Blog
Pond Restoration Part 2: Rainbow Trout Arrive at The Farm
Last Fall, we began the restoration of the small body of water known affectionately as "Leech-ey Lake". Read more about our multi-phase plan for removing sediment and reinvigorating the wetland ... Read More
Spring at The Farm & Tamworth Lyceum Updates!
Spring has sprung in Tamworth! See shots below from our recent Spring cleanup at the farm and the completion of the double-decker back porch of the Tamworth Lyceum! Just this morning, ... Read More
Spring ROOT Events in New Hampshire: Green Auction, Golf Tournament, and more!
ROOT made an appearance last weekend at The Community School's "All Things Green" Auction (scholarship fund benefit) in the silent bidding and live segment, featuring local personality, George Cleveland! A ... Read More
Anticipating The Best Summer Ever: Tamworth Lyceum Construction & Photo Update!
WE CANNOT WAIT UNTIL SUMMER! Suspend your disbelief for a moment: The snow is gone, the Swift River is rushing contentedly along, the smell of fresh brewed coffee wafting through the ... Read More
News from NH: Store Construction at Full Steam, Veggie Experiments Proceed
Renovations to the village store/future Tamworth Lyceum in Tamworth, New Hampshire are moving full steam ahead! Despite the the low temperatures, epic snowbanks, and continuing snowfall (another 9 inches predicted ... Read More
Driving Down Interstate ROOT-93: Hooksett, New Hampshire
ROOT is fully stocked on both Northbound and Southbound Interstate Route - 93 Or rather, ROOT-93!!! Grab a bottle en route to your Spring travel destinations. ROOT is on sale in New ... Read More
News from The Lyceum: Eco-Friendly Printmaking
Solvents suck. Big time. Countless studies have shown that prolonged exposure to VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) can cause nervous and respiratory system damage to adults, and major issues for babies, ... Read More
News from New Hampshire – A Tamworth Video Vignette: White Gates Farm
(from facebook.com/whitegatesfarm) A most welcome reminder of warmer, greener, delicious days ahead! White Gates Farm is an interactive vegetable and livestock farm on Cleveland Hill Rd in Tamworth, New ... Read More
Henry David Thoreau: Philosopher, Poet, Pencil Pioneer
(via arttattler.com) We unilaterally advocate that "Jack of All Trades" be revised henceforth to "Henry of All Trades." Our fave anarchist, Henry David Thoreau...WHAT A GUY. Despite Nathaniel Hawthorne's less-than-glowing ... Read More
A Gentle Reminder To Young Men & Women: A Tamworth Lyceum Internship Awaits!
Applications for the Summer Internship Program at the Tamworth Lyceum are rolling in, and THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS TODAY! Are you an undergraduate majoring in Fine Arts, Visual Studies, ... Read More
“Forcing” Indoor Bulbs: A Winter Window Garden
The spectacle of icicles hanging off of your roof that are taller and possibly wider than you are is a bit psychologically daunting. How can we infuse a bit of ... Read More
Tamworth Lyceum Offers Summer Internship Opportunity
Rise & Shine, Undergraduates! The TAMWORTH LYCEUM would like to extend an internship opportunity that undergraduate students majoring in Fine Arts, Visual Studies, English, Creative Writing, and Communications ... Read More
BBC Discussion: The Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION on the BBC MEDIA PLAYER The Industrial Revolution, or roughly the period of time from 1750-1830, wrought myriad and lasting chances to the infrastructure of both British ... Read More
All of us at Art in the Age wish our friends and dear ones, near and far, a year of unbounded health and happiness. In 2011, may your harvests be abundant, ... Read More
News from the Tamworth Lyceum: A Video Introduction to Our Town
In August, we began a collaborative documentary project about the town of Tamworth, the Art in the Age Farm, the future Tamworth Lyceum building, and some of the friendly faces ... Read More
Granite State Infiltration: Where & How To Find ROOT For The Holidays!
