For a few weeks, I’ve booted around vineyards from the Rhone to Mosel, trying to get a glimpse of the art of farming, as it was practiced when it was still a […]
Weeds and Water and Wilderness
Green Wine
A wine starts long before it hits the chemist’s test tube. In fact, it starts out something like this … Baco Noir Grapes in the Okanagan At this early stage of their […]
Roman Water Today
This is a story about water. It begins a long time ago, as some stories do. Back then, the rain fell, as rain does, and the Celts were making wine out of […]
Vertical Farming
Flat ground costs money and needs irrigation, which costs money, and so it’s off to the supermarket we go, to buy vegetables from men who have money to plant fields the size […]
The Nature of Nature
I think we need a new word for nature. It’s so very hard to find. I mean, I’ve found trees and water and rocks aplenty, but that’s not Nature. That’s rocks and […]
Water From Rock
This is a fairly typical bit of vineyard in Germany’s Mosel Valley. Yes, grapes root in this stuff. It’s a good thing there’s lots of rain and it doesn’t get ridiculously cold. […]
Landscaping with Wool
Yes, it’s possible to knit a landscape. Here’s how. The trick is, you don’t start with wool. It’s very sneaky, this wool thing. First, you look around, see what kind of raw […]
Knitting New Leaves for Old Trees
Here’s a way to get close to your apple trees … Can a Tree Have Too Many Leaves? Can a child not speak with its hands? What else do we have but […]
Wine, War, and Peace
So, the Romans went north and, well built hilltop forts, actually. And planted grapes, from Egypt, and then … well, you know, they married the local girls and never left. Welcome to […]
Flower Trees
In Germany and Switzerland, many garden walls are built quickly out of gravel dropped into wire cages. It’s quick, it looks better than military grade concrete, and it gets rid of rocks […]
Okanagan Okanogan 