For the past two years I've been trying to take a page from writer Michael Pollam and eat around the edges of the supermarket to save my heart, avoid early dementia, but mostly to save money. But with the price of foodstuffs edging out the savings, I'm going to have to grow more of that stuff at home.

I was wandering through the Warranty department at my day job last week and stopped to shoot the breeze with one of my co-workers. While we were talking, I noticed four kitchen exhaust hoods on the shelf. I was curious, since we do not sell kitchen exhaust hoods.

If your exposure to agriculture has only been confined to the impressions you get at the Farm Show, you've missed the rather extensive back-story that I don't think the AG community is anxious for you too know.

The weather has been mild this year; quite a change from the tumultuous weather of the past year. Though the temps and lack of snow have allowed us to be out of doors more, outside chores are still at a minimum. Gathering eggs, cleaning up after the poultry and cleaning up downed branches are done by rote.

Clothes lines to dry laundry are so mid-century that most folks would be embarrassed to admit even thinking about having one at their home. I actually had one on my list of "good ideas" at the beginning of the year but didn't have the guts to go toe to toe with my wife about it until the rains came.

This time last year, arm chair pundits said the smart money was on whoever was the first to market with a device that captured lots of stink bugs...

As an unabashed plant enthusiast, I see plants everywhere; even where there are no stems and seeds. As an informal educator, I love to establish and strengthen the perception that there's nary a topic you can imagine that doesn't have a connection to plants.

Winter is not my favorite tme of year. My wife often tells me that I am at my happiest when I am outside, and winter does not afford much opportunity to find work out of doors. The garden is fallow, the grass lies dormant, and most other outdoor chores are on hold for at least another four months.

I have no fear at all of dying during Surgery. I also have no fear of being targeted by an asteroid the size of Strawberry Square (after all, if I need to get hit by an asteroid, it might as well be a big one!) or any other quick, abrupt and final end to my questionably valuable life. Coversely, the thought of starving, or having to watch my family suffer the same slow demise feels like a thousand deaths to me. So much in fact, it wakes me with a start in the middle of the night sometimes.

Looking for something to eat, I opened the drawer in the refrigerator. Uh oh - there were the apples we'd bought a few weeks ago.