Portfolio of Writing Samples
Of the many hundreds of articles I've written, here are links to a few of my recent favorites:
Compost Your Body: Natural Organic Reduction Offers New Option
The Colorado Gardener 2022
How connected are you to the earth? Colorado gardeners, environmentalists and nature lovers can now answer that question by living their values after they die. In 2021 Coloradans gained another option for their final disposition in addition to conventional burials, green burials, flame cremation and water cremation. Now people can choose natural organic reduction as an after-death option. Colorado is only the second state to pass a law allowing for the process. Washington was first; Oregon is third.
How to Add a Greenhouse to Your Land
Life Out Here 2021
Has there ever been a gardener who didn’t wish for a greenhouse? Passionate growers often want to spend more quality time in their flower and vegetable gardens, especially during cold weather. Protected growing offers just that. Choosing a greenhouse depends on the plants you want to grow, your budget, and how much time and energy you want to invest in growing under cover. Whatever your gardening, space, and climate needs, there’s likely an option for you.
Colorado Grows with Specialty Crop Block Grants
Colorado Gardener Newsmagazine 2021
Growers from all parts of the country know agriculture is more than just corn and soybeans. AG also includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits and even nursery crops. That’s why the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides grants to bolster the efforts of specialty crop producers in each state.
Tractor Supply Company 2021
There’s nothing mysterious about starting seeds indoors. Every seed has the potential to grow into a beautiful and productive fruit, vegetable, herb, or flower, with your help. Whether your seed-starting operation starts in your basement, kitchen, dining room, heated garage, warm porch, or greenhouse, the benefits of starting your garden from seeds are as plentiful as seeds themselves.
Plan Ahead for Pumpkin Habanero Peppers
CSU Extension-Denver Master Gardeners Blog 2020
If you like to play practical jokes on your friends, how far in advanced have you planned to put one in place? I’ve waited two full gardening seasons, so far. The devious prank occurred to me in 2019 when I read about a new “cooler hotter” chile pepper called Pumpkin habanero. These adorable pumpkin-shaped peppers look just like candy, and I thought they’d be a perfect trick for Halloween. I pictured how sweet they’d look sitting next to all the other seasonal treats on a party buffet table. (Cue fiendish laughter.)
Saving Tomato Seeds is a Gardening Tradition
Attainable Sustainable 2020
Saving tomato seeds is a gardening tradition and, thanks to gardeners from the past, we still have seeds for many heirloom varieties that might have otherwise disappeared from the landscape. Continue reading to learn how to save tomato seeds from your garden!
Houseplant How-To with Smart Pots
Smart Pots Blog 2020
One of the keys to growing healthy houseplants is putting the right plant in the right place. Another key to houseplant health is planting in one of the new Vivid Color fabric Smart Pot containers.
Tips for a Honeybee Health Plan
Out Here Magazine 2020
For many legacy keepers, honeybees used to be easier to take care of than most domesticated animals. All beekeepers had to do was give their bees a nice nest box, check on them occasionally, and harvest the honey. That changed with the arrival of the Varroa destructor mite in the 1980s. This harmful parasite was introduced to the U.S. from Asia and spread quickly through honeybee colonies. It remains a major issue for beekeepers today.
Hardy Seeds for Hardy Souls: How one woman grew a seed company from a patch of sunflowers
The Denver Post 2019
The seeds for Laura Parker’s passion sprouted years ago in a sunflower patch on her family’s ranch on the Western Slope. That’s when she noticed the sunflower seeds she saved and replanted had a tendency to change over the years. Those childhood seed-growing lessons led her to become the self-described “seed freak and owner” of High Desert Seed + Gardens in Montrose.
The GrowHaus in Denver is part of gourmet mushroom boom across the U.S.
The Denver Post 2019
If interest in mushrooms seems high these days, it isn’t because Denver has inserted psilocybin into the national conversation. It’s the other mushrooms that are a lucrative and growing market. The country’s mushroom production is a billion-dollar industry, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The small mushroom growing operation at The GrowHaus is part of that mushroom boom. Alex Albu, mycologist and mushroom farm manager, grows and sells hundreds of pounds of gourmet mushrooms every month – about 200 pounds every week.
Fonio is a New Grain for the Future
Fine Gardening 2019
In its annual food trends report for 2020, Whole Foods Market includes "Foods from West Africa" near the top of its list. Whole Foods reports that "Brands are looking to West Africa for its superfoods like moringa and tamarind, and lesser-known cereal grains sorghum, fonio, teff and millet." One of the grains on that list, fonio, is already part of the trend. Under the Yolélé brand, fonio (pronounced PHONE-yo) is one of the newest ancient cereal grains to be rediscovered in the last few years.
Fine Gardening 2018
The Pilgrims had a love-hate relationship with the pumpkin. Without it they wouldn’t have made it through the winter, but that doesn’t mean they had to like the taste of it. Early pumpkins were probably much different than the ones we find at the markets today. It’s easy to imagine they were more stringy with a lot less flavor. I’m sure early cooks had to get creative to keep their clans from complaining, “Not pumpkin again!”
Grow Your Own Cocktails and Mocktails
Natural Start by GreenView 2018
Most of the fruits, vegetables and herbs gardeners use for tasty eating can also be stirred into refreshing summer cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages. Sweet mint makes memorable mojitos and mint juleps; lemon balm and lemon verbena add a lively touch to a cooling glass of lemonade. A container of sweet mint and pineapple sage provides plenty of potential for summer drinks. Floral flavors, like nasturtium and lavender flowers, also offer bright ideas for summer sampling. Even the lowly dandelion can be turned into a sipping wine.
Herbal Harvest: Lavender farm produces fragrant crop
Out Here Magazine 2016
Mike Neustrom stands on the windswept rolling hills of north-central Kansas watching his dog, Augie, dart back and forth between long, tidy rows of lavender plants. He calmly talks about the harmful effects of dry, windy weather and points out the rows he planted too closely together in 2002 when he started Prairie Lavender Farm.
