It’s here. The garden classes are in gardens, the cooking classes are in kitchens, the nature study is in forests, the raspberries taste like raspberries, and the snozzberries taste like snozzberries! I worked for weeks on the lesson plans for these hands-on classes, workshops, and tours and am so excited to finally roll them out. Click here for my entire…
Our garden open house (rain or shine) is THIS coming Saturday! APPALACHIAN FEET GARDEN OPEN HOUSE DETAILS: Drop-in June 14th, 9:00am – 5:00pm Recommended donation of $2-$5 440 Summit Drive, Greenville, SC You may also want to catch Eliza’s TEDx presentation at Zen on Tuesday, June 17th at 5:30pm. Additionally, Eliza wrote the feature article (on pawpaws) in the latest…
Who else can’t wait until spring? I mean, besides our dog… We thoroughly enjoyed this week’s token snow of the year, but we’re just as excited about next week’s projected highs in the 60s! Spring fever has bit hard and we have so many plans for an urban farm open house, plant sale, workshops, classes, and more! You may already…
I often do or learn a heap of things at once and think I’m going to break it down into a series of bite-sized blog posts. It almost never happens — I post the first segment and then get too distracted to finish the rest. The orphaned contents of Appalachian Feet’s “drafts” folder is bursting at the seams. I don’t…
We love the Organic Growers School in North Carolina and are delighted that we now have a similar version for South Carolina! This is the 2nd year for the annual SC Organic Growing Conference which occurs on March 2nd, 2013. It’s run by the SC Organization for Organic Living (SCOOL) which you can find on their website or on Facebook….
I’ve noticed more and more people seem fed up with trying to choose what to eat. Attempts to make good food choices are often derailed by yet another media blitz announcing our dinner is unhealthy, contaminated, ruining the environment, inhumane, or causing human rights violations. How can any sane person navigate all the food noise? Why can’t there just be…
It’s time for the Greenville Urban Farm Tour again! When? This coming Saturday, May 12th, from 9am – 5pm. Tickets are $8 per adult (children under 12 free) and there is a group rate available on the UFT website. This year there are 31 sites to visit, 16 free workshops at the UFT’s headquarters (Crescent Studios), and bicycle tours offered…
On Friday, February 25th we left our Appalachian foothills home at 9:30am and drove to a nursery that grows tangerines, satsuma mandarins, naval oranges, kumquats, grapefruits, and other citrus in an outdoor orchard. No, not Florida! Even after touring the nursery for over an hour, stopping for lunch, driving slowly through heavy thunderstorms, and navigating rush-hour traffic, we still made…
Our city’s Urban Farm Tour is over for this year and by all accounts was a great success — GOFO sold out of tickets early in the day and had to scramble to print even more of them! I hope everyone who toured came away feeling inspired, I was so impressed by all the enthusiastic visitors we met at our…
In all likelihood there are wonderful, inexpensive plant sales happening near you this spring. Good places to check are your Native Plant Society, Master Gardeners Association, local botanical garden, farmers market, nurseries, and local farms. If you live in the Greenville, SC area, here are some of the great places you can get plants this season (apologies that the Upstate…
Fer is hosting a garden goals blog carnival at My Little Garden in Japan and oh my gosh, do I ever have a lot to do this year! I’ve included info about the Organic Growers School in March since it always heralds my spring planning. For the last three seasons I’ve jumped from garden to garden, so I haven’t been…
Conundrum: I don’t want a giant agri-business to be able to sell my family the spinach they grew downstream from factory-farmed cattle (mmm, E. coli!) but I also don’t want much (or any) regulations placed on small-scale farms, CSAs, farmer’s markets, online farmer’s markets, small dairies, or backyard growers. Citizens are capable of inspecting their own local food — because…
In contrast to the morels post this one is a quickie. Signing takes less than 30 seconds. Our schools should be setting an example of how to eat fresh, healthy, and delicious food. They are — after all — feeding the minds of our children… both figuratively and literally. Additionally, schools should not be a place where advertisers market their…
Crop Mobs are a new movement that I suspect will spread like wildfire. If you’re a small-scale, sustainable farmer they can be a lifesaver. And if you’re without ample land they’ll rescue you from growers lust and put you in touch with the source of your food. :)Anyone can participate. It’s not charity. The premise is that people who want…
This is one of my favorite things all year… and only 2 days left for early bird registration! Prices go up a little after February 12th at 5:00pm. The Organic Growers School spring conference is on March 6 & 7 this year. You can register here. If you live in any convenient distance from the University of North Carolina at…
This is similar to a post I published in August, but I think winter food buying bears special mention. Just a handful of years ago if I didn’t plant enough food for my family over the winter my only option was to buy hard, bland produce shipped from around the globe to my conventional supermarket. Not this year. I didn’t…
Whether you’ve never even grown a houseplant or your family sucks down all the fresh cukes from your garden so fast that you need an extra basket with which to make pickles, you can probably find what you need from a local source.
Chances are there is a U-Pick berry farm near you just waiting for you to go enjoy it. Check the ASAP guide to see if there is a farm in your vicinity. Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and other U-Pick crops can usually be found within 45 minutes driving distance. Because fruits of this size are labor intensive to pick, many…
Whether you buy them at a farm stand or grow them yourself, preserving peaches for the winter months is a satisfying endeavor. Freezing: Wash, pit, and peel ripe peaches. A boiling water dip can be used if the peaches do not peel easily on their own. To prevent discoloration, coat the peaches in a solution of 1/4 tsp crystalline ascorbic…