My fellow New Hampshire-ites! Hie thee to the ROOT-ery! (aka - NH State Wine & Spirits Stores/Outlets) ROOT is now stocked at CLICK HERE FOR FULL STATE STORE LISTINGS A few notable stores ... Read More
ROOT Free or Die: Art in the Age Spirits in New Hampshire!
Art in the Age ROOT's arrival in New Hampshire Liquor Stores is definitely an occurrence not to be taken for granite. Residents of The Granite State/First State to Vote in National ... Read More
ROOT in VT: Photos from Yestermorrow Design/Build School’s Art Auction
A lively Saturday evening was spent in Waitsfield/Warren, VT at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School, perusing an array of beautiful works in a most impressive and warm environment. The eclectic pieces ... Read More
TONIGHT in VERMONT! ROOT at Yestermorrow Design/Build School’s 6th Annual Art Auction
VERMONTERS! Join us tonight at Yestermorrow Design/Build School, nestled at the border of Warren and Waitsfield, VT. The art auction "celebrates the diverse talents of the Yestermorrow Community" and all proceeds ... Read More
Musings from The Farm: “A Winter Eden”
A winter garden is a compost swamp, Where chickens now come out to sun and romp, As near a paradise as it can be And not melt snow or start a chestnut tree. So ... Read More
Portland, Maine Adventures – Day 2
Early to bed, early to rise, makes AITA-folk healthy and wise! Day 2 in Portland began with a very early morning walk to the East End & Munjoy Hill neighborhoods, ... Read More
Portland, Maine Adventures – Day 1
Ahoy, Maine-eys! Five hours and several cups of coffee later, we arrived on Maine's coast in the lively city of Portland! Two days of windswept hair, bellies full of fish, ... Read More
ROOT TRIP UPDATE: Putting Down ROOTs in Burlington, VT
A pleasant drive on winding mountain roads and a quick zip up I-89 led us to the lively city of Burlington, Vermont for two days. New friends were made, delicious ... Read More
TAMWORTH LYCEUM RENOVATION: Meet The Crew, The Project Begins…
We are pleased to introduce a roster of awesome & able individuals comprising the Tamworth Lyceum Renovation Crew. Over the next four months, we'll be restoring and re-designing the ground ... Read More
ROOT TRIP! Art in the Age Spirits Heads to North Country
Northward, ho! Art in the Age Spirits/ROOT are heading New England! Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine spirits stores, bars, and restaurants will all be getting their first tastes of ROOT ... Read More
SNAP Sumac-Ade at Terrain Campfires
During fall-time campfires hosted by the cafe at Terrain at Styer's in Glen Mills, PA, guests have been enjoying hot and cold beverages spiked with Art in the Age ROOT ... Read More
Art in the Age Founder Steven Grasse to Open Tamworth Lyceum
With ardent aims and buoyant spirits, we are proud to announce the newest project from Art in the Age founder, Steven Grasse...The Tamworth Lyceum (formerly The Tamworth Village Store). Betwixt ... Read More
Winterizing The Farm: “Putting The Gardens To Bed”
This past weekend, I "put the gardens to bed," as I've heard stated by others. 3 days of unexpected warmer temperatures and heavy rains created a bit of a pre-Winter ... Read More
AITA-Hens Survive Backyard Conflagration
Lesson Learned: DO NOT USE HEAT LAMPS for POULTRY!!! 9 am: Noted 20-degree Fahrenheit weather. Hung infrared poultry brooder/heat lamp in coop, turned on. 9:30 am: Happy Hens clucking contentedly. 1 pm: While ... Read More
The Economic Perplexities of Urban Agriculture
A recent Financial Times Article, "Multi-storey farms in a city centre near you" sheds light on the political and economic implications of building large-scale, impactful vertical farms in urban centers. ... Read More
OUTRAGE: WSJ…Americans <3 Fracking?!
