Seasonal Confusion & Plant Genetics
In the back are all the tomatoes and peppers. Up front are the rooting gooseberries and currants, and on the right are the figs!! Happy spring equinox everyone! Although it feels more like the summer...
View ArticleRise Up Ye, Sons of !Frankentree!
Son of !Frankentree! - He now has 22 varieties of apples grafted onto him!!! Mary Shelley and her Dr. Frankenstein would be proud. Human ingenuity at it’s best – fruit tree grafting and the creation of...
View ArticleSpring Photos – Part II !!
Dear Readers – Due to the time of year, I am once again too busy with gardens and other projects to get any real writing finished. Although I have many thoughts on my mind, and stories to share, I...
View ArticleGathering of the Guilds – September 14-16, 2012
Hey everyone! A big heads up to anyone who is in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin or other upper Midwest locations. Some dear friends of mine are putting on a great event called the...
View ArticleGold Rush – An Apple Tasting
Our Gold Rush Apple!! As everyone in America knows, the summer 2012 growing season was one for the record books. Extreme heat and drought have dominated the headlines, climate change seems to be...
View ArticleWinter 2013 Updates – Birthdays, Biodiversity, and More Space
On February 7th The North American Scion Exchange celebrated its first birthday. What started out as a simple Craigslist posting here in St. Paul, Minnesota to swap scion wood and other plant...
View ArticleUrban Wilderness & The Adventure of Rail Yard Pippin and the Cinnamon Hobo
There is one of the giant cottonwoods, keeping an eye on the place! In late February on a gorgeous sunny afternoon, we packed up the two kids and the dog to go on a hike. My wife wanted to show me a...
View ArticleThe Fruit Hunters
Haskap Berries from our Garden!! Recently my friend John who is a fellow fruit enthusiast like myself and helps run the NASE with me, sent me an email with a link to a program entitled The Fruit...
View ArticleGuerrilla Forest Gardens
The GreenJacker!!! In the last few years a popular meme growing throughout the ether of the inter-webs is the idea of guerrilla gardening. The idea of guerrilla gardening is really quite simple, but...
View ArticleSpring Time? Updates – 2013
Workin in the garden … I have ruminated enough times on this blog about climate change that it would no longer pop up its ugly head, and yet it never ceases to amaze me as to how well it lends itself...
View ArticleA Rainy Solstice – 2013
Yes it is bread we fight for, but we fight – for roses too!! Two nights in a row we have had giant thunderstorms. Big ones, like wind gusts of up to 80 MPH BIG! It may be the icing on the cake to a...
View ArticleThe Fruits Of Our Labor
Figs in Minnesota!!?? Stay tuned for more details!! The fruits of our labor are starting to show themselves. Everywhere in the garden that I look, I am seeing fruits and vegetables that are ready to...
View ArticleThe Autonomous Apple Tasters Collective – 2013
Here are the apples – L-R – Rubinette, Baker’s Square, Golden Delicious, Steele Red, Wickson, Goldrush, Library, Honey Gold, Haralson 2013 saw a lot of successful gardening and foraging projects, and...
View ArticleA Fig in Minnesota!
A true Minnesota grown fig! This has been a topic I have wanted to write about for a long time. But due to a slow progression in this experiment, lack of actual results, the loss of some of my...
View ArticleFinding McIntosh
Here is a McIntosh apple, a beauty to behold! Editors note – Since the publication of this essay, there has been a little debate on the NAFEX facebook page as to what the true identity of this apple...
View ArticleA DIY Tree Grafting Handout
So this is a handout I just put together for a few grafting workshops I will be teaching in the upcoming weeks! I am pretty excited to be sharing some awesome homesteading skills with people who want...
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