MOTHER EARTH NEWS

I come from generations of corn growers. Not corn in the modern commercial sense, but corn in the smaller, regionally adapted and cultural sense. For decades, I grew open-pollinated corns that my great-grandfather, grandfather, and father grew for st

During summer 2018, my husband and I began searching fora country home, and we found our dream house. It sat on a 2-acre lot with lots of open space, and was surrounded by trees on all sides. It was love at first sight. Then came the home inspection.

Readers’ 50th anniversary letters are marked with a gold star.50 For years, I’ve read and admired the folks who’ve appeared in MOTHER EARTH NEWS, Grit, and Backwoods Home Magazine. I’ve longed to live on a farm and be self-sufficient. I’ve dreamed of

As the recipe, first dubbed “fire cider” by Rosemary Gladstar in the early 1970s, spread, herbalists prepared their own proprietary versions and took them to market. For example, herbalist Nicole Telkes, director of the Wildflower School of Botanical

We’re experiencing unbridled divisiveness in North America today. Yes, we’ve always had cultural differences, and those differences have inevitably led to social and political countercurrents as well as periodic conflicts. But that doesn’t mean we’re

In my grandfather’s day, you could get world-class corned beef from a half-dozen delis and meat markets up and down Delancey Street in New York City. But how did Irish corned beef get from the Emerald Isle to New York-style delicatessens? Cooking aut

I started foraging in the 1960s. When I was about 3 years old, my great-grandmother took me to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, where she taught me how to identify a dandelion plant. We brought home a bagful of leaf rosettes (the leaves all connecte

If you suffer from chronic respiratory issues, such as asthma, chest congestion, chronic bronchitis, or allergies, take comfort in some of the wonderful lung tonic herbs you can grow in your backyard: mullein (Verbascum thapsus), horehound (Marrubium

Standing in a friend’s garden, I was assured that the small, red pepper in my hand would be safe to eat. “Take a bite!” she said. “I swear it’s not hot.” The pepper in question looked and smelled exactly like a habanero, one of the hottest peppers in

Each year, excited but nervous goat owners wait impatiently for their first kids. I’ve been raising goats for about four years, and I’ve been breeding for under two. Being new to goat breeding, I have a lot of insight into the fears and worries that

As a containment system for livestock, a well-made electric fence can be both highly effective and relatively low maintenance. I’m not opposed to other methods of fencing, such as barbed wire; I’m just opposed to paying for them. If you already have

I’ve used several homemade brooders for brooding and raising quail over the years. Storage tote models work well, especially if you’re just starting out. After brooding several generations of chicks, though, I decided to design a sturdy, durable broo

You’ve decided to take the financial plunge because your back just won’t take all the lifting. You’ve put off those earth-moving projects long enough, but you need a machine that can do much more than dig. In two years, you want to make a little hay,

On average, 1 bushel of apples will yield 3 to 31⁄2 gallons of cider. If you have an apple tree or two, or otherwise harvest apples in bulk, that can result in a lot of cider — likely more than you care to consume fresh. In the past, apple cider was

In the eastern United States, a common hardwood tree, the yellow poplar, serves to benefit not only wildlife, but people as well. Yellow poplar, also known as “tulip tree,” isn’t actually in the same family as other poplar trees. Learning to identify

Show your love of Mother Earth News and help celebrate our 50th year with the new, limited edition 50th Anniversary T-Shirt! Whether your skimming through the current issue or working on your next project, this shirt is perfect for the job. Made with

You can. I do use some plastic plug flats, pots, and trays of cell packs, but I also like to use homemade wooden trays, because I can grow big, sturdy plants in them, and then reuse the flats year after year. Choose a standard size for your flats, to