Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2021 i MOTHER EARTH NEWS

I recently read that the pandemic-driven recession was quite different from others of recent times, and that one of the more notable results was that a record number of businesses had been started. In another article, I learned that a record number of telecommuting employees were quitting, rather than go back to the daily commute and office or factory life. I read in yet another article that many businesses were having difficulty finding, much less hiring, employees. Businesses that typically pay poorly were having a particularly difficult time with hiring, but even businesses that paid well but required folks to be on-site were having trouble. This all seems counterintuitive to me at first glance. Aren’t we supposed to be grateful for any scrap of a job as we come out…

“I’ve already accessed the articles a couple of times, looking for advice to help me with my new container garden. Thanks for offering your great magazine on an easy-to-access flash drive.” Archive to the Rescue I used to have so many books and magazines — including a complete collection of MOTHER EARTH NEWS from the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and on — that I had to rent storage space to hold them all. In fact, in the early ‘80s, I discovered a box at a yard sale full of MOTHER EARTH NEWS, issues No. 1 through 25. (They’re what got me started reading your wonderful magazine.) Unfortunately, last October, someone broke into my storage unit and completely emptied it out! All of my precious books and magazines are gone forever! I’ve…

Planting a seed is a sacred way for a hungry soul to walk the path back to their ancestors and reconnect with the Earth. Each seed is a gift in our hands, given to us by the generations of farmers before us who held the ancestors of that seed. As modern seed keepers, we stand upon the shoulders of those farmers, and we must ensure future generations will know these seeds. Our gardens are the legacy of those farmers — their seed song. These seeds are our ancestors’ ecological knowledge that we’re tasked with holding at this moment in time. When you begin your journey by saving the seeds from plants you’ve grown and planting them again in subsequent years, you become part of a ritual that’s thousands of years…

I frequently refer to the adage “What goes up, must come down,” along with other rudimentary principles of physics to make my life easier on our little homestead. Gravity is always in play, so there’s no sense in fighting it. I go with gravitational flow whenever I can. One of the heaviest things we deal with when gardening or farming is water. At roughly 8 pounds per gallon, it adds up. So, when it rains in summer, I like to store the water in a rain barrel and then let it drain out through my vegetable beds during dry spells, to keep me from needing to haul water around. But what do you do when your garden beds are slightly higher than the outlet on your rain barrel? You use…

For the past 150 years, we’ve experienced paradigmatic shifts in how and what we eat. New food delivery options, fast-casual concepts, meal kits, and processed foods now appear frequently. For the first time in history, we expect our markets to carry a dizzying array of foods, from meat to milk to veggies — even those very much out of season. However, the growing, packaging, and shipping of food (sometimes called the “food system,” though it’s far more than a single system) involve incredibly complex, interconnected operations and specific resources to work as they do. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the cracks in our food system’s shiny veneer, as stores struggled to restock shelves while, at the other end of the supply chain, farmers dumped milk and eggs and killed livestock…

The soil at our farm in western Massachusetts is full of stones. We spend hours digging and sifting new garden beds each year to prevent crooked carrots and stunted radishes. A few years ago, I started collecting the stones we removed from our garden and painting them as teaching tools. At the time, I was running a mixed-age after-school program for K-6th graders. Children loved using the painted stones as inspiration for stories, and they’d collect their own stones from the playground to paint new images on. This inspired me to create what I call “Story Stone” sets the children could use to share their stories and creativity. A set included about 15 stones painted with different images on both front and back. I chose open-ended images that allowed kids…

RAW ENERGY IN A GLASS Best-selling author Stephanie Tourles offers more than 120 delicious, super-nutritious recipes for smoothies, shakes, green drinks, power shots, mocktails, longevity elixirs, and fermented beverages, all designed to boost your health and energy. All recipes can be 100% vegan, though honey is often offered as one of several sweetening choices. And no juicer is required: Tourles uses a high-powered kitchen blender to turn raw ingredients into satisfying drinks. #7561 $16.95 Member: $14.41 700W DIGITAL SMOOTHIE BLENDER Smoothie lovers, this one’s for you. Digital Smoothie Blender makes quick work of crafting the perfect frozen drink with just the push of a button. In only 45 seconds, this blender’s special auto feature will pulse to crush ice and large pieces of frozen fruit, mix on low, then ramp…

Do citronella plants or products actually work to deter mosquitoes? The citronella plant is sold in many nurseries, and it’s usually displayed alongside a sign promoting its ability to ward off mosquitoes. No wonder people buy it and plant it in their garden or in a planter on the patio. But all of this promotion is a myth; this so-called “mosquito plant” isn’t the same plant that’s used to make citronella oil. The plant sold in stores is actually a geranium, Pelargonium citrosum. It smells a bit like citronella, but it’s a completely different plant. So, does it work? No. For decades, studies have shown that the plant doesn’t repel mosquitoes. Citronella oil is extracted from various species of lemongrass in the genus Cymbopogon. This perennial grass grows to a…

Over the past decade, the cost of solar energy has plummeted, making it a more economically viable option for meeting energy demand. Further, new insight in a report from London-based think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative suggests that, by the end of the decade, renewable energy will be more affordable than fossil fuels almost globally. In addition to its eventual economic advantage, the potential of renewable energy is “far higher than that of fossil fuels and can meet global energy demand many times over.” One-hundred times over, to be exact, and that’s “with current technology and in a subset of available locations.” The report, “The Sky’s the Limit,” points out that the land footprint required by renewable energy to meet global energy demand is less than the footprint required by fossil…