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial comments on hydraulic fracturing in the Northeast. Holman Jenkins refers to hydraulic fracturing/"fracking" as a "new industry" in light of increased land holdings of ... Read More
Wonky Harvests & What To Do With Them
wonky (adj.) - shaky, groggy, unsteady (British slang) from Random House Dictionary 2010 All hail Harvest Season. All hail the nothing-short-of-amazing SUPER Harvest Moon last week. But what to do if ... Read More
Hay Ho, Let’s Go: The Final Harvest
Hay season/field restoration 2010 is drawing to a close! The results from Year One of restoration efforts are in: All of the fields responded well to treatments of calcium lime, ... Read More
Pond Restoration 101: Taking Back Leech-ey Lake
New Hampshire Agro-Paradise is missing something...a veritable old fashioned swimming (or...dipping?) hole! Below is a photograph of THE POND...smack dab in the middle of the front yard. Spring-fed, it was ... Read More
Putting Food By: Experiments in Preservation
Inspired by the advice in this classic tome, I've resolved to refrain (in as many ways as possible) from the grocery store for as long as my health can handle ... Read More
Elegy Written In A NH Barnyard: The Passing of Summer
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The pecking hens winds slowly o'er the lea, The groundskeeper homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the farm to darkness and to me. Now fades ... Read More
Autumn Arts Anticipation! Isaac Lin, Matt Neff at The Print Center
AITA Artists Isaac Lin and Matt Neff are both prolific & terrific! Just caught word of their simultaneous productions during September at The Print Center. Makeready 1: Isaac Tin Wei Lin: ... Read More
Organic Vegetable Tsunami Report
Until this week, I was unaware that northern New Hampshire was blessed with a Tsunami Season. I'd heard of Mud Season. Hell, I survived one already. Black Fly Season...old hat ... Read More
Recipe From The Farm: SNAP Raspberry Rhubarb Pie
INGREDIENTS CRUST 3 cups unbleached flour2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter3 tblsp. frigid cold water1 tsp. sea salt1 tblsp. sugar FILLING2 cups chopped fresh rhubarb2 cups raspberries1 tblsp. diced ginger1/4 cup SNAP1/4 cup ... Read More
SNAP USER GUIDE: Installment 5 – So This SNAP Walks Into A Party…
Unexpected company? Delight your guests and get the conversation started with a SNAP cocktail and a crispy ginger snap cookie! Not enough time to make a batch from scratch? Take ... Read More
SNAP USER GUIDE: Installment 4 – Oh, The Culinary Possibilities…
Now that you've wet your whistle, let's move on to filling your belly... Via home experimentation, I've found that in cooking, SNAP pairs well with fruits and other piquant flavors. It ... Read More
SNAP USER GUIDE: Installment 3 – Cocktails of Courage & Adventure
You've SNAP-ped; you've mixed; you've imbibed, and subsequently enjoyed. Where is the next frontier of SNAP home-mixing? "Just over that horizon" is actually no further than the pantry. A few ... Read More
SNAP USER GUIDE: Installment 2 – Simple SNAP Classics
So you've popped your first bottle of SNAP, slowly swirled the ginger liquid around your mouth, and perhaps tried adding a few drops of citrus, ginger ale, vinegar, or bourbon ... Read More
SNAP USER GUIDE: Installment 1 – SNAP-ing For The First Time
This weekend, I SNAP-ped for the very first time. It's now Monday, and I have no more SNAP. This is a good sign in my book, and I will share ... Read More
Adventures in Agronomy: First Vegetable Harvest!
Pictured: Cucumber Hugs This morning was spent reveling in utter disbelief and inexplicable relief that the shrubbery in the garden is now VEGETABLE-LADEN! After suffering from a week of ... Read More
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Walter Benjamin!
The progenitor of our namesake essay, Walter Benjamin, turns 118 years old today! Read all about Benjamin's philosophical contributions and our interpretation of his theories HERE So PARTY DOWN in His Honor ... Read More
La Fête Nationale: Happy Bastille Day!
