It’s September, and to many gardeners, that means it’s time for end-of-the-year garden maintenance. This includes cutting back plants, clearing out leaves and composting most of the vegetation that grew this season. Before continuing the normal routine, it’s a good time to step back and think about ...

Okay, so the difference between summer squash and winter squash isn’t that big. The biggest difference is simply the amount of time they spend on the vine. Summer squash varieties usually only spend between 40 and 60 days on the vine, making their skins more tender. Winter squashes can spend 120 day...

Depending on where you live, your fall fairs may take place before school starts or after school starts. For me, the annual family visit to the Herkimer County Fair always signified one more week of freedom before another school year. But fairs are far more important than simply being a way for chil...

It’s about time to get started on your autumn garden. While it’s viable to find starts at the local farmers market, or the nearby hardware store, nothing is more rewarding than starting your entire garden from seed. That’s why we’ve decided to put all those preparations in one place. We’ll discuss w...

Milkweed is a critically important plant for the monarch butterfly, which is threatened with extinction. The monarch caterpillar uses milkweed as its primary food source, and its powerful flowers provide nectar for countless butterflies, bees and insects. If you stop and observe a milkweed plant in ...

The magic of secondhand treasures, the practicality of thrifting your wardrobe and the importance of sustainable fashion When I write, I tend to veer into nostalgia quite a lot. While that can easily become weary and overdrawn, I just can’t help it. I didn’t have a perfect childhood (who does? and m...

So, you have decided to raise livestock. You can sell meat as retail cuts, requiring a USDA licensed slaughterhouse. Or you can sell animals as halves, wholes or quarters instead of retail cuts. In this second scenario, you sell the live animal to your customers but deliver it to a Custom Exempt sla...

Raising sheep or goats for profit can be a satisfying enterprise. However, there are a number of management skills that each sheep or goat producer should have to be successful. Each livestock enterprise has different resources: land, labor, capital, feed and management. To raise sheep or goats sust...

While summer provides a bounty of fruits, veggies and flowers, it also brings invasive species. Common invasive species that you might find in your garden or landscape often started out as decorative landscape plants. Plants like knotweed, goutweed, burning bush and Japanese barberry were once impor...