Straw or hay mulch can protect and feed your garden over the winter
Straw, hay, grass clippings or cardboard and compost: what to put on your garden beds before winter, and what to watch for.
What the Squash Field Wouldn’t Say
The spaghetti squash rotted on the vine. A birthing-class checklist for a fussy baby turned out to be the same list I run on a failing field.
Grow Something That Feeds You
August is the week to plan next year’s garden: cover crop the empty beds now, order the fruit and berry plants now, plant them in spring.
When the Strait Closes, the Grocery Store Feels It
Fertilizer is made from natural gas, so a shipping crisis half a world away reaches the grocery bill. There is another way to feed a crop.
Healthy Soil, Healthy Gut, Healthy You
About 70 percent of your immune system sits along your gut. Feed it variety, ferments, garlic and honey.
The Good Life of a Pig
Today is the pigs’ last day. They came as 25-pound piglets in May and weigh about 250 now. How they lived, and why we do it this way.
This Climate Week, Look Closer to Home
A flash flood in the chicken house, three dry months, then two inches of rain in a day. What a changing climate looks like on a Berkshire farm.
Let Your Tongue Vote
A Carmen pepper, eaten in the row. What flavor tells you about how food was grown, and three things worth tasting this week.
What Rain Can’t Wash Away
An older farmer told me the rain washes the spray off. What a tidy field doesn’t show, and four ways to get weeds out of a home garden without a jug.