“I Just Don’t Have a Green T...

Sun Dog Farm is living true to its name as the Sun has been out everyday for what feels like months.  We haven’t had a decent rain and many of our Spring time crops are showing signs of stress.  We are fortunate to have a deep well that has given us hope and kept our plants alive through the arid 90 degree weather.  Our chickens have done well enough laying eggs everyday and our other livestock have made the best of it by staying under the shade of trees and in areas of cool, dense brush.  The Summer crops seem to grow a foot a day; Tomatoes already whispering...

Transplanting Flats and Agri-Bats

Well Georgia, you have officially made me a wimp to cold weather.  I knew it was happening long before I admitted it, but at last here we are.  It is about 50 degrees outside and I am huddled inside, bundled up complete with soft slippers and my geek gear (sweatpants and a Star Wars t-shirt I bought for 2 dollars at Goodwill a year ago.)  My cold blooded Yankee past is starting to mix with the warm sugary ways of the South and I find myself very confused and concerned for the rest of the Country when I hear about temperatures in the 20′s and snow on the ground. ...

The Last Passenger Pigeon

I was recently reading a short literary work by Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) entitled “The Last Passenger Pigeon” and it, of course, took my mind to so many deep and horrifying places of thought that  I woke in the middle of the night with the need to write.  The piece examines the world she grew up in, where people were still settling this country, burning down old growth forest here and there, everyday, cutting their paths through the endless woods.  She remembers when water was abundant and quail were so many that her parents would often let them...

Join Us at the Farm to Table!

Every night I close my eyes and dream.  I dream of events from the day carelessly mixed with memories and elaborate confusions.  Every night time is spent lost in my mind where all of my worries, excitements, insecurities, anxieties, and fantasies go to tea together.  The only thing consistent about them, or the passing of them, is that when I wake in the morning, Sun Dog Farm is one day closer to Spring. Being one day closer to Spring, everyday, is a little intimidating and mostly exciting all at the same time.  Our greenhouse has finally been dressed and newly sown...

We’re all in 2011 Together

World!  It is 2011!  It is 2011 and there is so much to do, so much good to replace bad, so much healing of humans, wildlife, ecosystems, and communities.  There is an ever evolving list of things to become more conscious of as we move into a future less connected to the land.  It is 2011 and we are losing important habitats all over the world at an alarming rate, changing the world in ways we don’t even realize will eventually change us.  We are relying more and more on technological advances in medicine to keep up with our unhealthy lifestyles.  We are less...

Christmas Outside the Box

It’s that time of year again!  If you haven’t already heard your favorite Christmas song to the point of disgust then you clearly haven’t made yourself available to the Christmas Spirit!  It’s on the radio, lighting up in the trees, the clearance racks, and ribbons and pine can be found scattered all about homes and shopping centers.  The smell of cinnamon, holiday flavored lattes, evergreens, and credit card machines has everyone drooling.  We don’t have a TV, but I can just imagine the seductive commercials of kitchen gadgets, toys, flat screens, fashion...

Our Biodynamic Brains

We can finally say that all of the garlic has found it’s home in our freshly cultivated soil.  With a light dose of lime, bone meal, compost, and wood ash from the fire place in the areas directly under the highly acidic pine tree, the last of the cloves have entered the soil just as the first in the ground have started to sprout.  After a sunny Sunday dedicated to finishing the task and patching up blank spots in our cover cropped acres, we can now start planning for a late onion planting and the division of our new field into zones dedicated to a proper plant...

The Holidays Taste Familiar

Something about the softness of a cloudy day stirred up with the spontaneous fires and sparks of changing leaves always steers my dreaming towards childhood memories and family gatherings.  Maybe it is the chill of the weather that brings us together over food and libations, sharing our mysteries and retelling the oldies but goodies.  I anxiously await a table full of handcrafted creations, shared and passed by many hands before it is plopped down in front of me, steaming and smelling of traditions kept. As my emotions orbit the upcoming holiday festivities of...