Tomato Riches!

You know how it is this time of year. You start thinking about tomatoes. Especially when you’ve realized your miserable fate after scheduling two classes (actually three–two sections of comp, one section of lit) to turn in their rough drafts at the same time.
So, after spending the morning answering desperate e-mails and [...]

Hiding Under the Mulch–Spring!

Of course they’re right up along the foundation, but who cares!  For those hungry for a taste of spring–here’s a shot of tulips emerging.  I re-covered them with a fluffy layer of straw mulch after taking this shot, as it’s snowing again.

Tomato Starting and Transplanting Tips

(As of the time of this posting–it’s too early. Wait a few more weeks! I generally start tomatoes in mid-to-late March. At the latest, a few days before I can get out and plant peas.)
I start tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in re-usable black plastic germinator, or “channel” flats–they are shallower than [...]

A Few Seed Starting Tips

I’ve just turned the seed-starting shelf lights on for the first time this season. I would have turned them on yesterday, but with the lack of outlets in my basement, it would have necessitated me emptying out the chest freezer into a ragged assortment of cold places, possibly including a couple coolers packed [...]

Total Meltdown

Well, maybe that’s wishful thinking, but it’s 35 degrees already, with a projected high of 42. There are portions of my sidewalks that have not seen the light of day since that terrible ice storm at the beginning of December–though I’ve been faithfully chipping away at the inch-thick crust since then.
Basically, all I’ve been [...]

Weird (and wonderful) Science!

As a thwarted scientist myself (I blame it all on that creep of a high school advanced human bio teacher), I have to give a hat tip to one of my favorite science-related sites. If you haven’t yet clicked on The Oyster’s Garter, now would be a good time to do so.
And if you [...]

Impacts of Energy Uncertainties on the Food System in the Upper Midwest–Joseph Stinchfield

I’m going to take this opportunity, in my second book discussion of this blog, to geek out a little. Last week, my partner brought this report which he helped to create, and which has survived a house fire, storage in an old rabbit barn, and other travails of time, and gave it to me [...]

Be of Good Cheer–Spring is Near!

 
For all of you who are feeling a bit cabin-feverish, a bit overwhelmed by the snow and cold, put this in your pipe and puff away in good spirits:  we’ll be planting down here in the southern paradise of the Dakotas in just about a month.
I met with one of the two accomplished women who [...]

A Sigh of Relief

Big sigh of relief on the VAAC front.  The “transitional” Board, as they’ve referred to themselves, is working to pull things back together and plans a member election for an ad hoc Board as soon as they can.
They’ve already begun the process of reaching out to those, like me, who were dissatisfied with the way [...]

Handing Over the Reigns

Yesterday I resigned as coordinator of the Vermillion Community Garden Project, a project that was conceived and built as a community outreach for the Vermillion Area Arts Council.
I proposed the project to the VAAC Board in late 2005/early 2006, and since that time, many have worked to make that shared dream a reality.  While I’ve [...]