A homeschool alumna and homeschooling my child, I haven’t been often in public schools. As a teenager, I occasionally went to take standardized tests, and as an […]
Aldona Bird
Feeling spicy: Our love affair with capsaicin
As you may have guessed from my recent do-it-yourself feature, I have a lot of jalapenos to process. I used the USDA canning recipe book to calculate […]
European hornets can stay if they stay out of my way
Over the last few summers, I’ve seen huge wasps. They haven’t obliged in holding still long enough for me to measure them, but I’d estimate their length […]
Hops can be used for more than beer
A few years ago, I planted hops — one pot that my father had bought and delayed planting and another from a friend who grows hops. They […]
Bewitched by witch hazel
Lately, a shrub that grows in the woods around my house has been catching my eye. The same shrub got my attention late in the fall last […]
Autumn olives a delicious stand-in for cranberries
This week, I am preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. The traditional dish I’m working on is the tart sauce. I’ve never grown cranberries; instead I’m harvesting autumn olives […]
Scale insects can do some damage to house plants
Unfortunately, my love of plants does not always result in good gardening. Last year as the weather got cold, I brought my plants in from the porch […]
Blacksmith Adam Palmer turns interest into artwork
“I would encourage people to investigate the way things were made in the past, by our ancestors,” blacksmith Adam Palmer told me. “There was a lot of […]
Wild Indigo Wares owner blends love of nature with metal
You may know Samantha McCreery from her previous small business, Sam’s Plants, through which she provided the community with plants — particularly native plants and resources for […]
Curiosity about bird banding continues
After attending the bird banding event at the arboretum a couple weeks ago, I wanted to learn more about this activity, so I called up WVU professor […]
