what does organic mean? plus: an 8-point october garden chores plan Hello ,
When you shop for food—whether produce or meat or eggs—and see a label that says “organic,” what do you think that means? At its most fundamental level, I guess I always thought it meant vegetables grown
on the fields of an organic farm—like in the soil, or animals raised in its pastures.
But increasingly, as hydroponics have become more widespread, soil isn’t always part of the organic food-raising equation. Today’s guest is Linley Dixon (above), a Colorado-based organic farmer who is also co-director of the Real Organic Project, an advocacy organization of farmers who grow in the soil and together seek to protect
the integrity of the organic label’s meaning on food. Real Organic Project is holding a daylong conference Oct.14 in Hudson, N.Y., with a great lineup of presenters from the organic community, and we’ll hear about that, too. And along the way also get some tips for maximum tomato yield (think grafting!) and precisely how to apply compost to your beds.
an 8-point plan for october's cleanup chores Even I—she of the monthly chores lists—get overwhelmed at the thought of it: fall cleanup. As the month begins, I wait in a sort of suspended animation—for frost, and for leaf drop, the two accelerators that manufacture literal heaps of to-do’s faster than I can keep up. Top on our chores list this month: an 8-point program to help us all focus, along with some critical note-taking on
the year's garden, as we’re teasing it apart. recap: a garden of delights, with writer ross gay The words joy and delight figure prominently in
writer Ross Gay‘s work, and so do moments he spends in his garden and descriptions of his relationship to plants. Now is it a coincidence that the garden is a main character in his books, books with the titles “Inciting Joy” and “The Book of Delights” and the latest, “The Book of (More) Delights”? As a longtime gardener who finds both joy and delight in my life outdoors, I don’t think so. It’s no surprise to me at all that from garlic-and-sweet-potato harvest times or
devouring fresh figs from a friend’s tree, Ross Gay finds himself positively delighted. (Above, self-sown sunflowers and towering castor beans; Natasha Komoda photo.) I wanted you to meet him and hear about his work and learn what he’s up to in his Indiana
garden. Ross Gay’s four books of poetry and three of essays have won him much praise. He teaches writing at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he also gardens. Plus: Enter to win a copy of “The Book of (More) Delights.” easy vegetable soup to freeze Like the best recipes, it’s a hand-me-down,
delivered in the best oral tradition: told to me over a meal, and recorded on a paper napkin. At breakfast with my old friend Irene Sax one day maybe a decade ago—she was a longtime food writer, and my former “Newsday” colleague—I was panicking about my late-summer vegetable glut, and she said: “Vegetable soup. I make it all the time, freeze it, and eat it every day for lunch.” And then I realized: I don’t know how to make proper vegetable soup. Or didn’t, until then. The extra-easy recipe: in 'the new york times:' ross gay's joyful approach to gardening The most recent in my "New York Times" series that began in April 2020: The celebrated poet and essayist's relationship to his garden is joyful, and he is grateful for every bit of delight it offers. A week earlier: Cornell Botanic Gardens has been experimenting
with sustainable native lawn for nearly 15 years. The grass they rely on as the foundation? A genus you may never have heard of: Danthonia, or oatgrass. The previous column: It's an old-fashioned practice that can bring contemporary gardeners a lot of late-winter joy. How to force flower bulbs (especially in a cold frame or
cool garage or cellar), with Page Dickey. One week earlier: For Jennifer Jewell, the pandemic seed shortage got her asking questions about seed, deep and sometimes unsettling ones. We talked about the wide-ranging answers she dug up writing her new book “What We Sow: On the Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of
Seeds.” One column before that: I rely on my freezer to insure that I have a supply of homegrown herbs and other ingredients on hand year-round. How to freeze herbs, tomatoes and more. For four garden seasons, I've interviewed gardening experts for my In the Garden column in the Times, and they interviewed me, too, in a Q&A on page A2 of the paper. The link is
here, with links to all my past columns as well. |
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