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.
Taking Action: A Parent’s Guide to Health in the 21st Century
As chronic disorders among American children reach staggering levels, parents are starting to take action. They are on the front lines of changing the food landscape and have created a movement to ensure the health of future generations. As more people become involved, veteran pediatrician Dr. Michelle Perro and medical anthropologist Dr. Vincanne Adams deliver…
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Appetite For Construction
Have you ever wondered why beavers build dams the way they do? Believe it or not, there is actually a method to the madness. Similar to the motives behind why humans manipulate the environment the way they do, beavers employ a strategic plan when building their dams. The animals are “among our closest ecological and…
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The Twenty-First-Century Economist: Seven Ways to Think Like One
We’ve come a long way since the days of horse-drawn buggies and telegrams: We can send messages to someone across the globe in seconds, travel overseas takes hours not days, and yet, when it comes to how we think about the economy, we’re centuries behind the times. Renegade economist, Kate Raworth, proposes an entirely new…
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Agroforestry Versus Permaculture: Which Approach to Use for a Community Food Forest
Ok, so we’ve gone over some basics of community food forests: Now it’s time to figure out how to plan one. There are two schools of thought on the best approach to building a community food forest: agroforestry or permaculture. The former offers a science-based approach while the latter incorporates elements of social design. Both…
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Food Forests: What is a Community Food Forest?
The recent rise of community food forests and similar projects have come at an imperative time. More than 80 percent of the US population now resides in urban areas. This number is projected to rise in the next few decades. Not only can food forests provide a local source of food they can also serve…
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Recipe: Salmon Cakes with Lemon Pesto
This salmon cake recipe makes for a simple and flavorful dinner. Delicious, golden-brown patties made with salmon are a tasty alternative to crab cakes. Need a side dish? Check out our recipes for Summer Vegetable Tian and Ginger Carrots. The following excerpt is from The Heal Your Gut Cookbook by Hilary Boynton and Mary G. Brackett. It has been adapted for the…
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Fig Trees: Snakes and Ladders & Tantalising Figs
You ever think about how important fig trees are to ecosystems all over the world? Me neither… until I read Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers. The complex nature of these trees and their interdependence with their surroundings is beyond fascinating. “As our planet’s climate changes and reminds us that nature really does matter, the story [of fig…
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Badlands without Beavers: How Teddy Roosevelt became a conservationist
There’s no doubt that beavers offer huge support to various ecosystems. Even Teddy Roosevelt learned that when on a hunting trip to beaverless badlands turned out disappointing. This experience was enough to turn him from naturalist to conservationist. Read the full story and you too will become a “Beaver Believer.” The following excerpt is from Eager by…
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Farming and Finances: Profit or Loss from Farming
Most people don’t start farming to crunch numbers and expenses. Like any business, even small-scale farmers need to consider their income and expenses. In his chapter on economics, Mike Madison breaks down everything he reported on his Form 1040, Schedule F: Profit or Loss from Farming to give readers a good idea of what kind of accounting…
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The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
“Beavers, the animal that doubles as an ecosystem, are ecological and hydrological Swiss Army knives, capable, in the right circumstances, of tackling just about any landscape-scale problem you might confront.” From promoting salmon populations to capturing more water for agriculture, author and “Beaver Believer” Ben Goldfarb wants us all to appreciate beavers more. A better…
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Toxic Food, Sick Kids, and the Limits of Medicine: The Perfect Storm
Why is it that approximately 40% of children now have a food allergy? Is the industrial & toxic food system to blame or modern medical practices? Perhaps a combination of both… Michelle Perro, MD and Vincanne Adams, PhD would certainly say so. The following excerpt is from Michelle Perro and Vincanne Adams’ book, What’s Making Our Children…
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Brewing California Sagebrush Beer: The Foraging Brewer
Hyperlocal brewing, making concoctions only out of the ingredients available in your immediate environment, is a fun way to become more familiar with your surroundings and the possibilities within them. According to wildcrafting author Pascal Baudar, “the number of possible ingredients you can use is mind boggling.” And the end results can be so rewarding! The…
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Silvopasture: What in the world is it?
