DIG IN
The latest articles from Chelsea Green and our authors: offering tips and techniques about how you can bring our books to life in your kitchen, backyard, or community.
Save Your Soil the Power of Pee
It’s time to roll up your sleeves and get down into the dirt – but you may want to grab a bucket, especially first thing in the morning. Nutrient loss in our soil is an ongoing issue for some gardeners, but you may find help in an unexpected—liquid—form. The following is an excerpt from The…
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Neighbor Loaves Program: Maintain Grain Value Chains and Feed the Community
By Amy Halloran, author of The New Bread Basket. It originally appeared on foodsystemsjournal.org. The Neighbor Loaves Program In the surreality of March 2020, as states closed the doors on business, my colleague Alyssa Hartman had a great idea. Watching businesses struggle, she wondered what she could do as a non-essential worker to help farmers…
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Resilient Living: 12 Must Have Books
Are you looking to grow and prepare your own food, conserve energy, and be more resilient? Maybe you’re looking for ways to simplify your life. Wherever you find yourself, there are things you can do today to become more resilient. We’ve compiled our favorite books about all aspects of resilient living to get you started.…
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A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal
The following is an interview with Ronnie Cummins, author of Grassroots Rising, and originally appeared in the Chelsea Green 2020 Spring Journal. It has been adapted for the web. It has been adapted for the web. As International Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), Ronnie Cummins works to promote healthy, just, regenerative systems of food,…
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A Life-Changing Discovery: Introduction to Pipeline Politics
The control of oil has been at the center of the struggle for power and wealth that has fueled conflict and endless wars throughout the Middle East. When author Charlotte Dennet found the last letter from her father, a spy studying the route of the proposed Trans-Arabian Pipeline, she realized his death was likely much…
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The Eat-All Greens Garden: Effortless Effort
If you want to start a garden but don’t have much spare time, give eat-all greens a shot! These plants are sturdy and need little management or help at all, plus you can eat almost the entire plant! Try starting with Green Wave mustard. The following is an excerpt from The Tao of Vegetable Gardening…
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Ireland: A Journey into the Heart and Soul
The following is an interview with Ruairí McKiernan, author of Hitching for Hope, and originally appeared in the Chelsea Green 2020 Spring Journal. It has been adapted for the web. What does the future have in store if politicians aren’t beholden to the people, if the pace of development is compromising mental health, and if…
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Mercury Fillings and Their Dangers: Never the Right Solution
Did you know silver fillings (also called amalgam fillings) contain at least 50% mercury? Did you know mercury is highly toxic? In fact, if an amalgam filling has to be taken out, it needs to be thrown away in the hazardous waste bin. The following is an excerpt from It’s All In Your Mouth by…
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Enter Biochar: Reduce Your Pet’s Carbon Pawprint
Many carbon-conscious pet owners are aware of the non-recyclable waste that comes with owning a pet. Between kitty litter, puppy pads, and all those plastic dog bags, the waste adds up. Enter biochar. Imagine a world where the puppy pad is so odorless that your dog wants to sleep on it and the kitty litter…
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Wild Spicy Forest Paste
In his new book Wildcrafted Fermentation, professional forager Pascal Baudar combines his curiosity, research, and in-depth understanding of terroir to explore new and surprising uses for wild ingredients through fermentation. The following is an excerpt from the Chelsea Green Spring 2020 Seasonal Journal. It has been adapted for the web Springtime offers an abundance of delicious and…
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How Can Direct Activism Survive the Coronavirus Era?
