Posts By: Rebecca Gerendasy

Society Starts in the Dirt

January 8, 2010 A reminder from Change.org the importance of the soil’s health – for without it we won’t have food to eat or clothing to wear (cotton, wool, and other materials created from plant fibers). “Soils around the world are becoming so depleted of nutrients that some experts are starting to fret over the [...]

Intro to Permaculture 3 – Topsoil

January 7, 2010 “1.9 billion tons of topsoil lost a year in US because of way we do annual agriculture.” This video from Midwest Permaculture is one of eighteen segments from their first webinar of the Foundations of Permaculture Webinar Series. Go to Original Source…

Consumers: Help secure Britain’s food future

Jan. 07, 2010 Defra (UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is calling for citizenship to ‘vote with your fork’ to influence how food might be sustainably produced. Food security is a goal for ‘Food 2030′. Go to Original Source…

South Dakota Farmer Uses No-Till and Cover Crops Practices to Improve Yields

South Dakota Farmer Uses No-Till and Cover Crops Practices to Improve Yields

Reporting from the Field: Cronin Family Farm, Gettysburg, South Dakota: It’s cold and wet on the plains; winter is just around the corner. Dan Forgey has been growing crops on this 8500 acre farm for 42 years. About 18 years ago he adopted a no-till practice—when a crop is harvested, its stubble is left untouched [...]

Rice Harvest 2009

Rice Harvest 2009

A Farmer’s View from the Field Greg Massa, of Massa Organics, spends around 3 weeks of time harvesting his rice fields. A lot of that time is spent in the cab of a John Deere 9770 STS, affixed with a stripper header. It is well equipped inside with a control panel (a button pusher’s heaven!), [...]

Minnesota Organic Farmer Uses Thermal Banking to Increase Farm Output, Sustainably

Minnesota Organic Farmer Uses Thermal Banking to Increase Farm Output, Sustainably

Reporting from the field: These past few days we’ve been spending time in Oak Center, Minnesota (located about 25 miles north of Rochester), with a really great organic farmer, Steven Schwen, of Earthen Path Organic Farm. Challenged by the cold Midwest winters, Steven pondered how to warm up his planting beds. What evolved was a [...]

Backyard Chickens: Tour de Coops

Backyard Chickens: Tour de Coops

There’s a good chance you’ve been around long enough to have heard of a garden tour. Gardening people open their backyards to total strangers – albeit they are garden enthusiasts, which makes it perfectly acceptable – to share what they have created by way of their landscaping talents. Some people visit to get ideas for [...]