The Feed Store

A Casual Birder

For most of my adult life I’ve considered myself a birder. Some people say “bird-watcher,” but for me that term conjures up the sort...

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...

Ecce Hortus: A Dispatch from Dumb-Ass Acres

Put in a garden and watch it come to life.

Salvaging: Boat Trailers, T.S. Eliot, and Resurrection

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river Is a strong brown god— . . . Unhonoured, unpropitiated By...

From Dogs to Fur Babies–and Back Again

As Edward Abbey said, “When a man’s best friend is a dog, then that dog has a problem.”

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...

Feeding the World from the Bottom Up

It is natural and normal, when looking at big problems, to look for big answers. Problems do not come much bigger than the subject...

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...

Cultivating the Candy Roaster: An Extensive Pleasure

In the spring of this year, some students and I created a modest Heritage Garden—420 square feet of raised beds built from two-by-twelves and...

I Am Not a Luddite

In my efforts to point people to various methodologies of eco-agriculture I often encounter those who dispute these approaches. One of the frequent refrains...