Nothing lights up a bookworm like browsing another’s library. Imagine the life-memory-scale thrill of an gardening-loving bookworm given the chance to browse the personal library of organic luminary J.I. Rodale. Rodale had an outsized influence on preserving and promoting organic farming and gardening. His son Robert took the seeds planted by his father to new […]
Treasuring our Elders
There is a treasure in our midst. It is the collective body of knowledge developed and furthered by our elders. With the same certainty that fresh young faces appear on the scene with new ideas, unbridled enthusiasm, and a passionate zeal to make a difference, the elders of our community fade and vanish. Some are […]
Authenticity Comes through ‘Walking the Walk’
Ditching the Drive-Thru by Natalie Winch is an authentic book. Authentic because she is not a full-time writer with a team of research assistants, but rather is full-time teacher/mom/wife with many side interests. She wrote this book as a way of sharing her own ─ as she calls it ─ food odyssey. Over time she […]
Vinegar Making’s Long History
Vinegar is among those products that were not invented but rather discovered by chance. As long as alcoholic drinks like beer and wine have existed, vinegar has formed—at first on its own, purely inadvertently—when these drinks were left standing. With no knowledge of how to preserve beer and wine, storing them long-term inevitably produces vinegar. […]
A New Generation of Enlightenment
In the grocery store the other day we spied two young boys, perhaps eleven or twelve years old, reading the ingredients panel of a package of sugar-frosted, cream-filled dessert cakes bearing some ludicrous name from a decade gone by. Perhaps years ago they would have dug into their pockets for the coins to buy them, but […]
Considering Shop Class as Soulcraft
Americans, in general, have an unyielding faith in our collective ability to fix it. Fix anything. Fix everything. The topic of repair is an interesting one. In fact, it’s almost a novelty. Our planned-obsolescence, toss-don’t-fix society is severely lacking in repairmen. High school shop classes were by and large shuttered in the 1990s. Liability risks […]
Obtaining the Highest Quality Essential Oils & Hydrosols
The Essential Oil Maker’s Handbook ─ Newly available in English from Spikehorn Press by Bettina Malle and Helge Schmickl; translated by Paul Lehmann Essential oils are more in demand now than ever. Unfortunately, modern production methods and unscrupulous labeling practices make it extremely difficult for consumers to know whether an oil is genuine or artificial, […]
Presenting the Art & Science of Making Distilled Spirits
The Artisan’s Guide to Crafting Distilled Spirits ─ Newly Available in English from Spikehorn Press! by Bettina Malle and Helge Schmickl; translated by Paul Lehmann The art of crafting alcohol is a very ancient one, and small, artisan distilleries are growing in popularity every day. Expert Austrian distillers Helge Schmickl and Bettina Malle guide readers […]