The Feed Store

Take a Hike? (I Would Prefer Not To)

My grandfathers’ lives had a greater degree of integrity than mine. By integrity I do not mean the suggestion of morality and righteousness frequently...

Reading Seed Catalogs for Pleasure and Profit

Gardeners are a modest and sober breed, not much given to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride...

The Growing Pains of a Small Farm: Kristin Kimball’s Good Husbandry...

In some ways Good Husbandry stands as a kind of bildungsroman for Essex Farm and, by extension, the support-your-local-farmer movement.

In Defense of Livestock

Rushing to enslave themselves like animals in a cage, the animal rights and climate activists who think they are on the “right side of history” are unwittingly reinforcing their dependence on the corporations that have long damaged ecosystem and human health.

Gone Fishing (1)

I called him by the name I thought he deserved to be called by.

Live Trees and Dead Wood in the Tropics

A tended garden inevitably involves some choices, as well as planning which tree species will fruit better with more sunshine.

The County Meeting

We will speak to gatherings of farmers in seventeen different counties throughout southern Georgia. Along the way we will travel 1750 miles.

Fitting into the Bigger Picture

Mayweed is a persistent gift that teaches me how to thrive in unlikely places.

Conservation by the Yard

I begin with a proposition adapted from Wendell Berry—namely, that mowing is an ecological act. Mowing extends the perennial drama of photosynthesis and carbon...

On the Costs and Rewards of Planting Trees

I have just planted two apple trees from what my local nursery calls their “Posterity Collection,” heritage varieties grafted onto a slower-growing but durable and...