Blog
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
After the holidays I had several empty bottles of ROOT on hand. In what might be called a Wardian moment, I wondered if the bottles would make suitable terrariums. ... 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
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
A Museum of Early American Tools…AITA-Farm-Style!
A recent article in The Inquirer ("They Dig Garden Tools" - 11/20/09) featured Harold Sweetman, Director of The Jenkins Arboretum, who is also a collector of "horticultural antiques." Stated more ... Read More
AITA Adventures Abroad: Discussing The Farm in Europe
Some entertaining tidbits from my recent trip across the pond...I was surprised and delighted to discover that at least the IDEA of the New American Organic "Farmer" seems to be ... Read More
Vermicomposting at Art in the Age
Vermicomposting at Art in the AgeUrban/Small space composting made easy Interested in greening your life by composting, but not sure how? Come to Art in the Age on November 18th at ... Read More
Blooming Glen Farm - CSA, Farmers’ Markets and Harvest Fests
Tom Murtha and Tricia Borneman have been farming together for seven years and have worked in all avenues of farming in CT, OR, NJ and PA. They have returned to ... Read More
VIDEO TOUR: The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association Common Ground Fair!
A follow-up to last week's photo tour. See wool spinning in action, a walk through the poultry exhibition hall, and an Organic Farming Parade! Read More
PHOTO TOUR: The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association Common Ground Fair!
En route to The MOFGA Common Ground Fair... Maine is more sparse than New Hampshire (if you can believe it!). Great, vast old properties like this one... Walking with the crowds across ... Read More
The maple trees are blushing red everywhere you look. Mornings and evenings are chilly and crisp. And so we celebrate the advent of autumn in New England with warm mulled ... Read More
ROOT & Maine ROOT: A Mix n’ Match Made in Heaven (aka New England)
Call me a hopeless romantic, but I've always secretly retained this idea that Prince Charming actually existed. And furthermore, that Prince Perfectly-Chiseled-Cheekbones-Who-Is-Also-An-Able-Carpenter, my island in an ocean of worldly chaos, ... Read More
“Livestock” Update: Ah, The Circle of Life!
Chai caught her first mouse last week. This event was the source of great pride, as well as confusion (on both Chai and my own parts). At 10-weeks old, Chai was ... Read More
The Beginning of a Beautiful Organic Garden at The Farm
A Nursery (no pun intended) Rhyme for Tamworth, NH Robin, RobinAccustomed to bloggin'How does your garden grow?With blisters and sweatIn a rivuletAnd hours of roto-tillingAll in a row -------------------------- Reading, Riting, and 'Rithmetic ... Read More
ROOT Entertaining Tip: Sweet Organic Mixers!
This has been an AWESOME shopping week for me. (Whodathunk, all the way up here!) On Tuesday, I visited Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a historical seaside town with a KILLER health ... Read More
A Week of Farm Firsts: Zucchini, Compost Heaps, and Pigs
This is a week of firsts. I think my farming cherry (tomato) has been officially popped. The squash I planted outside my kitchen door, after a long hard, fruitless and rainy ... Read More
What to do with our harvest of raspberries?! Freeze em? Dry em? Put em in a pie? I thought I'd try my hand at making jam without fancy canners or machines. ... Read More
MONDAY: Fall Veggie Garden Workshop!
This Monday from 6:30 to 8pm, horticulturalist Sally McCabe will be talking city gardens--more specifically, fall-vegetable city gardens. So come out to Philadelphia Community College and learn about plant selection, ... Read More
ROOT Cocktail of the Week: Ginger ROOT Sling
The ROOT Competition at Silk City brought together 14 talented baretenders, with a few of them shining over the rest. The top 4 recipes the took the judges for a ... Read More
ROOT Entertaining Tip: Empty Bottle Bouquets
SUNG SEA SHANTY DU JOUR: What do you do with a drunken sailor / What do you do with a drunken sailor / What do you do with a drunken sailor ... Read More
A Treatise On Fruits & Creatures of Solitude
There is a lot to be said (not out loud) for learning to live alone. Becoming sincerely comfortable with a generally solitary day-to-day is truly a skill that one must ... Read More
AGRO-FABulous: Agriculture Enters The Discourse of Site-Specific Installation
WATCH OUT CHRISTO & JEANNE-CLAUDE! I'm coming down the tracks with a 4 foot long roll of white, gauzy fabric! I'm ready to wrap the immediate landscape like you've never ... Read More
ROOT Entertaining Tip: Show Off Your Green Thumb with Savory Herb Garnishes!
'Tis the season for fresh EVERYTHING, especially fresh herbs. Many savory varieties can be grown in pots or in a windowbox (living in a city is NOT an excuse!). Seasonal summer ... Read More
DEATH’S SCYTHE: A Tribute to Farm Tools, Old and New
Another change that I am slowly easing into, is that over the course of the day, excluding any meetings with maintenance/repair people, I don't say very much out loud. My ... Read More
One of the coolest things about the summer (not literally) is the hay season. For years, a local farmer has planted, fertilized, and harvested 3 hay fields on the property ... Read More
The New Hampshire Scoreboard - Insects: 1, Robin: 0
It is said, in jest, that New Hampshire's REAL State Bird is the Black Fly. I say, NOT in jest, that New Hampshire's REAL State Bird is The Black Fly, The ... Read More
Farm Happenings: Electricity, Eggs, & Chard!
The rain in New Hampshire falls mainly on the... Everywhere. All the time. Non-stop... Since I arrived. But no use crying over spilled precipitation. Onward & upward! I've been delighted by the following items ... Read More
Tamworth, Ho! The Commencement of Farm Transmissions
I drove for eight hours with an enormous suitcase in a Chevy Suburban the size of my first dorm room and arrived, unscathed, in Tamworth. I drove through what is called ... Read More
FARMADELPHIA: An Interview with Yen Ha & Michi Yanagashita of Front Studio
Philadelphia has much to offer visitors and residents alike - from the swank Avenue of the Arts, to the cobblestone streets of Old City, to the ethnic flavors of the ... Read More
I am psyched to start composting for my future vegetable garden! I can have the satisfaction of reducing my contribution to the overflowing landfills of the world by turning trash ... Read More
A Relevant Summer Reading List thus far: Look To The Mountain by LeGrand Cannon, Jr. Summer Cottages In The White Mountains by Bryant F. Tolles, Jr. Great Hill Farm is featured in here... Country ... Read More
A New, New Hampshire Life: Looking Forward
As a foil to my previous list of things to miss about urban living in Philadelphia, I present a modest pictorial list of what I am anticipating this summer and ... Read More
