Packed with practical advice, The Seed Farmer by Dan Brisebois is a guide to everything from choosing seed crops to harvesting and resale. In this excerpt, Brisebois shares smart strategies to manage seed crops without disrupting your farm’s flow. It’s all about working smarter, not harder!
Book Excerpt
When Not to Use Technology for Connection
Social media can feel isolating and draining for many. In The Joy of Missing Out, Christina Crook explores how our tech-focused lives impact real connections and offers insights on finding balance, especially as the holiday season approaches.
This Holiday Season, Choose Vision Over Planning
In this excerpt, we explore Kumar’s view of elegant simplicity—how being present in the moment creates a sense of abundance, regardless of what’s under the tree. With a little intention, the holidays can shift from a time of giving to one of receiving peace, connection, and joy.
How to Unlock Smart Buying Decisions this Season
In The Better World Handbook, Ellis Jones makes it easy to shop more consciously by focusing on sustainability, fair labor, and community impact. This excerpt offers simple, practical tips to help you make choices that align with your values—without adding any extra stress to your day.
Take the Holidays Outside with these Family Activities
Even in winter, the outdoors helps manage stress and energy, especially during the holidays. Explore ideas from Everyone Wins and The Big Book of Nature Activities—because the best gift is our presence.
Unpacking Poverty: The Invisible Chains Holding Back Low-Income Nations
In Earth for All, the authors explore systemic barriers like heavy debt and a complicated trade system, emphasizing the urgent need for innovative solutions to empower nations facing poverty and climate change.
Resilient Agriculture in the Face of Global Challenges
In this excerpt from Resilient Agriculture, author Laura Lengnick describes moving away from a traditional “bounce-back” approach of agriculture to a broader, more innovative view rooted in social-ecological resilience.
What You Need To Know: Is Organic Food Really Better?
In this excerpt from Robert Pavlis’ Food Science for Gardeners, Pavlis clarifies what organic really means, addresses common myths, and explores the differences between local and larger-scale farming.
From Me to We: Embracing Systemic Change for a Better Climate Future
In How to Talk to Your Kids About Climate Change, author Harriet Shugarman provides a thoughtful guide for parents on how to discuss climate issues and systemic change with their children.
Climate Action vs. Personal Priorities: How To Find Harmony In Your Eco Journey
Even with widespread awareness of the urgent need to cut carbon emissions, many people continue to travel frequently. Sami Grover, author of ‘We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now’, explores this contradiction, focusing on how eco-conscious individuals often struggle to reduce high-impact behaviors like flying
Winter Farming: Using Simple Shelters to Protect Crops
Welcome to the world of winter gardening. As winter’s frosty blanket covers the landscape, growing and harvesting vegetables presents both a unique challenge and a rewarding adventure. In this excerpt from ‘The Winter Market Gardener’, Jean-Martin Fortier shares practical strategies and innovative ideas to help shelter your winter garden from the chill.
Develop A Winning Mediation Strategy: Expert Tips And Techniques
Conflict resolution and mediation offer invaluable tools to help bridge divides, fostering understanding and collaboration instead of escalation and discord.The Mediator’s Handbook by by Jennifer E. Beer, Caroline C. Packard, Eileen Stief, and Elizabeth Elwood Gates, offers a step-by-step guide to the art of finding common ground and transforming conflict into opportunities for growth and harmony.
Nature By Night: 2 Electrifying Activities Everyone Will Love
In this blog, we’ll explore two captivating nighttime activities from The Big Book of Nature Activities by Drew Monkman and Jacob Rodenburg that will spark curiosity and foster a deeper appreciation for the natural world. From glow-in-the-dark adventures to moonlit nature walks, these activities promise to turn any evening into a memorable exploration of the great outdoors.
Understanding the Magic of Inclusive Meetings
Creating inclusive meetings means more than just setting agendas and schedules—it’s about fostering environments where everyone feels valued and heard. In this excerpt from The Token, the author explores practical strategies for cultivating inclusive meeting spaces, from setting ground rules for respectful dialogue to embracing diverse viewpoints that enhance decision-making.
How to Play More, Connect Deeper and Reclaim Family Fun
This selection from Katharine Johnson Martinko’s Childhood Unplugged explores why reclaiming the freedom to play is crucial and emphasizes family time and relaxation to nurture healthier habits and stronger connections.
How To Manage Anger: 3 Proven Techniques For A Calmer You
In this excerpt from The Joy of Conflict Resolution, author Gary Harper goes over some key tools for managing anger and frustration—and avoiding avoidance—during conflict.