Painting above: Claude Monet - The Fourteenth of July, 1878 Today is Bastille Day, The French National Holiday! Bastille Day commemorates the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in 1789; ... Read More
The First Fruits at The Farm: “Stay Gold, Berry-Joy, Stay Gold”
New Hampshire's first fruit is redHer tastiest hue, it's said. Her early leaves are berries; One needs a bucket to carry Then pink subsides to ruby. And fingers rose to duty, So we ... Read More
July is Roots & Branches Month!
Pictured above: Queen Victoria's Family Tree July is Roots & Branches Month! For once, I am NOT referring to trees or gardening! Roots & Branches month celebrates genealogy, the study of ... Read More
Cheering for the Under-Chicken: Pecking Order Theory
"Pecking order" is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as: 1. A hierarchy among a group, as of people, classes, or nations: "The astronauts had developed a pecking ... Read More
“Lebkuchen” was invented by German monks in the 12th century and first appeared in America in the late 1600s when German Anabaptists looking for religious freedom ... Read More
GARDEN UPDATE: Of Silver Bells, Cockle Shells, Pretty Maids, etc.
Q: Robin McDowell, Armed With A Trowel, How Does Your Garden Grow? A. With coyote pee... (a natural predator deterrent) and greenery... (Johnny's Seeds Wild Arugula, to be exact) ...and fluffy cats trampling ... Read More
Rob Roy Kelly’s American Wood Type 1828-1900: RE-ISSUED!
Delicious. The only appropriate word that comes to mind as I peruse the letter-laden pages of The Latest & Greatest News in Wood Type Land: The one and only comprehensive compendium ... Read More
CAUSE: Historic Gettysburg Casi-NO!!!
Pennsylvania businessman David LeVan (former Conrail CEO) has again brought a proposal before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for Mason Dixon Resort & Casino, a slots and table games establishment ... Read More
GARDEN UPDATE: “Ode On A Greenish Thumb”
THOU still unravish'd seed of quietness, Thou foster-child of Soil and slow Time, Sylvan landscape, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What ... Read More
Egg Bombs: The Hens Are Serious Business
The hens are getting serious about egg-laying. We are moving at a rate of 5-6 big brown eggs each day, and until more human company arrives, friends and neighbors are ... Read More
Hay Season 2010: We Get Organic With A Little Help From Our Friends
We are so stoked to be working with our neighbors at Schoolhouse Farm to restore the hay fields at the farm using best and organic practices, beginning this summer! Norman/Wendy/Schoolhouse ... Read More
This is what happens when shepherds with a little too much time on their hands get a hold of some high tech LED lights. These Welsh shepherds used their trusty ... Read More
Chicken Update: Terror In The Night!
We returned to the farm a recent evening to discover that some New Hampshire megafauna – coyotes, bears, foxes – had pilfered from our chicken coop. Where once ... Read More
Happy Birthday, Ralph Waldo Emerson!
On this day (May 25) in 1803, the essayist, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Today we know him as on of the "Founding Fathers" ... Read More
Go Outside! It’s Clean Air Month & Walk In The Woods Month
The forecast tells me that today will be 80 degrees. There is absolutely no excuse to not be outside! Breathing in the sweet spring air and seeking shade under the ... Read More
A Need for Local Beef: USDA Acknowledges the Horror of School Lunch Mystery Meats
America's public school students can look forward to lunchtime with a little less fear and fatalism. On Friday the USDA announced that it will require all ground beef purchased for ... Read More
This Month (and EVERY Month): Get Caught Reading!
Starting in 1999, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) celebrates May as Get Caught Reading Month. The movement to encourage kids and adults across the nation to read for fun ... Read More
The Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm Presents “Art of Homesteading” in June!
