Native Americans use this word to describe a tactic of absurd contrariness that conveys a ground level wisdom.  For instance, if a husband offends his wife, she may become “heyoka”.  When he’s hungry, she serves him a bowl of dirt; when he wishes to sleep, she noisily cleans the house; when he finally awakes, she […]

Steve Tobin has been my friend for almost 20 years, during which time I’ve watched his work change from glass to metal, and from large to enormous. We decided to exhibit some of his latest sculpture for the next 18 months on our lawns and meadows here at Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The following […]

I just spent a long weekend attending a wedding in San Francisco at the Embarcadero Hyatt down near the water, the old Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge. The city rises up from there so I walked a lot—up to Chinatown, North Beach and over to the old Tenderloin, as well as along the Embarcadero, […]

Photo by Dean Fosdick This is the study where our founder, W. Atlee Burpee, wrote the Burpee annual seed and plant catalogues from 1889, when he bought Fordhook Farm and moved his family up from Philadelphia, until his passing away in 1915. From 1875 to 1888, he wrote them in his small office in the […]

With about 10 million customers, Burpee draws data from a wide cross-section of avid gardeners: high, medium and low income; urban, suburban and rural; old and young; male and female.  The US conforms to the UK and Europe in nearly all categories.  Most gardeners are about 40 or older; just over half are women; home […]

A hybrid of “get rich quick”, but with social responsibility and a sense of flair.  I’m itching to do these projects.  Anyone want to help?      1.      Norman Rockwell Movie: Representational painting made a brief comeback a few years ago, but quickly disappeared again. Now everyone is gaga for weirdness, abstraction, “magic realism”, graffiti […]

By Lois Burpee Eight years of boarding school and college menus, and four years of stretching the dollar-a-day budget, while sharing an apartment with a sister or friend in the depression years, were a culinary vacuum, with one exception.  While at Wellesley College, I was introduced to Chinese food.  A group of students who had […]

In the middle of writing a non-fiction book on the history of the world’s religions, I despair about finishing before it’s too late.  Writing a book requires much more careful thought than I imagined.  As much heat as light: preparation, outline, sources, sentence and paragraph structure, etc.  It’s true that a plan is crucial.  Also, […]

By Lois Burpee “How did you, the wife of David Burpee, become interested in vegetables?” is a question frequently asked me—as though I had become a traitor to my husband and his passion for flowers. I am expected to be a flower expert, especially of marigolds, not vegetables. “I just did” is hardly a satisfactory […]

I served as President of The American Horticultural Society for four years, 1990 to 1993.  For the first half of its existence the AHS headquartered in a series of offices in DC, including a second floor walk up over a Chinese restaurant.  When I joined in 1989, it occupied River Farm, a spectacular 27-acre estate […]