Computerized cabbage and carrots: how do you feel about that? Virginia Tech helps develop smart farm in Roanoke County – wdbj7.com Virginia Tech is adding the Smart Farm to the Smart Road (ahem) in its bag of tricks. They don’t…
Before I go on, be sure to mark your calendars for the Top Tomato event at the Floyd Community Market next Saturday, August 27. See details at the SustainFloyd web site. And thanks to Woody Crenshaw for the photo of…
This plant, growing at the edge of the  pasture, seemed to glow in the shadows. But that apparently has nothing to do with the common name of this plant or of the family to which it belongs. This is a…
Funny how we tend to find it comforting to sort things out into usually two baskets: vegetables and weeds, good guys and bad, cops and robbers. In the case of garden good guys and bad guys, while they may have…
We enjoyed my brother-in-law’s rhubarb chard for supper Monday night (in southern Missouri). Tuesday morning, Ann came back inside from the raised bed where it was growing with a look of horror on her face. Here’s why. Overnight, the 4…
It is the Walmartification of the Vegetable Kingdom. In our effort to maximize efficiency (not to save energy or motion but to maximize for the single bottom line of profit) our agri-biz industry has worked hard to provide us with…
Mornings for blogging and articles research is temporarily suspended until the days are not far too hot and humid after 830 a.m. Today, in particular, I will be a thermal hermit, venturing outside only for the mail, until the sun…
The Spring Surge has begun! The energy expended outdoors in late March through early September is directly proportional to length of day. Even days no longer these first days of the new season are exhausting! We’ll have asparagus next year…
After a recent, much needed, early spring rain, I stood in the soggy fenced rectangle of the garden, taking it in. I stirred aimlessly with my boot at some old tomato vines and mulch, and uncovered my first earthworm of…
Image by fred1st via Flickr The garden of the summer of 2010 that I put away this morning was fair: more productive than some disastrous years we’ve had, not nearly as bountiful as 2002, or as 1981, our biggest and…
I’m happy to say that the first-ever trifold project I had no business taking on is done, and was not a terrible experience–though there were moments of frustration to the point of thinking I’d have to admit I’d bitten off…
Check out the details…and bring your best on August 21st: SustainFloyd to Host “Floyd Top Tomato” Contest / Saturday, August 21st at Floyd Farmers Market Do you think you grow the best-tasting tomatoes anywhere? Put your ’maters to the test…
Image via Wikipedia The bean beetles are early this year, and, combined with the drought, the beans are under stress. We have few enough plants that we (read: I) can apply digital pest control: squishing the prickly yellow larvae between…
Image via Wikipedia We’ve been the unwilling victims in our recent travels of normal, average American food–vegetables and fruits breed for many things other than taste or even nutritional content, picked before ripe, shipped boxed, canned or frozen for a…