Photos from REMICKMUSEUM.ORG Attn: Tamworth-ians, New Hampshire-ites, and New Englanders! Join the Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm on June 16 from 5-7 pm for the opening ceremony for their new ... Read More
Energy Bill to Appear in Senate on Wednesday
In a month of climatic catastrophes and corresponding legislative travesties it is quite surprising that little attention has been paid to a significant and controversial energy bill, introduced into the Senate ... Read More
The Busiest Day in May: Start A Project, Salute The Armed Forces, Observe Moths
There is no such thing as a lazy Saturday during this busy month of Springtime haps! Check out what's on the plate for today, May 15: - Best Day To Start ... Read More
CAUSE UPDATE: Moratorium on Drilling Passes in the House
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed H.B. 2235 last week, a bill demanding a moratorium on further leases of state parks for natural gas drilling. Initiated by Haverford democrat Greg ... Read More
Organic Farming for the World?
image from BUSINESSWEEK.COM Among the debates over the movement toward organic and sustainable farming, the most contentious refers to the movement's scalability – could it work for the whole world? Is ... Read More
May is National Egg Month! (As declared by The American Egg Board) Why May? In April, egg sales soar for Easter preparations. After the holiday, hens across the nation are still laying ... Read More
Happy Birthday Ottmar Mergenthaler, Father of The Linotype!
Ottmar Mergenthaler, dubbed the 2nd Gutenberg by some, was born on this day, May 11 in 1854. Mr. Mergenthaler was a German inventor who birthed The Linotype Machine – an apparatus ... Read More
Raspberry Reveries, Chapter 1: And So It Begins…
2 humans + 8 hours + 2 wheelbarrows + 1000 prickly dead canes + 1 deer tick incident = THE BEGINNING OF RASPBERRY SEASON 2010!!! In 3 months time, our freshly ... Read More
Last Wednesday saw the arrival of seven organic hens to the Farm. A gift from a farmer in nearby Hancock, NH, they are mature White Plymouth Rocks, Black Australorps, and ... Read More
Resist Funding Cuts to PA Historical Sites!
While states across the country are slashing funds for their parks and historical sites – "the most aggressive threat and dismantling to state preservation programs everywhere," according to Adrian Fine, ... Read More
CAUSE REPORT: Stop Natural Gas Drilling in PA!
Over a mile below the earth's surface in many regions of Pennsylvania, there is a mostly untapped reservoir of natural gas in a type of dark rock form known as ... Read More
so much depends / upon / the white chickens
INSPIRATION: A-Frame Pasture Shelter featured in Backyard Poultry Magazine... OUR COOP COMIX: A Coop On Wheels! Imminent Omelets! THE PROCESS... Procure Lumber & Materials... 45 degree angle cuts... Assembling the A-frame... Height check... Pretty A's all in ... Read More
SPRING FARM UPDATE: These delights thy mind may move…
Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields.And we will sit upon compost heaps, Seeing ... Read More
EARTH DAY 1970: A Question of Survival, EARTH DAY 2010: A Question of Sustainability
This planet is threatened with destruction and we who live in it with death. The heavens reek. The waters below are foul. Children die in infancy. And we and the ... Read More
Security and Adventure pt. 3: Travails, Fruition
Since our last, exuberant, update, our seedlings and their keepers have led increasingly precarious lives. A seedling's first weeks are fraught with peril. Too much water, too little water, to ... Read More
VIDEO: Art in the Age & Printeresting Present…COPY JAM!