Unleash Your Backyard’s Potential: A Complete A To Z Of Fruit
Whether you’re a new or seasoned gardener, adding perennial fruits to your garden can be a fantastic way to dramatically increase your harvests. And if you’re dreaming of harvesting fruits…
Empower Yourself with Nonviolent Communication
To foster mutual understanding and master nonviolent communication, we must merge diverse viewpoints through meaningful conversations, actively listening, reflecting, and striving for clarity to bridge perspectives and cultivate genuine understanding.
How to Cook Successfully for Large Numbers of People
Whether it’s a family reunion, a festive holiday meal, or a summer BBQ get-together, cooking for a crowd is all about planning ahead, getting creative, and keeping things organized. These tips from Hollyhock Cooks: Food to Nourish Body, Mind and Soil will help you to make your next big cooking adventure a delicious success!
Most Good For The Least Harm (MOGO)
The Solutionary Way paints a vivid picture of the everyday choices we make, and gently nudges us toward a more thoughtful approach to our ethical compass.
Patterns of Evolution
In this excerpt from The Regeneration Handbook, author Don Hall explores the concept of balance and how it dynamically manifests in nature and evolution.
The Lens of Upfront Carbon
In this excerpt, Alter outlines the two sides of the carbon-emission reduction battleground – the supply side and the demand side – and why one might be the more important one to pay attention to in order to mitigate climate change.
Make Mobility More Sustainable
In How We Gather Matters, Leor Rotchild shows how partnering a bicycle service, Cyclepalooza, and the Calgary Stampede was a perfect match.
What Will Happen to the Ocean During Climate Collapse?
Understanding the core revenue streams of your farm is vital for strategic planning and sustainability. It enables informed decision-making on resource allocation, investment, and diversification. By identifying profitable avenues, farmers can optimize operations, mitigate risks, and adapt to market fluctuations, ensuring long-term profitability and resilience in the agricultural sector.
Why Does My Garden Not Look Like The Garden Writers?
Have you ever wondered why no matter how hard you try, your garden looks nothing like the gardens in the gardening columns? You aren’t alone! In The Intelligent Gardener, Steve Solomon explains why it can be hard – if not impossible – to achieve the same results as those in the gardening columns.
How to Harvest and Use Wild Ginger
Did you know that you can forage for many delicious and important plants this early in the season? In Foraging As A Way Of Life, Mikaela Cannon outlines an entire year of foraging. In early spring, she looks to wild ginger, weeping willow, Norway maple, kinnikinnick and early blue violet. Today, we’re taking a look at the uses and harvesting of wild ginger.
It’s Time for Cob Building to Come out of the Woods
I am probably the first person in history to have written or co-written three books on cob construction, an ancient method of earthen building that has been enjoying a revival of interest around the world since the 1990s. This somewhat dubious achievement demands justification. Why would anyone write three books on the same apparently marginal topic?
Understand What Makes Your Farm Money, and Why
Understanding the core revenue streams of your farm is vital for strategic planning and sustainability. It enables informed decision-making on resource allocation, investment, and diversification. By identifying profitable avenues, farmers can optimize operations, mitigate risks, and adapt to market fluctuations, ensuring long-term profitability and resilience in the agricultural sector.
Revolutionizing Fire: Indigenous Insights for Ecological Harmony
For many of us in North America, the thought of fire season is far away — a problem for the summer. However, for Osprey Orielle Lake, the memory of the 2018 Camp Fire is never far and it represents several of the overwhelming results of the much wider climate crisis
Environmental Benefits and Performance of Cob Construction
Essential Cob Construction sets the new standard for cob construction by incorporating rigorous, up-to-date engineering and building science, along with decades of practical lessons learned.
Let’s explore the environmental benefits and the performance of cob-constructed buildings in this excerpt below.
What Do I Need to Know to Design a Rainwater Harvesting System?
Over the past few years, many people have been looking to rainwater harvesting systems to help ease the anxiety of unreliable weather. If this has been something you’ve been dreaming of adding to your property, Michelle and Rob Avis outline everything you need to get started in Essential Rainwater Harvesting: A Guide to Home-Scale System Design.
Ideas for At-Home Holiday Fun: Winter Scavenger Hunt for Kids
At one point, we all need to get up and take a break from reading. Even the most prolific readers eventually must stretch their legs. Why not learn while you exercise with this great activity from The Big Book of Nature Activities: A Year-Round Guide to Outdoor Learning?
