Chelsea Green Blog
Nature & Environment
Give a Dam and Worth a Dam
If you’ve been following our blog recently, you’ve probably read about the myriad abilities beavers have. With the ingenuity to help with things like water conservation, flood damage, and wildfires beavers are one of the few species capable of cleaning up after the ecological destruction caused by humans. If you’re not a Beaver Believer yet,…
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The Wild in Us and Us in the Wild
In the following Q&A, Martin Lee Mueller, author of Being Salmon, Being Human, discusses the importance of rethinking the human-Earth relationship, why salmon are the perfect creatures to start the conversation, and what we can do to give back. Q: Part of your inspiration to write this book came from an opinion piece about the…
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A Community Food Forest: Planning and Managing
As Benjamin Franklin stated, “By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.” A good community food forest will always require robust planning but don’t let that scare you! By breaking down the work into the following five project management phases, you not only establish an initial plan you’ve also developed a dynamic system to allow…
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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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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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Our Favorite Summer Reads
Wondering what to read this summer? Don’t worry, we have you covered! Grab your towel and claim the best pool chair or relax at your homestead with one of these perfect summer reads. Whether its nature reads, to healing your gut, everything wild, or inspirational books you’ll have your nose in a book all summer long…
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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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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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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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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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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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How One Small Town Banned Pesticides: Freedom from Poison
The recent uncovering of The Poison Papers—a collection of documents revealing years of apparent collusion between companies producing pesticides and other chemicals and regulatory agencies such as the EPA—shows just how difficult it is to stop corporate, agricultural, and other powerful interests from spraying dangerous chemicals, even when human health and the environment are at…
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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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Your Baby’s Microbiome: The 10 Steps that Establish It
Research is emerging almost daily on the role of the microbiome in human health. But how do we acquire this mysterious community of microbes and more importantly how do we make sure the good bacteria outnumber the bad? According to a new book by Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford, Your Baby’s Microbiome, it all starts…
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Why Modern Wheat Is Making Us Sick
Why is modern wheat making us sick? That’s the question posed by author Eli Rogosa in her new book Restoring Heritage Grains. Wheat is the most widely grown crop on our planet, yet industrial breeders have transformed this ancient staff of life into a commodity of yield and profit—witness the increase in gluten intolerance and…
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To Create Climate-Secure Foodscapes, Think Like a Plant
The techniques and prophetic vision for achieving food security and foodscapes in the face of climate change contained in Gary Paul Nabhan‘s Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land may well need to be implemented across most of North America over the next half-century, and are already applicable in most of the semiarid West, Great…
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LDN Treatment Helps to Kill Cancer Cells
According to a report in The International Journal of Oncology, giving low dose naltrexone (LDN) to cancer patients can improve the immune system’s ability to kill cancerous cells, as well as improve the efficacy of standard cancer treatments and immunotherapy. This major breakthrough gives research credence to what some doctors have observed in their cancer…
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Abundant Kudzu: Uncovering the Many Uses
Tao Orion, author of Beyond the War on Invasive Species, and Katrina Blair, author of The Wild Wisdom of Weeds, share alternative approaches to understanding and managing Kudzu. Classification: Pueraria lobata Geographic location: Southeast Description: Kudzu is a group of plants that are climbing, coiling, and trailing perennial vines. The plant climbs over trees or shrubs…
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Oxeye Daisy: A Plant for the Pollinators
As Invasive Species Week continues, Tao Orion, author of Beyond the War on Invasive Species, and Katrina Blair, author of The Wild Wisdom of Weeds, are sharing alternative approaches to managing and using plants considered to be “invasive.” In this excerpt, they discuss the oxeye daisy. Classification: Leucanthemum vulgare Geographical location: Western states, Pacific northwest…
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Too Much St. John’s Wort? Look to the Cows
No matter what part of the country you live in, non-native plant species take root and thrive. Dubbed “invasive,” these species are often considered an annoyance at best and aggressively eradicated with harmful chemicals at worst. They are deemed enemies of the land and have become targets of an ongoing war fought with a steady…
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A Mini-Festo for Earth Day – Rebuild the Foodshed
For the days leading up to Earth Day in years past, author Philip Ackerman-Leist runs a Twitter MiniFesto campaign – each day sending out a new tweet designed to spark conversation and pass along some lessons he learned whilst working on his book, Rebuilding the Foodshed. You might also know Philip as the author of…
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