Author Archives: Virtual Farmgirl

Hoosier Outsider is hardly the only one openly lamenting the sudden disappearance of bees…At least not anymore. The Chicago Tribune editors get it. They published an editorial on Friday, which starts: If you haven’t watched the dance of bees, either in the hive or on clover or in the air, then you may not understandContinue reading “Longing for a Good Buzz”

Because I’m still reeling from my move to, ironically and wonderfully, a more urban area, I’m going to rely on Hoosier Outsider for today’s post. Here are his recent thoughts (with “Endangered” photo) on our disappearing pollinators: [G]ot a lot of pix of farms and farming since the weather changed this week but this oneContinue reading “Missing Bees”

Impressed by the beauty and versatility of lavender, my family has been checking out how to grow the stuff in Indiana. Turns out it can be done, and with farmgirl style. Dad turned my attention to these farms — Willowfield Lavender Farm and Carolee’s Herb Farm, one just south of Indianapolis, the other (the state’sContinue reading “The Power of Purple”

I had no idea that to get started as a beekeeping hobbyist, you can get just about everything you need via mail order. Indeed, according to the Newburyport Daily News, postal workers throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire began delivering 3-pound packages, each containing: one queen bee and 12,000 drones and worker bees. The story coversContinue reading “Special Delivery: Bee Colonies”

No sleep for me tonight, so while surfing, I was happy to discover this charming article full of Farmgirl anecdotes about raising and shearing the uber soft alpaca. Virginia’s Daily Press covered a shearing open house that, in addition to a big round of haircuts for the alpacas, featured weaving and spinning demonstrations. The openContinue reading “Raising Alpacas a 'Shear Delight'”

Students at Montana State University have partnered with a local food bank to grow fresh vegetables and educate a community about the value of growing food locally. The students — Friends of Local Foods — in the ag department have taken over two acres, first thinking they’d provide food for the school. But then theyContinue reading “Students Grown 'Green Billboard' for Local Veggies”

Inspired by European grass-based dairies while serving in the military, Iraqi War veteran Michael Diehn is trying his hand at farming in Minnesota, according to the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Diehn, who after being wounded in a land mine explosion served a second tour of duty in Iraq, is drawing on his farm roots while he worksContinue reading “Iraqi War Vet Finds Peace in Farming”

Urban farming visionary Dr. Dickson Despommier made the pages of this week’s New York magazine, which published this story about the microbiologist’s dreams of converting skyscrapers into vertical farms. Despommier believes, as recounted in NY mag, that “only by allowing significant portions of the Earth’s farmland to return to forest do we have a realContinue reading “Skyscraper Farming in New York City?”

One of my urban-dwelling friends turned my attention to this piece today in the Chicago Tribune about “city slickers” being drawn in to hobby farming. “Lifestyle” farms apparently make up half of the 2.1 million American farms, according to the USDA, and are increasing at a 2 percent pace per year. The Trib notes thatContinue reading “Lavender Fields Forever”

I was looking for some good news to post on this glorious Easter day and homed in on this story in the Kansas City Star. At first I thought it would be about a working farm, surviving as suburbia surrounds it. But it’s really about a farm being completely eaten up by suburbia, one acreContinue reading “Farm Oasis Shrinking as Suburbia Grows”