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Too often, people think a farm is a place of drudgery that can't feed the creative human spirit. So, when I was asked to write about creativity, music, and art [...]

The most surefire way to save money on energy is to use less of it. Try these energy-saving tactics to reduce your energy dependency and build homestead resilience. Several years [...]

I may be turning into an old geezer, but I'm still loaded with dreams for the future. The editors at MOTHER EARTH NEWS have asked me to share some of [...]

I'm confident that working with animals has made me more mindful of how I relate to other people. Gardeners, this column isn't a slight against what we can learn from [...]

Has it really been 50 years? As a 13-year-old in 1970, I remember my straight-laced dad devouring this new magazine, all in black and white on rustic paper. It was [...]

For all the things interns are, they're not cheap help. To be sure, some mentors are better than others, and some farms pay more or less than others, but generally, [...]

In the afterglow of a can-do workshop, when everyone feels comfortable enough to explore inferior decisions I've made, someone will ask, 'What have been your biggest business failures?' Failures don't [...]

As scientists delve into the synergistic intricacies of animal relationships in historic ecological templates, they discover more and more the positive work animals can accomplish. From bison pruning prairies to [...]

Every animal has unique management requirements. Volumes have been written concerning diet and shelter, but much less has been penned regarding the actual logistics of moving livestock around. Perhaps that's [...]

Each spring, our farm requires a flurry of preparation as we transition from cold weather to warm. Here in Swoope, Virginia, smack-dab in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley, our [...]

While sitting in our dining room on a sweltering July evening about five years ago, Teresa and I were chatting and reading when suddenly a gust of wind shook the [...]

I've amassed quite a few statistics about food trends in the United States over my years of reading. One that sticks out is that almost a fifth of all food [...]

'My kids dawdle. They don't want to do the work around the farmstead that needs to be done. How do I get them on board?' You can see the yearning [...]

Too often in environmentally themed discussions, spiritual reasons for building compost piles and pond dams get lost in practical how-to. Our temptation is to get excited about the how, and [...]

Farmers have one of the highest rates of workplace accidents. As an older farmer, I have battle scars that put me in that statistical column. I write from personal experience [...]

My dad used to have a saying: 'We make haste slowly.' He said it tongue-in-cheek, but the older I get, the more I appreciate the wisdom in it. We live [...]

Do-it-yourself and self-reliance themes are wonderful--to a point. I know that questioning these themes in the pages of MOTHER EARTH NEWS borders on heresy, but hear me out. Every movement [...]

I can still remember my first encounter with the term 'permaculture.' It was a Plowboy interview with Bill Mollison in Mother Earth News in 1980. I remember well how the [...]

Because they're omnivores, chickens are perhaps the most salvage-savvy critter on the farmstead. Historically, their cleaner-upper role predated compost piles for getting rid of food and garden waste and for [...]

Manure might be the hottest thing on your farmstead. If you aren't already composting your livestock's 'second harvest,' you're missing out! Anyone who raises livestock on a farmstead knows that [...]

Got a modest homestead? You can still practice rotational grazing--just keep those animals moving. Too often, homesteaders with small acreage and only a few animals feel left out of the [...]

Members of the Mother Earth News tribe have a long, illustrious, and storied reputation as stewards of the Earth. I grew up with the magazine during the Vietnam War, the [...]

What fascinates you? What warrants your fixation? At the risk of being dismissed as certifiably weird, may I humbly submit the earthworm as deserving of both fascination and fixation? When [...]

Since 2012, David Schaefer, with Featherman Equipment, and I have demonstrated chicken processing at Mother Earth News Fairs. In our poultry demonstrations, David and I go to great lengths to [...]

We live in an era of soundbite messaging. Bombarded with information, we feel pressure to make snap judgments and move on. Nowhere is this demand more apparent than in the [...]

Many years ago, the livestock on our farm consisted of a handful of cows and a couple dozen chickens. We've scaled up our livestock operations through the years with cash [...]

Want to grow your budding farm business into a viable enterprise? These expert recommendations can make a big difference. Those of us dedicated to sustainable agriculture have distinct ideas about [...]

Is life fundamentally biological or mechanical? How you answer that question determines how you view life and, in turn, sets boundaries on innovation regarding your care for other beings. I [...]

It's sure hard to measure what isn't there, folks. Silly as it sounds, this logic underpins many assessments of livestock consumption and production. Instead of studying farms such as Polyface [...]

Too often, farmers and gardeners leave forestland to its own devices, as if thinning trees and strategically managing their woodlots would desecrate some sacred shrine to wildness. That woodlot out [...]

In light of our modern love affair with fast growth and fast money, I'd like to propose embracing the opposite: As you grow your market garden or farm business, slow [...]

The average morsel of food sees more of the world than the farmer who grows it, traveling an average of 1,500 miles from field to fork. It takes 15 calories [...]

Since I'm now traveling 120 days a year--roughly a third of the time, which is all I can stand--people routinely ask me how I handle eating on the road. I'm [...]

Calling something 'old-fashioned' might encourage tourists and antique buyers to take note, but it does not captivate the hearts and minds of our mainstream culture. Too often, the Earth-stewardship movement [...]

Choosing local, organic fare and cooking from scratch don't make you a 'food snob.' They mean you're conscientious. We live in a world of sound bites. The in-depth discourse that [...]

All fruits and vegetables are more abundant in some seasons than others, and although not everyone realizes it, the same is true for meat and eggs. As a farmer who […]

Do you ever feel like the whole world is crazy and wonder what you and your lone voice can do to create real, positive change? We're all sometimes tempted to [...]

Too often, people think a farm is aplace of drudgery that can't feedthe creative human spirit. I try to get people to lovethe farm for the farm's sake; since I love mywork, I don't need to escape from it. Now that our farm family includes apprentices,stewards, and additional permanentstaff, these picnic areas create placesfor storytelling, whittling, and, of course,music. [Extracted from the article]

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of training in homesteading and building skills through practice.

Customers. Those grateful customers need to With a customer, keep everything on a pay Client or partner. [Extracted from the article]

Several letters to the editor are presented including one on farming, one on house purchased by a reader, and one on health cooperatives.