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Monthly Archives: August 2024
Diversity Found: American Black Currant
When the ponds were built on my family’s farm, large ditches were needed to drain the water to finish the excavation. It was roughly a 30 acre pond surrounded by a wetland. The ditches near the highway were massive as … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration
Tagged black currant, ecology, healthy fruit, nature
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Diversity Found: Dandelion
I had this collection of dandelion varieties for a while. These were selections bred for human consumption for the foliage as a super nutritious perennial green. I kept the collection secret. My employees noticed when they started to flower and … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration
Tagged agriculture, dandelion, dense nutrition, ecology, healthy greens, perennial green, salad green, vegetables
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The Pecan is the Pie in the Sky
I live in one of the cloudiest counties in North America. When sun appears, people comment on it in the stores. “Oh, it’s a sunny day!” As if to say time is short and you better enjoy it now! The … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration, Miracles of Nature
Tagged agriculture, northern pecan, pecan, pecan pie, short season, ultra northern, wild pecans
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Chufa-The Savior of Sedges
One of the tuber crop plants I had the pleasure of working with was chufa or tiger nut. I first read about this plant from a food website describing the use of the crop and how it is cultvated. You … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration
Tagged chufa, crop-diversity, Cyperus, edible oil, horchata, nutsedge, sedge, tuber-crop
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Bean Flowers
Yesterday while trying to capture insects working my bean flowers via photography , I remembered the college professor that I took an Entomology class from Western Michigan University in 1975. The whole class went out one night to a nearby … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration, Miracles of Nature
Tagged bean flowers, Beans, flowers, lima beans, perennial beans, pollination, pollinators
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One Plant-One Human-One Idea
If you have ever planted a cover crop of rye, you soon realize how much this powerhouse of a plant can do in such a short period of time. It is such a simple thing yet has immense environmental benefits. … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration, Miracles of Nature
Tagged ecology, farming, green manure, health, nature, rye, soil, wildlife value
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The Deer Solution
For many years on my way into town, I would drive by a farm that raised sheep. The pasture was very neat looking and was often cropped to the ground. Like a neatly mowed lawn with isolated thistle plants popping … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration, Miracles of Nature
Tagged agriculture, beneficial-plants, deer, nature, whitetail deer, wildlife
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Michigan Oranges
Not too long ago, the USDA sent me a newsletter that contained a snippet of nursery catalogs from the early 1900’s. It is interesting to see the drawings and written descriptions of plants used in gardens at this time. This … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration, Miracles of Nature
Tagged fruit-trees, garden, hardy-orange, hedge, homesteading, michigan-oranges, nature, poncirus-trifoliata
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Pawpaw
I always felt the pawpaw was the Sasquatch of fruit. I read about it in college. Later several people told me they had seen it. My botany teacher told me of a huge colony. I think someone showed me a … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration, Miracles of Nature
Tagged asimina-triloba, biodiversity, enrichment-ecology, Michigan-banana, pawpaw, seedling-trees
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What Happened To Corn?
If someone came back from a 9000 year journey and saw corn today this might be their first question. What did happen to corn? It is funny to me as this question came to me last year from a colleague … Continue reading
Posted in Diversity Found, Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration, Miracles of Nature
Tagged corn, corn-flour, crop-diversity, cultivated, food, northern teosinte, teosinte, wild edible
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