How reading is taught is a matter of national urgency. The ability to read is the first building block of education: the key that opens the door to all later learning. When it comes to how our public schools teach our children to read, a failed technique — whole language or “whole word” —continues to […]
Last week we had our first real freeze. What wind there was in our little vegetable garden flapped the stiff, unyielding leaves of the tomato and black kale plants. By noon, the temperature had risen above freezing. The tomato vines were droopy and those fruits that remained on the vines were water soaked with drops […]
Just north of St. Ignace and the bridge over the Straits of Mackinac, the sign for the Mystery Spot looked pretty much as it did the last time I saw it. There seems to be a Mystery Spot just about everywhere. I know there are at least three in California alone. Mystery Spots purport to […]
Where have all the flowers gone? American cities, proud hubs of the arts, increasingly lack the very soul of culture: the flower. The original earthly joy, flowers bestow what our urban spaces are most in need of: beauty, romance, delirious color, fragrance, and a panoply of extraordinary forms. Our urban centers, meanwhile, are reveling in […]
At the keynote speech of the Urban Agriculture Conference in New York City, organized by The Horticultural Society of New York, George Ball, Burpee Chairman and CEO told leading-edge urban gardeners and rooftop farmers to “stop and smell the cut flowers”. Most urban agriculture projects consist mainly of vegetables and herbs with occasionally a few […]
A few years back I witnessed an unforgettable sight. Having just led a contingent of Asian visitors around Burpee’s Fordhook Farm floral display gardens, I noticed one man remained standing outside the garden, rocking back and forth, his eyes closed. Concerned, I asked him if everything was okay. “I … am … happy”, he replied […]
Note: Every once in a while we here at the old bloggie limp, or shuffle, over to the stove and brew up a nasty, filthy, strong pot of coffee. The ensuing, almost hallucinatory, stimulation allows us to publish “monster” blog posts. This is one. Oh, dear readers, you may recall from your early childhood the […]
Here in the upper Midwest, it’s been a long winter. The ground has been continuously under snow since December 19. That snowfall closed down the city, and to children’s delight, schools too. It was the fourth greatest snowfall on record with 19.2 inches recorded near my house. I told my own children to take note: […]
Let me be frank. I oppose “growth” and object to the “growing economy,” I take exception to “growing” companies. These terms—used chronically and uncritically by politicians and pundits—leave me vexed and perplexed. Why? Because I am convinced that “growing” is precisely what economies don’t do. They might increase or expand, but they grow not. At […]
One of the most unexpected, most salutary developments of our era has been the triumphant resurgence of vegetables. No longer regarded as a side dish of life or anodyne adjunct, vegetables have arrived! We are in the midst of a vegetable Renaissance. The Dark Ages, when vegetables were boiled into colorless, textureless, flavorless pap are […]
