Every year we plant about 300 longleaf pines. It’s relatively inexpensive, it’s fun, and it helps prepare the farm for the coming climate chaos. Longleafs are native to our region, they're fire-resistant, and their huge taproot holds the soil

We in the South are still reeling from a winter storm of historic proportions. We had lots of notice and time to prepare, but our friends in Birmingham got a surprise wallop. We describe today what the difference meant to the two communities

We continue to be blown away at the sheer size of this annual event, attracting 1,000 or so organic and sustainable farmers from across the southeast to mingle, exchange ideas, and recharge their batteries. So many young farmers! So much knowledge!

Last week the temperature stayed below 15 degrees – our killing zone – for more than seven hours. Our first significant damage to brassicas from cold temperatures. Frost blanket made a huge difference where we had deployed it

This week we learn about the People’s Food Plan for Australia; we visit with Nick Rose, the National Coordinator of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance. We're inspired to think about applying their principles here in the Southern US.

We reflect on 2013. We had our best harvest ever of muscadines, peaches, pears, apples, and sweet potatoes, and our first harvest ever of persimmons and plums. But we had our fiercest outbreak ever of insect damage too

The hard red wheat that makes the best bread doesn't grow here in the South. So we consider buckwheat, rye, rice, barley, and oats. And then we throw out some more exotic options like einkorn, emmer, and spelt

Start and stay organic, learn from research, start small, grow close to where you live, full sun, drip irrigation, good soil, keep something growing year round, keep soil covered, grow what you like to eat and what grows well in your area

It's time to buy seeds for the spring. They're freely available online, but Amanda still prefers those paper catalogs. She studies and dreams, carefully calculating the many options available together with the shipping costs of each

We play detective. Taking each factor known to affect the cold-hardiness of brassicas, we try to determine what made the difference between the damage to kale, broccoli, and cabbage growing 20 miles away at Wetumpka and the same crops here.