A fast & furious trip to Philly for the de-install of THE FARM luckily and happily coincided with another awesome event...COPY JAM! A Printeresting Curatorial Project... THE FORMULA One night + One ... Read More
Security and Adventure: Spreading Our Seed
We have spread our seed. We have installed into the good earth the first kernels of future feasting. Our closet laboratory (link to previous installment) is finally ... Read More
The Blushing of Spring: “The world is mud-luscious”
New-England-born poet, e.e. cummings described the view out my back door the best with his poem "In Just–"... In Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious ... Read More
Peepoo, and the Frontiers of Wastefulness
In the last few decades, the human race has made great strides to combat its unprecedented wastefulness, recycling, reducing, reusing, etc. Nonetheless, a final frontier has persisted unchallenged: that most ... Read More
The title of a recent New York Times article suggests a b-grade horror flick about animals run amuck in the big city, but the story actually reveals a phenomenon that is ... Read More
SLOW DESIGN: The Domesticity of The Avant-Garde and Other Tactile Tales
We're totally down with the philosophy of Slow Food. We support the strategy behind Slow Money. How about SLOW DESIGN? Hell, yes. A recent article in the Financial Times, "The Riches of Stitches," ... Read More
Security and Adventure Redux: Beasts and Men
While humans presently constitute one-half of the Farm's permanent residents (two people, two cats), they are soon to be outnumbered. This is not sci-fi prognostication but a mere expansion of ... Read More
“Security and Adventure”: Adventures in Agronomy Part 1
"Security and adventure might be considered opposites in some situations, but the gardener who raises plants from seeds can experience both..." (The New Seed Starter's Handbook). At the AITA Farm we've ... Read More
Cold nights, sunny days...New Hampshire has begun to shake off its winter torpor. This particular weather pattern is also the harbinger of Maple Sugar season! The expansion and contraction caused by ... Read More
Peter Menzel’s “What the World Eats”
We've spent the last hour poring over a fascinating series on Time's website by the California photojournalist Peter Menzel. In 2005 Menzel took a photographic survey of the diets of ... Read More
Recipe from The Farm: ROOT Vegetable Soup
Blizzard conditions in Philly got you down? Cooped up inside? Oddly enough, the New Hampshire snowline is receding. So instead of shoveling, we celebrated by creating this savory soup. If you've ... Read More
Whole Foods Health Plan – The Whole Answer?
As the obesity pandemic shows no sign of waning and government responses remain ineffectual, local interventions – variously simpleminded, whimsical, and inspired – are proliferating. In particular, John Mackey’s new ... Read More
Recent émigrés from the Keystone State - as well as keen environmentalists - we at the AITA Farm are aghast at recent developments that threaten our state's natural splendor. Recent months have ... Read More
FARM UPDATE: Preparing for The SHOW!
For the past few weeks, creative production has really amped up in preparation for THE FARM. At the expense, not gonna lie, of my precious sleeping-with-the-sun hours and a bit ... Read More
SVF Farm: Saving Heritage Breeds in Newport, RI
Earlier this month the Times printed a feature on the Swiss Village Foundation, a pioneering conservation project located on a historic farm in Newport, RI. The SVF is working to ... Read More
Think Locally, Act Locally: SEECLICKFIX In YOUR City!
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent... and His/Her Community! How can one voice be heard in a sea of urban chaos? ... Read More
Cookies for Grown-Ups: ROOT Gingerbread Variations!
Last night's -4 degree windchill did not put me in the mood to "Carpe P.M." So what better opportunity to do ALL of my Christmas baking? In addition to nut ... Read More
Mittens, Kittens & Toolbelts: My Favorite Things (Tamworth Remix)
My Favorite Things Rodgers & Hammerstein | Performed by Julie Andrews(Robin McDowell Remix + Slideshow - 12.13.09) ------------------ Snowdrifts on rooftops and whiskers on kittens, Bright iron woodstoves and warm SmartWool mittens, Sparse little ... Read More
The Compost Crusade Continues: Wilmington’s New Organic Recycling Center!
For those of you who attended the Vermicomposting Event at the Art In The Age Store in November (and those of us who are concerned citizens, interested in reducing our ... Read More
FARM UPDATE: Winter is icummen in; Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us
Thank you, Ezra Pound, for giving rhythm to my thoughts today. WINTER! That strange and wonderful fourth season is truly upon us...forsaken by many who flee to more southern terrain, ... Read More
