this is the farm

An amazing podcast series from the Texas Young Farmers Coalition! Great listening if you’ve got a rainy day in the greenhouse or some downtime at the end of a long day.

The details:
What: A podcast highlighting farmers – both young and old – from across the great state of Texas. Interviews are long-form, so we have the time to
dive deep into growing food, selling food, food politics, and the spiritual side of it all. Very nice listening while farming in the field.
When: Monthly
Where: http://www.texasyoungfarmers.org/category/podcast/

kitchen vignettes

Gorgeous videos.

Many more HERE

our essay collection!

Congrats to all of our editors and essayists – GREENHORNS: The Next Generation of American Farmers – has just won a 2013 Nautilus Gold Award in the Living Green / Sustainability category!  The Nautilus awards recognize “Better Books for a Better World”.

From Nautilus: Amidst the turmoil and turbulence in our world today, people everywhere are beginning to hope for and imagine a world that works for everyone – a world, as it could be, with abundant possibilities for rethinking how we live. It is with great dedication and commitment to this vision that we continue to present a collection of Better Books for a Better World.  We are so proud to include your 2013 Award winning book in this body of knowledge.

food will win the war

Food Will Win the War is also a band.

rural news from this land

This Land Press

we celebrate the life of les blank

Mentor, relisher of life. 

Les Blank, Filmmaker of America’s Periphery, Dies at 77
By Bruce Weber, Published: April 7, 2013

Les Blank, whose sly, sensuous and lyrical documentaries about regional music and a host of other idiosyncratic subjects, including Mardi Gras, gaptoothed women, garlic and the filmmaker Werner Herzog, were widely admired by critics and other filmmakers if not widely known by moviegoers, died on Sunday at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 77.

More on his films HERE.  One of our favorites has always been Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers.

 

a poet we love

Rebecca Gayle Howell. 
Preorder her newest book, Render/An Apocolypse.

How to Plant by the Signs

When the ground is lit
when your back, hands, intent are lit

full well
full dawn of dark

when the tide swells
(forget sea)

when the tide swells in soil unseen
root stem leaf

when the moon is in its age

plant that which rises
above the ground to bloom

full well full fruit

in the old of the moon
When the sign is in the loins or breast

when the sign is in your feet
calloused (yes bare)

if what you wish is to harvest
if what you wish is to reap

grow the hour long

take the seed of secret in your palm

spread it like a witness
spread it like a disease

bean song by laura brown lavoie

nice grassfed ranch videos

At the Hearst Ranch. Check out the videos HERE

naked lady holiday calendars

A Naked Lady farmer calendar from Rosharn Farm in Rehobeth.

They are raising money for a ‘ Pasture to plate” mobile slaughter house and processing kitchen. Read all about it. And order their calendar for your farming ladies~!

http://www.pasturetoplatekitchen.com/news/2013-farm-calendar/

real time farms

allies in Michigan, mapping farms across the country.

http://www.realtimefarms.com/

if you’re a fan of greenhorn radio,

you’ll love PFI’s Farminars. Take part in one live on Tuesday evenings or listen to past farminars in the archives.
For farmers, by farmers, all the way from Iowa.

What’s a Farminar?
Practical Farmers of Iowa offers FREE 90-minute, interactive online seminars on a wide variety of farming topics. Broadcast over the Internet, Farminars are held Tuesdays from 7–8:30 pm CST. Check out our current lineup below. Register today to hear about the latest learning opportunities by email.

history lesson

First major tractorcades and strikes of farmers coming to Washington and Colorado…from Nebraska!

The so-called  “American Agricultural Movement”.

An almost instant mobilization.  Check it out HERE.

women hay makers

check out those dresses! Full video @ archivealive.org

This newsreel, one of the earliest Topical Budget films in the East Anglian Film archive, shows women haymaking in the fields at Warden’s Hall, Willingale, Essex during the First World War. The women landworkers use pitch forks to toss the mown grass and spread it to dry in the field.The grass was destined to become hay to feed the livestock. Haystacks for longer term storage can be seen in the background. The women are dressed for work with long aprons and bonnets.

plough and stars

Greenhorns, this is a blog worth following, both for its words (“Pulling a cool dirt blanket over a year’s worth of success and failure feels like shaking up an etch-a-sketch and disappearing that terrible looking stick man you spent all summer trying to draw“) and for its images (see below).

The Plough and Stars Project is a year-long narrative by photojournalist Erik Jacobs, who is chronicling his attempt to become a first generation farmer at The Farm School in Athol, Massachusetts.

It is a weekly story, told in two parts – words and photos – about the challenges of living our values through life on the farm, the inspiration that sustains us and the lessons learned throughout.