Author Archives: Virtual Farmgirl

The MacArthur Foundation folks and all their riches have realized something we at Virtual Farmgirl have known all along…farmers are geniuses…and worthy of the same support and recognition as the scientists who make important breakthroughs and the luminaries who bring art and joy into our lives. Why? Because farmers feed the world. We literally couldn’tContinue reading “Urban Farmer Gets $500K Genius Grant”

It was good to see a Twitter post today from one of our local reporters alerting me to an Oak Leaves story about what I hope will be a model food-to-table program at an area elementary school. The Hatch Patch is in its second harvest at Hatch Elementary School in Oak Park. The students areContinue reading “Gardening is Elementary at This Grade School”

I’ll admit, one of the reasons I don’t want to plant a fruit tree is that there’s little chance I’d be able to keep up with a harvest on a mature tree, and I’d end up with a fruity, mushy mess each year. But in Toronto, an innovative little start-up has come up with aContinue reading “Fruit Rescue Squad Dispatched to Backyard Harvests”

OK. I had to do a double take at the byline and dateline to be sure I wasn’t reading agri-satire from The Onion. Turns out, farm neighbors in some fruit-farm regions have more to complain about than livestock odors and slow-moving tractors. According to the AP, there’s been a resurgence of the use of hailContinue reading “Holy Hail Pa, Was That a Cannon?”

After I came home from work today, I sat down with the iFarmer to check out the features of our new AT&T U-verse. [Despite the misrepresentations of the three, yes it took three, in-person sales folks, we are now set up pretty much with what we were told we would get (a week later).] WeContinue reading “Ultimate Lasagna With Farm-Fresh Ingredients”

Despite a skirmish with my neighbor’s son over the volume of his hip hop, we had a fantastic day. Future Farmboy and I started out with an early trip to the Oak Park farmers market, for doughnuts, provisions from Shrooms Kitchen, veggies and some fresh flowers. I’ve found that I can no longer feel readyContinue reading “Flowers in Every Room”

I had just read the “You Can’t Run Away From Harvest Day” chapter in Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” when I read a weekend piece in the Chicago Tribune about a writer who decided to personally witness the slaughter of every meet she eats. It’s an intriguing mission. I’m not sure I feel compelled toContinue reading “Do You Care About What You Eat?”

So cool to learn that Wake Forest’s Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to approve a chicken ordinance that allows up to 10 hens, no roosters, within the town limits. There was one dissenter, who feared, among other things, that chickens would run wild through neighborhoods. Good gracious. The horror. Thanks to Backyard Chickens for WakeContinue reading “Celebrating Backyard Chicken Laws and Chickens in General”

I spent so much of today hearing about “persistent cookies” in analytics training that I decided I needed to have the real thing tonight. So the kids and I suited up in our aprons and whipped up a half batch. Obviously as the pix show, all did not go well. Because I inadvertently melted insteadContinue reading “Real Cookies for the Virtual FarmFamily”

One of my favorite things about visiting The Farm is tagging along with Photo Farmgirl to collect the weekly CSA share at Victory Acres. This was a particularly bountiful visit. We were able to get a hefty load of tomatoes, including some hearty heirlooms that I intend to savor all week. And I picked upContinue reading “A Bountiful Visit”