The 6th annual Tennessee Local Food Summit is at TSU’s downtown Avon Williams campus on December 2-4 this year. Local food means many more jobs, food security, better health and revitalizing family farms. According to Joel Salatin, “Local integrity food will enjoy a huge boost from the Tennessee Local Food Summit in December. For enthusiasm,…
Have you ever seen a hellbender? It is a two-foot long salamander that lives in the creeks that flow up to the Barren River. I’ve seen them twice, about 25 years ago, in the Long Hungry Creek. The state biologist and the curator of the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is looking for signs of hellbenders. We…
I don’t have to tell anyone that this has been an unusual summer. The unusually cool weather has extended green bean season, while parsley has suffered. This kind of give and take is expected when the weather does strange things. I count us lucky that tomatoes have been coming in well, since they really like it hot and…
The potatoes want to be harvested soon, too. The green tops are browning, and after they are dead for two weeks the skins will be tough enough to handle without peeling off. Then we’ll plow them up and get them in the cellar. Summer squash and cucumbers are finally appearing in all their glory, thoroughly…
A slow wet spring delayed garden work for a few weeks, but June found us busy as bees. The weeds are growing like weeds, and the vegetables are right behind them. It’s been a great growing season as long as you ignore the calendar. Monday deliveries of fresh produce have been lettuce, radish, onion, beet,…
by Jeff Poppen Beautiful and extremely productive gardens have graced that land around my cabin for the past 16 years. They have been well documented on the Volunteer Gardener program, so many people who hadn’t been able to visit still got to enjoy them. These gardens, open to the public, are where my students learn,…
If you are on Facebook, or if you received an email containing a message from Jeff, you may have seen the picture of Jeff’s house and the smaller tract of land that makes up Long Hungry Creek Farm, next to and dwarfed by the Cobb chicken houses just a few hundred feet up the hill…
by Jeff Poppen The produce grown along the Long Hungry creek has become priceless-we don’t sell it anymore. The invaluable, farm fresh food is now free, and the folks who eat it cover the farm’s budget. You can’t buy vegetables from us these days, you have to join the club and support the farm in…
by Jeff Poppen The Southeast Biodynamic Association was formed after our first annual conference in 1987. Realizing the value of shared experiences and observations, we agreed to gather together regularly, we think we are celebrating our silver anniversary, but our accounting may be off. Harvey Lisle called us the rebels, and insisted we hold our…