancers swung around baskets
Oil being expressed from black oil sunflower seeds in a Piteba press. Photos by Anita Budhraja. After the oil has been pressed and the sediment and pigment allowed to settle for hours, the product is decanted, giving finished, ready-to-use oil. By Will Bonsall Those of us who seek to be more self-reliant are often content
Media Inquiries:
Contact Jennifer Wilhelm [email protected]
