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Sustainahillbilly:

n., Any hill dweller who knows that the best path to the future is through the arts of the past mixed with the smallest possible dose of newfangled ingenuity.

Sustainahillbilly Soul-Mates

How to Sift Through the New S.510 Food Safety Bill (How Does it Affect You?)

Conundrum: I don’t want a giant agri-business to be able to sell my family the spinach they grew downstream from factory-farmed cattle (mmm, E. coli!) but I also don’t want much (or any) regulations placed on small-scale farms, CSAs, farmer’s markets, online farmer’s markets, small dairies, or backyard growers. Citizens are capable of inspecting their [...]

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How to Be Even More Excited About Home Than Wherever You Vacationed (Garden Photo Essay)

Don’t get me wrong — I love vacations. Edisto Island in May was paradise and our family spent June bonding on a cross-country trip. One thing I learned on the way to California and back was that your home’s location is everything — but you can certainly add your own personal touches.

Click for larger photos.

If [...]

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How to Support Better Food in Schools

In contrast to the morels post this one is a quickie.

Signing takes less than 30 seconds.

Our schools should be setting an example of how to eat fresh, healthy, and delicious food. They are — after all — feeding the minds of our children… both figuratively and literally. Additionally, schools should not be [...]

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How to do Kudzu Companion Planting (Sort of…)

I’m here to help those of you who want early blooms to tide you over while your massive patch of kudzu is dormant. Plant partnering, if you haven’t tried it, is a pretty version of companion planting.

The premise is growing complimentary plants together — either due to color schemes, textural interest, or seasonal successions. Now [...]

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How to Teach Beginner Organic Gardening in 15 Minutes

If you had 15 – 30 minutes to teach people how to start an organic garden, what would you do?

Last Wednesday I did this crash course for our local Green Drinks International chapter. I gave out a one page, fridge-magnet-ready handout to go with it — which I included below.

Photo Caption: I brought a [...]

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How to Save Paper, Ink, and Money with Printfriendly

Did you know you can power your home for 10 months with the same amount of energy it takes to produce 1 ton of office paper? Or that every year 350 million ink cartridges are sent to the landfill?

Photo Credit: http://www.istockphoto.com/

I’ve been seeing Printfriendly.com show up repeatedly in the referrer section of my blog [...]

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How to Use Mushrooms to Get Rid of Atrazine (and Spare Male frogs from “Castration”)

I thought I would post about morels next but good things come to those who wait.

In the meantime we have a bad thing with (at least one) good solution.

Ever heard of Atrazine? It’s in the news right now for altering the reproductive systems of frogs: CNN, Reuters, Fox, BBC

It’s now infamous and controversial. Atrazine has [...]

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How to Join a Community Garden

This blog often focuses on eating local. However, if you aren’t comfortable gardening on your own or your yard is shady (or nonexistent) you can still grow your own food successfully.

You just need to get involved with a community garden!

Photo Caption: I spent this afternoon helping out at the GOFO (Greenville Organic Food Organization) [...]

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How to Become Part of a Crop Mob

Crop Mobs are a new movement that I suspect will spread like wildfire. If you’re a small-scale, sustainable farmer they can be a lifesaver.

And if you’re without ample land they’ll rescue you from growers lust and put you in touch with the source of your food. Anyone can participate.

Photo Caption: Photo by David [...]

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How to Get Your Neighbors Growing Natives

I’ve been thinking about guerrilla gardening lately. I’ve done it… but why not delegate and get your neighbors to do the work? If you’re a butterfly gardener, birder, or simply a lover of native plants it is a good way to increase the species diversity in your area.

Photo Caption: Increasingly rare pawpaw trees (Asimina [...]

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