What’s your Walk Score?

Another hat tip to Cory at Madville Times for a fun post about a website that lets you calculate the walk-ability of your neighborhood.
Just visit Walk Score’s site and punch in your address. Mine was only 3 points behind San Francisco, a top-rated walking city! Now if those big strapping guys over at [...]

A Gentle Suggestion for the Cooperative Extension

This spring, I got a letter from the SDSU Cooperative Extension Service, indicating that they’d like to send us a bunch of free bags for our farmers market.
The bags are printed with instructions to “Wash Fruits and Vegetables Before Serving,” and they’re being provided to markets throughout the state as part of a food safety [...]

South Carolina is apparently not “so gay”

All over the blogosphere and interweb are reports that South Carolina has disavowed the tourism ad campaign (and refused to pay for it) posted in subways during London’s Gay Pride Week, touting “South Carolina is So Gay” and a great travel destination for gay European tourists.
From the MSNBC article by Alex Johnson:
A state employee has [...]

CNN Clip on Hyperion–Must View!

Doing a little back-reading this morning on the Madville Times, I came across this good story and link to a CNN short report on Hyperion’s plans for a refinery near Elk Point, SD (and their shady financing strategy, or should I say lack of strategy).
You can link to Cory’s article first above (I [...]

Throwing Berry out with the Bath Water: The Progressive Backlash against Wendell Berry

In the recent American Conservative interview with Michael Pollan, a conversation about the left and the right, and how the food culture is seen on both sides, inspired mention of a name familiar with many readers of this blog: Wendell Berry.
DREHER: What about human society as an organism? Many people think of Wendell Berry as [...]

Community Supported Agriculture and the New Federalism

Every once in awhile I have to get a little political fix. It’s not that I’m a political junkie–it’s more that I’ve been waiting to see when more people would finally start to “get it”–that the old hierarchical systems don’t work anymore and haven’t been working for quite some time now.
I have read a [...]

The Short, Sweet Season of the Sugar Snap Pea

Sometimes it seems easier to gauge the velocity of a thing when it is going rather than when it is coming.
A few weeks ago I had told my members that the snap peas were blossoming and a few pods were forming, and it would likely be two weeks before they appeared in deliveries. The [...]

Another Salmonella-Tomato Post

I am still getting a lot of hits on my last post on this subject, but I am concerned that there is some misunderstanding about the raw manure-salmonella connection.  I have at least one commenter note that he feels “safe” because he didn’t use any manure in his garden.
I commented back that gardeners can and [...]

Where Have all the Ladybugs Gone?

Last year, I took the floating row cover off my turnips and was shocked to see a major aphid infestation underway on the greens of all the plants. I thought about sprinkling some organic pesticide on the plants, until I noticed a wonderful thing happening: ladybugs everywhere, copulating and laying eggs among the leaves. [...]

Reusable Bags for CSA Deliveries!

I’ve entered into a barter relationship with local artist and friend, Susan Heggestad, to produce reusable delivery bags with my logo (that Susan also created a few years ago) for my weekly vegetable deliveries. When I visited her page today, I saw that they were very nearly done!
I am incredibly excited at the prospect [...]