How Farms Differ From Factories
For farming to exist sustainably, even from an economic perspective, it must be re-imagined.
Tropical Fruits of the Lower Midwest
The maypop shows, however, that localism need not mean confining oneself to an austere and moralistic diet. If I cannot grow bananas and mangoes in the Ozarks, I can nonetheless harvest maypops.
Blessed With Triple Ds: A Dispatch from Dumb-Ass Acres
This is a description of small-town life and the help you can expect to receive from people not conditioned to give strangers the finger.
The Dirt on Resilience
I have come down with a severe case of confirmation bias.
I count myself as one of those who believe that contact with the earth...
A Christmas Tree You Don’t Know Beans About
The locust tree is a rare symbol of Christmas and Easter as one.
The Beauty of the Unexpected
This year an unexpected autumn snow blanketed our farm. In the days that followed, single-digit temperatures secured its place in the landscape, and another,...
Orchards
The presence of a mature orchard is a sign of the longevity of the farm and the temperance and patience of its farmers.
Local Man, 54, Kills First Turkey
"I dipped the now limp turkey into a cauldron of boiling water, plucked its feathers and gutted it. On a chilly afternoon, it felt perfectly natural and pleasurable to warm one’s stiff fingers inside a steaming body cavity..."
Dying Properly—like a Dumb Ass (A Dispatch)
Little do I know that in a few days I will have died properly: by explosion.