MOTHER EARTH NEWS April - May 2019

MOTHER EARTH NEWS is technically in its 50th year of production, although we’ll count next year as its 50th anniversary year. I can still remember the excitement with which I awaited the arrival of my first issue, way back in late 1969—I was in eighth grade. I’d seen an ad for the new magazine in my first-ever subscription, Rodale’s Organic Gardening and Farming. My folks were skeptical of mail-order for some reason, but I convinced my mother to write a check in exchange for a pile of my hard-earned cash just the same. And that order form, filled out in my C-minus penmanship script with a smudgy No. 2 pencil, found its way to the source. Soon enough, the inaugural issue was in my hands. As a mildly dyslexic left-hander, I…

EDITORS’ PICK Safety First Articles like Joel Salatin’s “Homestead Safety” (The Pitchfork Pulpit, December 2018/January 2019) should be published every month. Over the years, I’ve seen too many accidents in the farm industry that could’ve been prevented if those involved had brushed up on proper safety measures more often. It’s mostly the younger, newer farmers who find themselves in accidents, because they think farming is an easy career. After decades of experience, I can tell you that farming is anything but easy. Many people don’t realize that a dull knife causes more damage than a sharp knife. I was relieved when I saw Salatin’s article on the subject; hopefully his advice will help farmers better protect themselves and others around them when working. I also think adding his personal experience is a good…

Food hubs bridge this gap by meeting the needs of both farmers and grocers. These hubs coordinate the collection, distribution, and marketing of food products grown by regional producers, helping them get their yields from field to shelf. That logistical legwork provides the consistency and volume that grocers need to be able to satisfactorily serve their customers, and it gets more fresh food into cafeterias, stores, and schools—where most people shop and eat—in underserved communities and food deserts. Food hubs can thus become a crucial piece of a food-supply chain, enabling farmers to scale up, and supplying consumers with a wider range of regional options—all of which supports local economies and reduces the costs and carbon emissions associated with shipping. According to the 2017 National Food Hub Survey conducted by The…

“See my new kid?” That was a text I received from my dad a few years ago. The unexpected text displayed a photo of a kooky-eyed goat standing innocently in the back of our family van, and the message marked my father’s transition to goat farmer. My father, Chay Nguyen, is a scrappy, do-it-yourself immigrant who, after three decades of working at a grocery store, was able to retire and start a goat farm using his grit and business skills. America has always been a beacon of hope and freedom for my father. Every 4 a.m. commute brought a fresh whiff of future opportunity. Every grocery store can clunked onto a metal shelf was a beat of a metronome, counting down the moments of a hard day’s work toward his earnings.…

Valley Oak Broadfork $195 at www.ValleyOakTool.com The age-old adage “Work smarter, not harder” has few better applications than when breaking ground in a garden. Broadforks allow you to put those words into practice by using the weight of your body to do the brunt of the work when you till, aerate, or work compost into your garden beds. And because you can do all the work while standing, breaking ground doesn’t have to break your back. The Valley Oak 5-Tine Steel Broadfork is a well-built example made right here in the United States. And while the handles are long enough to accommodate someone as tall as 6 feet 7 inches, it was easy enough for editor Russell Mullin’s 9-year-old nephew to use in previously worked ground. Mullin says, “After I showed him how…

Many mushroom species that thrive on wood fruit better on logs that are partially buried rather than stacked aboveground. The access to extra ground moisture, reduced fruiting surface area, and microclimate created by covering the logs with leaves or straw trigger and support prolific fruitings preferred by (but not limited to) reishi (Ganoderma spp.), nameko (Pholiota nameko), black poplar/pi-oppino (Agrocybe aegerita), brick top (Hypholoma sublateritium), and mai-take (Grifola frondosa). There are basically two ways to do this: either you trench the logs, or you build a “raft” of them and cover it; they both produce the same results. When you cultivate mushrooms on partially buried wood, the flushes typically only last for two to three years, so be prepared to build additional beds every two years to sustain a continuous harvest.…