Calling all creative Florida teens who want to make a splash on behalf of the world’s oceans! Ocean Matters is proud to announce a partnership with the prestigious Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, which is generously providing one full scholarship ($3,500 value) to an Ocean Awareness Contest applicant from Florida to participate in our OceanContinue reading “Scholarship Opportunity: Do You Know a Florida Teen Who Wants to Make a Splash for the Ocean?”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Try Chicken Keeping. . . But Put Away the Blankets and Towels
by Laura Parker Roerden Best Investments in Sustainability Many of us have seen movies like Food, Inc or others and learned horror stories about the antibiotic and hormone laden poulty coming out factory farms. Yet buying chicken and pastured-eggs at Whole Foods can be quite expensive. If you care about your food and where itContinue reading “Try Chicken Keeping. . . But Put Away the Blankets and Towels”
A Love Letter to Baking Soda
by Mary McDonald Best Investments in Sustainability My first encounters with baking soda happened, of course, in my mother’s kitchen. Whenever my mother was getting ready to bake, it was my job to help her gather all of the ingredients. Cinnamon, cloves, sugar, vanilla, baking powder,baking soda. I had no idea what baking soda did,Continue reading “A Love Letter to Baking Soda”
Pass the Pastured-Eggs, Please!
Best Investments in Sustainability by Laura Parker Roerden What kind of eggs should you buy? Most of us make the decision standing in the grocery aisle, the refrigerator door open scanning cartons with claims like “cage-free,” “organic,” “antibiotic free” and the ever-confusing “natural,” while we mentally calculate how much more we are spending for theContinue reading “Pass the Pastured-Eggs, Please!”
This Old (Farm)House
by Laura Parker Roerden This morning, I awoke to a simple pale orb moving in a confused pattern in the window of my bedroom in the farmhouse. Bits of morning were reflected in flashes off wings like patches of hope in a stretch of darkness. I must have rubbed my eyes too hard in aContinue reading “This Old (Farm)House”
A Marine Conservation Compass
by Laura Parker Roerden This summer’s cinema blockbuster Finding Dory has rightly set off alarms in the marine conservation community against an anticipated spike in blue tang sales for private aquaria, which would decimate wild coral reef populations. But there is a deeper conservation message, simmering just below the film’s surface (if you will pardon the badContinue reading “A Marine Conservation Compass”
Eggs, Eggs, Eggs-stravagant Equinox Eggs
by Laura Parker Roerden Each spring we increase our flock with new heritage breed chicks. This year we added all-heritage breed Buff Orpingtons and Araucanas. Buff Orpingtons, as their name implies, are buff-colored hens that lay tan eggs. Araucanas come in a array of colors, my favorite is almost cerulean; they lay different shades of blueContinue reading “Eggs, Eggs, Eggs-stravagant Equinox Eggs”
The Five Very Best Tips for Preserving Tomatoes
by Laura Parker Roerden My first experiments with preserving tomatoes involved burnt fingers, cuts, and a bloody looking mess of tomato waste everywhere that reminded me of that classic Julia Child SNL skit. Fortunately, canning does not have to be a horror show. Over time and with the help of my fellow canner and friendContinue reading “The Five Very Best Tips for Preserving Tomatoes”
The Birches
For Lara and all the Garden Moms by Laura Parker Roerden (August 28, 2015) This summer was a long march of loss. Three parents of the kids we grew up with in the neighborhood of the farm died, one after another, as if the branch they were hanging from no longer could sustain them. Each was in theirContinue reading “The Birches”
In Praise of the Roo
8 Reasons Roosters Rule by Laura Parker Roerden Should you have a rooster in your small flock or backyard farm? The question comes up a lot. Roosters are noisy, are not necessary for hens to produce eggs, and many ordinances in residential neighborhoods forbid them. So unless you’re wanting to hatch your own eggs, which obviously requires themContinue reading “In Praise of the Roo”