Have You Ever Dreamt of Having a Roof Capable of Producing Food?
While we move through our holiday sale, today we’re dreaming of a green roof that isn’t only beautiful and insulating but is also capable of growing food. Places such as Noble Rot Restaurant in Portland, Oregon (USA) and Ryerson Urban Farm in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) are already producing food on their roofs.
Capital-Labor Relationship
In an ever-evolving world, does it make sense to use a 200-year old theory of trickle-down economics as the primary instrument for our economic system? In the fifth edition of Toward Sustainable Communities, a new tool is introduced to measure the environmental, economic, and social benefits of complex community and regional decisions. Today’s excerpt looks at the relationship between labor and capital through that lens, and provides a glimpse of what a community might be like if we imagined a new tool to measure success.
Natural Plasters and Climate Change: Plastering in a New Paradigm
Tina Therrien, co-author of Essential Natural Plasters, has been working with natural plasters for decades. Today, Tina examines the role of natural plasters in adapting buildings within the context of global warming and climate change.
Why Is Wealth Important For Community Resilience?
Is there a secret to resilient systems? Laura Lengnick believes there are key behaviors and characteristics in resilient systems that help them operate. In Resilient Agriculture, Second Edition, she outlines these key elements into three rules.
A Cultural History of Coppice Agroforestry
Understanding its cultural history is an important piece in understanding how coppice continues to evolve to meet our needs. In an excerpt from his book, Mark Krawcyzk shares a brief overview of that rich history below.
How To Quickly Harvest and Store Your Produce
For Jean-Martin, efficient harvesting is paramount to a successful market business. In this excerpt from The Market Gardener, he shares his years of market farming experience and outlines some commonly grown crops, along with their most efficient methods of harvest.
How Does French Market Gardening Influences Current Gardening Techniques?
Throughout time farmers everywhere have found solutions to extend their harvest and growing season. It feels like a dream that someone could enjoy fresh snow and fresh produce simultaneously, yet Jean-Martin Fortier and Catherine Sylvestre have done just that and now you can too!
Climate Week 2023: The Greatest Economy You’ve Never Heard Of
In this fascinating excerpt from Escape From Overshoot, we explore the possibility of a wellbeing economy and highlight the inner workings of countries that are trying it out.
Climate Week 2023: COVID-19’s Surprise Positive Impact on Climate
Steven Earle was writing A Brief History of the Earth’s Climate as the pandemic unfolded, and captured some of the surprising impacts that the global shift had on the climate.
Climate Week 2023: Are We All In A State Of Climate Crisis Denial?
It’s hard to imagine those speaking at NY Climate Week self-identifying as being in climate denial but that’s exactly what Andrew Boyd does, kind of. Read what Andrew says the first stage of denial looks like by checking out this excerpt from I Want A Better Catastrophe.
Why You Need Microbes and Bioinoculants For A Better Garden
Microscopic organisms are as important to plant growth as water and light. In Microbe Science for Gardeners, Robert Pavlis highlights the essential role of microbes in plant biosystems and soil health, while providing an objective, common-sense analysis of recently popularized practices such as controlling fungal-to-bacterial ratios and applying biostimulants, compost tea, or plant probiotics.
Pacific Northwest Planting Calendar for August, September, October and November
Do you know what you should be planting in your garden in August, September, October and November? Linda Gilkeson does! We’ve taken an excerpt from the book outlining what Linda recommends you should do in your garden in the Pacific Northwest from now until November.
Take a Digital Detox
Today’s world, for many of us, has become increasingly tech-focused. We start and end our days focused on phones, tablets, and computers, surfing news and social media.
In The Joy of Missing Out, author Christina Crook delves into the impacts our wired world is having on us individually and as a society, and suggests achievable options for taking breaks and reclaiming our control over technology.
August Planting for Autumn Feasting
Planting vegetables in the middle of summer seems wrong – but most temperate gardens can yield a second harvest in autumn. In August, try planting hardy greens along with root vegetables like beets and carrots, and enjoy another round of garden-fresh food through the fall.
The basics of rainwater harvesting
Rainwater collection can help ease pressure on both local watersheds as well as regional water infrastructure, while also providing some peace of mind to the homeowner – and a lower water bill.
Essential Rainwater Harvesting provides tools and information, along with step-by-step design help, to build an effective collection system that’s tailored to your situation.
How Change Actually Happens
Today, we share an excerpt from Sami Grover’s We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now, which discusses change and how to make it happen.