Category Archives: Uncategorized

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”

After a short hiatus – Virtual Farmgirl is getting ready to physically move her family and home – I’m back with word about this exciting urban or should I say waterways farming project in New York City. If you picture sustainable farming in a rural setting, somewhere far from the hustle and bustle of cityContinue reading “Floating Sustainability in NYC”

Diverting from bees momentarily, I couldn’t resist this story in the Berkshire Eagle about chefs who love a good “food story” to add to the allure of their dishes. One New York chef – Dan Barber of Blue Hill– is quoted in the story, “The more we have a food story, the better the foodContinue reading “Chefs & Farmers Raise a Toast to 'Food Stories'”

I promised myself I would not blog about bees for a fifth day in a row, but then my husband came back from an evening event in Chicago full of info about some buzz’n kits we might be able to buy for our Central Indiana farm. From what I can tell, kits like these fromContinue reading “Bee Week Continues with 'Hobbyist' Kits and a Pollinator's Paradise”

As a follow up to recent posts about Colony Collapse Disorder and the mystery of the disappearing bees, Virtual Farmgirl recommends checking out a podcast series “Honeybees in Crisis” produced by Penn State. The podcasts explore a range of topics, beginning with a discussion of Colony Collapse Disorder from January, followed by segments exploring possibleContinue reading “Penn State Podcasts Feature 'Honeybees in Crisis'”

If there is such a thing as a horror-story for agriculture, the mystery of the disappearing bees fits the playbill. After beekeepers in 24 states began sounding alarm bells last year when they noticed empty hives, the general media and government is taking notice. Indeed, the New York Times reported about the vanishing bees –Continue reading “Vanishing Bee Mystery Deepens”