Category Archives: Ecology-Biodiversity-Integration

A healthy environment starts with a healthy human making the best of what is available and adding to what is possible.

The Thicket Bean Explodes

Before the advent of annual beans, the thicket bean was well known. It was the protein that did not run away. It is a species of perennial bean found throughout the midwest and northeastern U.S. Unlike the thousands of selections … Continue reading

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Response To The Chemical Warriors

I always had this idea that the roadsides could provide food in terms of nuts and fruits along with a few perennial vegetables like sunchokes. It seemed like unused space with huge potential. All you would have to do is … Continue reading

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I Can Plant Trees

My father took this picture. It was a cloudy day and I wanted to show him what I was up to on my new farm. There was no barn, water or phone. I was planting trees in a little box … Continue reading

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One Tree Crop

My father and his friend from the post office had this idea back in the sixties. It was not easy to get anyone to agree. Out of a dozen potential partners only one remained in the end. It was 140 … Continue reading

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Grow A Guitar

I own two soprano recorders that are made out of fruit wood. One is apricot and the other is pear wood. The pear wood recorder is a Hohner that I purchased when I was in high school. I brought it … Continue reading

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Regeneration Through Dissemination

Like my family’s Christmas tree farms of yesteryear, most tree crops are planted in long rows of a single species to maximize production. At my 13 acre farm, I did not have the luxury of both time and money to … Continue reading

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The Plum That Lives in a Farmer-less Field

There has never been a greater example of a species of fruit that could be grown as a species of fruit without employing the cultivar based system of fruit growing. The above image is one of the first beach plum … Continue reading

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Asparagii of Unknown Origin

It’s not pretty but it’s asparagus. You may not have eaten it when you were a child. Here was this quasi-gelatinous long green alien stalk of unknown origin. “Who would eat this?”, you would ask yourself? If you did dare … Continue reading

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Simply Making the Plant World More Diverse

One of easiest ways to increase plant diversity in the natural world is to look for potential species that can reproduce and increase on their own without burning, mowing or herbiciding everything to near death. The same can be said … Continue reading

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Now That’s A Grape

Its interesting in that grapes are so widely consumed in so many forms, yet if you mention woody agriculture or tree crops, they are not considered in the same life saving way as a tree. Vitis is vine in Latin. … Continue reading

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