Smithsonian Gardens, an extension of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., maintains a large off-site greenhouse, horticultural exhibits, and 180 acres of gardens and landscapes (or “outdoor museums”) that surround the Smithsonian buildings. Now, the Institute has extended that botanically enhanced museum experience to its website, where it’s gathered images from photographers, seed companies, and garden designers to provide the public with a virtual tour through great gardens past and present. It intends this collection to be beneficial for historians, designers, students, and others who want to research or publish the images. The collection includes representations of stereographs, lantern slides, autochromes, glass plate negatives, 35 mm slides, and digital images. These online archives also include a timeline of American garden history, and a “Solve a Mystery” page: Some of the…

In the fall of 2019, I stumbled across an affordable plot of land in Passadumkeag, Maine. My offer was accepted, and I paid cash. A Maine winter was on its way, and I couldn’t break ground right away. So, I waited. But at the beginning of 2020, we were warned about the novel coronavirus. Panic reached all corners of the Earth. People were laid off from their jobs, including me. I began collecting unemployment. Food and essential items were in a shortage. It felt like the end of the world, but for me, it was also the start of something new. I moved onto my property and began to work the land. This is my eighth consecutive year of living off-grid, and I’ve interned with established off-gridders and learned their…

Frustrated with store-bought wheelbarrows that rust and rot in Oregon’s wet coastal climate, I decided to build a wheelbarrow from exterior-grade plywood, which I've dubbed a “plybarrow.” I chose to make my wheelbarrow out of plywood for several reasons. First, when I looked at other DIY wheelbarrow designs, I noticed that most were assembled from many different materials, often with complicated joinery. I wanted to avoid this, so I found one material (plywood) that could provide the majority of the design, and I kept the joinery simple, using 90-degree butt joints for every connection except one. Second, I already had the plywood. I used a partial sheet of T1-11 exterior siding — the same material that’s on the outside of my house. (Because the plywood was manufactured for a house,…

Knowing when a dry spell is on the way could help farmers take steps to mitigate drought’s far-reaching impacts. And stepping in to serve that predictive purpose is the redesigned U.S. Drought Portal, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). This tool touts accessible features that enable users to check current drought conditions and forecasts by location, including locally, statewide, nationally, and globally. According to NIDIS, the Portal also aggregates data on how drought affects various economic sectors, such as agriculture, energy, water utilities, and recreation. Additionally, the site displays soil moisture conditions, historic drought conditions, and wildfire updates. You can peruse overviews of various types of droughts, such as flash droughts and snow droughts; learn about nationwide initiatives to address drought; and…

Many of us foster the dream of owning a small farm somewhere, the garden bursting with ripe vegetables and well-fed animals providing milk, eggs, and meat. The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on people’s lifestyles may be cultivating that dream for more and more people. At the end of 2020, Gallup found in a poll that almost half of Americans (48 percent) say they would prefer to live in a small town or rural area, up significantly from 39 percent in 2018. But no matter how many people carry this dream, the realities of living in a rural area and taking care of a farm are just not practical for everyone. So what if you choose to stay in an urban or suburban area? Is your dream over? Stan Slaughter and Linda…

Every chair has a story. My favorite chair enthusiast, Benno Forman, said that “chairs are documents, and caners are historians that preserve centuries of designs and techniques.” Whether you’re restoring a family heirloom or rejuvenating a flea market find, chair seat weaving is a meditative process with a fun and functional end result. Project Overview Chair-weaving materials and patterns vary widely. For this project, you’ll use splint reed from the rattan palm — a tropical climbing tree. Reed is the inner pith of the tree that’s been processed into 1⁄2-inch strips. It’s a common material to replace wooden splints, which are more cumbersome to use and harder to source. Splint reed is available in many sizes, as well as raw and dyed colors. You’ll be weaving what caners call a…

LOGOX FORESTER PACKAGE All of your favorite forestry hand tools in one portable bag! The LogOx Forester Package includes The LogOx 3-in-1 Forestry MultiTool, the LogOx Hauler Holster, the PickOx Pickaroon Attachment, and the CarryOx Bag. To make this package even better, all the items are proudly made in the USA! #10274 $320.00 Member: $299.99 AQUARAIN NATURAL WATER FILTRATION SYSTEM Without any plumbing or pressure attachments, power connections, or chemical pretreatments, the AquaRain Natural Water Filtration System positively removes dangerous living organisms and harmful bacteria from your drinking water using microfiltration. With USA made materials, the Aquarain will be the only water filter you need. Please allow two weeks for delivery. Available for shipment to continental U.S. addresses only. #8761 $329.99 Member: $309.99 LIVING OFF THE GRID Wondering if an…

SHOW US! Share your unique perspective with our community by submitting photos of inviting gardens, nutritious foods, wild animals, and more to the MOTHER SHOW US! EARTH NEWS Photo Group on Flickr (www.Flickr.com/Groups/MotherEarthNewsPhotos/Pool). We’ll feature our favorites here and online!…