Have you heard of silvopasture? This system of managing grazing animals in a temperate forest ecosystem is quite common in Europe but it didn’t quite make its way over to North America with the colonists. They must not have realized the benefits of silvopasture: healthier animals, better soil, less pest control and mowing, and climate…
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Extracting Cannabis into Oil or Butter
Keep reading for a tried and true process for making cannabis oils and butters. These can be put in almost any food or drink, though you will want to carefully test your creation out to determine proper dosage. The following is an excerpt from The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements…
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Victory Over Big Ag: How a small town said “Yes!” to a pesticide-free future
A Precautionary Tale shares the inspiring story of a group of citizens in Mals, Italy who fought Big Ag and won and, in doing so, became the first place on Earth to ban pesticides by a referendum vote. Their colorful, courageous, and ultimately savvy campaign is being heralded around the world as a landmark effort in…
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Foraging for Mushrooms: Gourmet Root Systems
For people who enjoy foraging for food in the wild, there are plenty of mushrooms to choose from — “ten thousand mushroom species to be considered on the North American continent alone”. But foraging for mushrooms should never be thought of as a game of chance. You need to know all the clues when it comes to identifying…
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The wonderful world of lemons
We all need to give lemons some more credit because they are truly one of the most versatile fruits. Think of how many foods and drinks you can incorporate lemons into. If you live somewhere warm and sunny year round, you better get outside and start looking for some lemon trees (we recommend Meyer lemons!).…
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VIDEO TED2018: A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow
What would a sustainable, universally beneficial economy look like? “Like a doughnut,” says Oxford economist Kate Raworth. In a stellar, eye-opening TED2018 talk, Kate explains how we can move countries out of the hole — where people are falling short on life’s essentials — and create regenerative, distributive economies that work within the planet’s ecological limits. (Afterward,…
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All Purpose Potting Soil Recipe: The Perfect Mix
Check out this easy, all-purpose recipe for potting soil! The above excerpt is from The Community-Scale Permaculture Farm by Josh Trought. It has been adapted for the web. Annual plants require an early start to bear fruit in the short growing season of New England. The planting medium, daylight length, and temperature conditions are crucial factors for…
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Work Smarter, Not Harder: Goat Handling
If you have goats or are considering getting goats, at some point you’ll need to move them from one grazing area to another. Goat handling can be a tricky task, as they can scare easily and high levels of stress are not good for their health or productivity. Take some advice from author and goat whisperer…
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Strong, Spicy, and Pleasant: Wild Green Kimchi
Experiment with what you have, anything from the mustard family will work extremely well.
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The Ill-Founded War on Cholesterol: The “Good” and “Bad” Cholesterol Fallacy
A fear of cholesterol has been ingrained in many people, starting as soon as they are old enough to read the side of a Cheerios box. As the popular understanding of cholesterol has been shaped, we have made a clear distinction between “good” and “bad” cholesterol. However, this could all be fallacy, cholesterol provides valuable functions…
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Master Your Diabetes: Understanding Carbohydrates
The evidence is clear: We are in the midst of a worldwide diabetes epidemic. In the United States alone, one in three Americans is either diabetic (29 million patients) or prediabetic (87 million patients), costing an annual $242 billion in medical treatments. An integrative approach based on the “eight essentials” of treatment and prevention will…
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How One Small Town Banned Pesticides: Freedom from Poison
Years of apparent collusion between companies producing pesticides and other chemicals and regulatory agencies such as the EPA. So how did a tiny town in Northern Italy prevail against big agriculture and make their town a pesticide-free zone?
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Organic No-Till: Farming like the Earth Matters
If we could do one thing for the planet it would be to ditch the plough. When we turn over soil, the air and sun wreak havoc on the microbes, which is why we need chemicals to bring the fertility back. No-till creates thin furrows in the soil and drops seeds in. It’s difficult to…
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