Five years ago, Diego Marlar, co-owner and founder of Stone Lizard Hops Farm in Belen, was enjoying a beer at a local brewery when he asked the bartender where the brewery sourced its hops. To his surprise, the answer, as it is for most New Mexico breweries, was the Pacific Northwest. Although the craft…
Maintaining—and harvesting—a patch of common milkweed can help monarch butterflies survive while providing us foraged food as well. The monarch butterfly—Danaus plexippus, if you prefer its scientific name—is in a very vulnerable place right now. These butterflies have a delicate existence in which their reproduction depends upon the milkweeds. There are 73 distinct species of…
The farmers market provides a fresh perspective along with fresh food. I lived alone for many years before I met my husband. More often than not, I ate alone, traveled alone, went to cafés and restaurants alone, and thought nothing of it. But loss changes everything. After two years of battling a brain tumor, my…
Fighting invasive species in Southeastern Massachusetts One of the most intriguing aspects of life along the shoreline is the feeling of perpetual mystery, the suspicion that for every perceptible phenomenon along the wrackline or among the tidepools, a multitude of unknown events transpires. Even a dry-shod lubber poking about in that border zone between land…
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…
