Category Archives: Farming
The Honeybee: Oversimplification and Unnecessary Drama
Nevada City, California This piece wraps up my coverage of the 2012 Wild and Scenic Film Festival. Last weekend at Wild and Scenic, a drama named BEE made its world premiere. (I don’t know why the filmmakers capitalized the title … Continue reading
Festival A-Buzz with Success of “Quest”
Nevada City, California photos courtesy of Whirled Beet Productions The Quest for Local Honey (Part One) had its world premier yesterday at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival. Wild and Scenic combs the globe for the best environmental films; … Continue reading
Twenty-Seven Minutes of Inspiration: “The Kings of Flint”
In the 1970s, Flint, Michigan was the richest city per capita in the United States. Now, it is the poorest. The population has declined 40% while violent crime has increased inversely. Buildings are boarded up. People are in despair. In … Continue reading
“Grow!”
Part of my coverage of the 10th annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival: January 13-15, 2012, in Nevada City, CA. They were expecting to be doctors, accountants, lawyers, chemists, physicists, historians, anthropologists. Instead, the twenty some, twenty-something farmers featured … Continue reading
Seeds and Sweets: Early Winter on the Farm
“I used to believe that life’s a road you’re travelling/A straightshot down until you reach the promised land./But now I see that life is a river ramblin./ Each day you wake and try to do the best you can.” … Continue reading
Thwarting Our Best Intentions: A Polemic
It has been a typical couple weeks on Facebook in the land of leftie politics. Whether I am visiting the group for Save The Scenic Santa Ritas down in Abbey Country, or reading a post from a local food activist … Continue reading
Filed under Abbey Country, Community, Essays, Farming, Mining, Polemics, politics, Sustainability
My Ad Hoc Garden
“The appropriate measure of farming then is the world’s health and our health, and this is inescapably one measure.The use of nature as measure proposes an atonement between ourselves and our world, between economy and ecology, between the domestic and … Continue reading
New Co-Op Deep in Abbey Country
Twenty years ago, my parents moved from the Sierra–near where I still call home–to a town called Sierra Vista in southeastern Arizona, near the Mexican border. For two decades I’ve visited–first them– and then just Mom after my dad crossed … Continue reading
Filed under Abbey Country, Community, Farmers Markets, Sustainability
Two Towns, Two Books…Two Countries?
February 6, 2011 Downtown Portland, Oregon This last week, traveling in one day from Sierra Vista, Arizona to Portland, Oregon was a bit like stepping from Edward Abbey’s Good News into Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia. On each count this is an … Continue reading
Filed under Abbey Country, Essays, Farmers Markets, Sustainability
One Farmer’s Market in One Little Town
Sierra Vista, Arizona January 27, 2011 My first morning in town, I visited the farmer’s market. My main reason for going was that I wanted to find some decent food to eat. I also wanted to show you all what … Continue reading
Filed under Abbey Country, Farmers Markets, Farming
