The Hungry Gap
Early June looks like peak summer, but the crops that make it are weeks off. Why kale takes three months, and what is ready now.
Seven Pigs, Two Acres, and One Cottonwood Tree
Seven piglets, a two-acre wagon wheel of pasture, and the one tree that anchors it. What a pig gets here that most never do.
What Grandma Knew
My grandmother never thought about nutrition. She thought about feeding people, and mostly got it right.
The Threshold
A Roots Rising crew moved sandbags and raked hay for two hours the day before May Day. They left different than they arrived.
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.
Matters of the Heart
I proposed to Sarah while we were planting ginger at twilight. A Valentine’s week piece about love, work and tending what you’ve committed to.
Tomatoes in February
The ground is frozen and we just planted tomatoes. Why a June tomato starts in February, and what grafting does.
Why Winter Kitchens Keep a Pot on the Stove
Bone broth is bones, water and time. Ours is made in the store kitchen from pasture-raised bones grown a few miles away.
It Takes a Village to Feed a Village
A few weeks after my retina detached, I walked back into the farm store. It was running fine without me.
Healthy Soil, Healthy Gut, Healthy You
About 70 percent of your immune system sits along your gut. Feed it variety, ferments, garlic and honey.
A Shared Harvest: Why CSA Still Matters
The CSA idea was born in the Berkshires in 1985. What it was for, how it got blurred, and how ours works.
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.
The Farm Never Sleeps
People ask when we close for the season. We don’t. How a buried heat battery and a blanket of row cover keep spinach growing in January.
Across the Counter
A Marine veteran at the register told me he shouldn’t be alive. We disagreed about politics and shook hands anyway.
This Store Belongs to You
After a lifetime in the fields, I’m working the counter. What I got wrong, what’s on the shelves, and what we’d like to hear from you.
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.
The Power of Choice
I went to Walmart for office supplies and stopped in front of the organic lettuce. Two heads of lettuce, two food systems.
The Taste of Home
A customer from Belgium picked up a bunch of beets and said, “This reminds me of home.” What he meant, and why the food system he described is possible here.