How can direct activism survive the coronavirus era? How do we learn justice? What is the benefit of creating crisis? What are the takeaways for the next generation of activists? Reporting for DailyClout.io, bestselling author Naomi Wolf asks these crucial questions and more in a truly inspiring conversation with renowned activist Lisa Fithian. Lisa Fithian…
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Seed Saving: How to Plan Your First Foray
Whether you’re a home gardener or a more seasoned horticulturist, saving seeds is a time-honored tradition vital to the preservation of important varieties of vegetables and herbs. During a time when genetically modified crops and hybrid seeds are all too common, there is a growing appreciation for seed saving of time-tested, open-pollinated cultivars. The following…
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The 5 Rules of Lean Thinking
Surviving the Future is a story drawn from the fertile ground of the late David Fleming’s extraordinary Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It. That hardback consists of four hundred and four interlinked dictionary entries, inviting readers to choose their own path through its radical vision. Fleming’s long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin…
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The Power of the Mesquite Tree
The miraculous abundance provided by the mesquite tree continues to astound us. It offers a plethora of culinary possibilities. It has the power to cure, to shelter, to elicit profound emotions, and to connect us to our environment and our neighbors in a way we may not have thought about before. The following excerpt is…
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The Man Who Planted Trees Before His Time
Though nature can be a mighty force, it takes great care and a gentle hand to support the growth of the environment–especially trees. Trees are essential for life; they create oxygen and are home to thousands of species, yet we’re experiencing rapid deforestation. It only takes one person to plant one tree in their community…
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Low-Maintenance Perennials for Your Garden
Have you ever wondered about growing perennials? Now’s a better time than ever to get started with them. Here are some low-maintenance perennials suited for gardeners of all interests and abilities! The following is from Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier. It has been adapted for the web. Perennials: General Overview, History, and Ecology Around the world…
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Earth Day Reading: 13 Essential Books
This year, people all around the world are celebrating a milestone—the 50th anniversary of this international day of action for our environment. Why not celebrate Earth Day by reading about our great planet? We’ve compiled 13 books to get you started! In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild…
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Seeing the Trees for the Forest
In the opening chapter of Trees of Power, author Akiva Silver sings the praises of tree identification. He first describes the skill as being “as useful to me as reading,” and later promises readers that in learning to discern trees by their bark, twigs, leaves, and silhouettes, “you will be able to read stories in…
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Resiliency: Becoming an Adaptive Human
They say history is bound to repeat itself if we don’t take the time to learn from the past. Our decision-making skills and resiliency are essential for survival but, for some, it’s difficult to connect the dots between the cause and effect of said decisions. However, in this day and age, it’s important to recognize…
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Why Rabbit is the New Chicken
Not convinced that a pasture-based rabbit production could amount to a sustainable business enterprise for the beginner to market-scale farmer? Nichki Carangelo, a third-generation Italian American, second-generation small business owner, and first-generation farmer from Waterbury, Connecticut, proves that a viable pasture-based rabbitry is not only user-friendly, it’s also profitable. In 2014, she founded Letterbox Farm…
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How to Create a Nitrogen-Rich, Compost-Fed Soil Bed on Your Patio
If you have an unused stretch of patio, why not make it into a garden? Turning a concrete slab into a verdant garden isn’t as impossible as it sounds, all it takes is time, a compost-fed soil bed, and some good old-fashioned elbow grease. The following is an excerpt from Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The…
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How to Get Your Kids in the Kitchen
If you’re following a strict diet for health reasons, have picky eaters, or are simply looking for tips on how to get your kids involved in the cooking process, you’re going to want to settle in and read this. According to Leah Webb, author of The Grain-Free, Sugar-Free, Dairy-Free Cookbook, and the mother of two children…
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Publishing in the Time of a Pandemic: On Birth and Survival
The following is by Charlotte Dennett, author of Follow the Pipelines, and originally appeared on Medium.com. It has been adapted for the web. April 2, 2020 was supposed to be a special day. Not the usual birth-day, mind you. And not the kind of day I anticipated a month ago, before a pandemic took over our lives. I…
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Survive the Future: Three Principles to Get Started
What guiding principles will you need to not just survive the future, but imagine a better one? To answer this question we not only need to look within ourselves, but at our community as a whole, and identify our flaws. By understanding each other, we can work together to build a better future. The following…
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Limits to Growth and the COVID-19 epidemic
It comes to no surprise to anyone that the human population continues to grow, rapidly. However, there is a limit to that growth that we don’t quite know yet. Dennis Meadows, an emeritus professor of systems policy and social science research at the University of New Hampshire, walks us through the connection between population grow/decline…
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