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Flooded Gardens: Produce safety is key
Many of us watched in horror as flood waters ravaged communities around West Virginia over the last week or so. The flooding has been devastating with lives lost, homes lost and memories washed away....
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Summer sweets: bramble on and on and on
High summer means many favorite fruits are ripening. Peaches are probably one of my favorites (an inherited trait from my grandfather), and backyard trees and bins at the farmers market are filled with...
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Regrowth after floods isn’t easy
A farmer new to Clendenin watched as the fence posts placed around her future strawberry field just one day earlier washed away one by one in the raging flood waters. An older gentleman on the other...
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Defense against summer diseases and pests
The long, sultry days of summer roll on, bringing the heat, humidity and occasional storm. The vegetable garden is churning along, relishing the heat and pumping out a bounty of flavors and colors. The...
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A visit with celebrity gardener P. Allen Smith
As I stepped down off the perfectly air-conditioned tour bus, the oppressive 105 degree heat and humidity slapped me squarely in the face. After taking a moment to gather my bearings, I joined the rest...
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Seed Saving and Plant Sex Ed
Last weekend, despite not having quite recovered from my before-dawn flight from Arkansas the day before, I traveled to the little town of Cowen to teach a fresh crop of Master Gardeners about botany....
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Add a taste of Asia to the garden
Do your taste buds yearn for flavors beyond that of the usual vegetable garden suspects? Looking for something tasty and easy to grow in the cool season fall or spring gardens? There are some new...
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Finding the right grass for your lawn
Soon, the hot and sunny summer will give way to cooler fall temperatures, color-changing leaves and the autumn rituals of leaf raking and football. As we prepare for the home stretch to the end of...
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Local Gardeners/Farmers Shine at WV State Fair
Each year I make the pilgrimage from Charleston to Fairlea, near Lewisburg, for the State Fair of West Virginia. I love fairs and have fun at the fair. I love the fair so much that I camp with friends...
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Collecting and Storing Saved Seed
Now summer is progressing into fall, and many fruits, vegetables and flowers are reaching the right point for collecting and saving seeds. I thought I’d write more about the actual process of saving...
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Pickin’ up a pawpaw, put it in the garden
Walk in the West Virginia woods in September and you may find a sweet treat that many old-timers who grew up in the Mountain State remember fondly from their youth. In the understory and the edges of...
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Preserving the harvest – canning, drying, freezing
The end of the summer growing season and the beginning of fall is a great time to talk about saving produce for the winter. Sure, there was probably more variety and even quantity in the garden and at...
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Picking the perfect pumpkin – for carving or for eating
Now that the calendar has officially signaled the beginning of autumn and has dipped over into October, pumpkins are popping up all over the place. But did you know that there are lots of different...
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Keep the Garden Going through the Cold Months
Now that there’s a chill in the air and the colors of autumn creep through the hills and hollows, most people are ending their gardens for the winter. They’re pulling up spent vegetable plants,...
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Planting garlic, shallots, and perennial onions
Autumn is probably my favorite season. The cool, crisp air and the colors are definite big reasons, plus it is a season where great things happen — like my birthday. The cool weather last week prompted...
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A sustainability tour of West Virginia farms
One of the experiences that has shaped the way I approach my work is a fellowship I participated in a few years ago through the SARE program. SARE stands for Sustainable Agriculture Research and...
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Good eats or evil spirits: Origins of the pumpkins we eat and the ones we don’t
This time of year, some people go pumpkin crazy. I’ll admit that I do like pumpkin — from pie and other desserts to beer. I’m not so sure about other pumpkin items these days, like cereals, cosmetics...
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Sunchokes – Trendy food from flowers
During the summer, a giant found a home in my garden. Standing tall near the back gate of the house, the green giant reached at least 12 feet in the air — sticking its arms out wildly and looking like...
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Lichens: A lesson on how to get along
They’re delicate, but tough; beautiful, yet crusty. They’re also found almost everywhere, but you probably don’t pay them much attention. They grow in patches on rocks, trees, buildings and just about...
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Sage advice for Thanksgiving
There are certainly several flavors that are linked with the celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday. A few of the flavors are native to the United States, or at least the Americas, like cranberries...
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