Our task in life consists precisely in a form of letting go of fear and expectations, an attempt to purely give oneself to the impact of the present.
Our society assigns us a tiny number of roles: We're producers of one thing at work, consumers of a great many things all the rest of the time, and then, once a year or so, we take on the temporary ro...
Our brains constitute only 2.5 percent of our weight yet consumer 20 percent of our energy when we’re resting.
One of the greatest assets of a farm is the sheer ecstasy of life.
Not only does he choose his own words with great care, but he insists that you do too, so, for example, when I carelessly deployed the term recreational use, he stopped me in mid-sentence. Maybe we ne...
Normal waking consciousness might seem to offer a faithful map to the territory of reality, and it is good for many things, but it is only a map—and not the only map.
Most of what presents itself to us in the marketplace as a product is in truth a web of relationships, between people, yes, but also between ourselves and all the other species on which we still depen...
More birds on a farm mean fewer insects, but most birds won’t venture more than a couple hundred yards from the safety of cover. Like many species, their preferred habitat is the edge between forest a...
Maybe to be in a garden and feel awe, or wonder, in the presence of an astonishing mystery, is nothing more than a recovery of a misplaced perspective, perhaps the child’s-eye view; maybe we regain it...
Madison, Deborah. Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmer’s Markets (New York: Broadway Books, 2002). Nabhan,
I’ve begun to wonder if perhaps these remarkable molecules might be wasted on the young, that they may have more to offer us later in life, after the cement of our mental habits and everyday behaviors...
It’s often said that a political scandal is what happens when someone in power inadvertently speaks the truth.
It’s astonishing, actually, how much anger an animal’s assault on your garden can incite.
Instead of eating exclusively from the sun, humanity now began to sip petroleum.
In this fact, Dave explained, lies the origin of the phrase nose to the grindstone: a scrupulous miller leans in frequently to smell his grindstone for signs of flour beginning to overheat. (So the sa...
In this and so many other ways, it seems, the Hopkins psilocybin experience is the artifact not only of this powerful molecule but also of the preparation and expectations of the volunteer, the skills...
In nature health is the default, he pointed out. Most of the time pests and disease are just nature’s way of telling the farmer he’s doing something wrong.
If we address frankly what is evoked by cheese, I think it becomes clear why so little is said. So what does cheese evoke? Damp dark cellars, molds, mildews and mushrooms galore, dirty laundry and hig...
If the omnivore’s dilemma is to determine what is good and safe to eat amid the myriad and occasionally risky choices nature puts before us, then familiar flavor profiles can serve as a useful guide,...
I found that, much like gardening, most cooking manages to be agreeably absorbing without being too demanding intellectually. It leaves plenty of mental space for daydreaming and reflection.