The U.S. is losing farmland at record rates. Agricultural conservation easements can ensure farmland is protected forever and accessible to the next generation for farming into the future. SPONSORED Amid a nationwide land run on rural, recreational property that’s inflated land values, sending many existing farmers packing and limiting the accessibility of farmland to the…
edible stories
Farmland for the Future: Preservation Programs Help Farmers Continue to Own and Access Viable Land
By Nicole Rasul
Hemp Season
With the recent legalization of hemp at the federal and state levels, Indiana’s growers are committed to learning the crop. In Indiana’s Miami County, Mark Boyer manages 1,250 acres, which he mostly devotes to corn, soybeans, and wheat, just like the slew of midwestern farmers all around him. On 350 of these acres, however, Boyer…
Backcountry Bounty
Hunting elk on New Mexico public land I walk briskly but cautiously, traversing the rugged desert mountain. I listen for the hair-raising sound of rattles as my boots land, knowing this mountain’s grassy slopes and scree piles hold their fair share of banded rock rattlesnakes. Although beautifully marked with grey and black bands, I don’t…
By Tracey Ryder
Sustaining a Legacy: Kay Cornelius Takes the Helm of Panorama Organic Grass-fed Meats
To do agriculture right means that the ecosystem you are applying to it must benefit and sustain people, planet, animals and community. Or put another way, it is to look Mother Nature squarely in the eye and not blink. It means cooperation with, and constant observation of, our natural resources from soil to sky. It…
By Rick Cohler
Marquette Grape
Pioneering grape carries an appropriate name. Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette was two weeks shy of his 36th birthday while his exploration partner Louis Joliet was a 27-year-old philosophy student turned fur trader when they left St. Ignace, at the head of Lake Michigan, on May 17, 1673. In two canoes paddled by five voyageurs, they…
Lovage Love
It’s easy to love this lesser-known, celery-like herb. I fell in love with lovage long before I ever tasted it. The day my husband’s elderly Uncle Bernie painted a romantic vision of how this herb of his yesteryear could elevate one’s cooking to the next level, I knew I must have it. Surely, I would…