Submitted by Mallory Krieger on Mon, 04/24/2017 – 4:56pm Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting a demonstration garden at the University of Illinois School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Michael Biehl gave me a tour of the plants in their exhibit, and though it is still early spring, they are numerous and vibrant. This […]
Spring is the Season of the Perfect Bite
Submitted by Cara Cummings on Fri, 04/14/2017 – 3:13pm Spring, the way I see it, is best enjoyed naked. When the first flowers burst through the soil, or explode out of their buds, they often appear in an instantaneous blaze of color, and with no–or at least quite simple–leaves. When the first edible treasures appear, […]
Farming Foibles: The Girls
Submitted by Birgit McCall on Sun, 04/09/2017 – 5:33pm Welcome to this week’s bee-log! Last time we focused on the gentlemen who frequent our property, this time let’s take a look at the girls, all ~50,000 of them (not counting Fuzzy)! We’ve always tried to support our local volunteer pollinators … primarily by not spraying […]
Local Uniqueness, National Thinking: Farm Beginnings Collaborative
Submitted by Cassie Carroll on Fri, 03/31/2017 – 10:37am I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Farm Beginnings Collaborative meeting last week in Portland. Maine with our Executive Director, Cara Cummings. Farm Beginnings Collaborative is the national alliance of regional groups who are offering Farm Beginnings programs. The Collaborative is growing and now includes ten […]
Building Season Three
Submitted by Sarah Simeziane on Sat, 03/25/2017 – 9:40pm We’re entering our critical third season at the Champaign Farmers’ Market. Critical third season is a phrase I’ll be using a lot in the coming weeks and months. Research shows that farmers’ markets who make it through 3 seasons are far more likely to succeed and truly […]
Our Farm Beginnings students have flown the nest!
Submitted by Mallory Krieger on Sat, 03/18/2017 – 12:41pm The 2016-17 Central Illinois Farm Beginnings class has concluded their classroom sessions! Congratulations to our students who made it through 63 hours of rigorous learning on topics ranging from enterprise budgets to legal liability management to whole farm planning. Starting in October, our students traveled from […]
