Two Winters in a Tipi: My Search For the Soul of the Forest
by Mark Warren
December 2015
One stormy August night, a lightning bolt struck Mark Warren's tin-roofed farmhouse and burned everything to the ground. Even his metal tools melted. Friends loaned him a tent, but after just a month it began to break down—which Warren vowed not to do. Instead, he decided to follow a childhood dream and live in a tipi. Excitement stirred in his chest, and so began a two-year adventure of struggle, contemplation, and achievement that brought him even closer to the land that he called home. Two Winters in a Tipi gives the history and use of the native structure, providing valuable advice, through Warren's trial and error, about the confrontations that march toward a tipi dweller.
In Partnership with Nature
by Jochen Bockemühl
November 2015
A wonderfully designed book that is already treasured by some within the biodynamic movement, In Partnership with Nature deserves wider attention. Placing special emphasis on different kinds of knowledge, the author shows how they can enhance our understanding and experience of nature — as well as our practical dealings with it. The author builds upon the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner, which emphasizes that science is possible both in the practical realm of material experience and in the realms of soul and spiritual experience. Numerous black and white illustrations help the reader conceptualize these multiple realms of experience.
Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms
by Eugenia Bone
October, 2015
An incredibly versatile cooking ingredient containing an abundance of vitamins, minerals, and possibly cancer-fighting properties, mushrooms are among the most expensive and sought-after foods on the planet. Yet when it comes to fungi, culinary uses are only the tip of the iceberg. Throughout history fungus has been prized for its diverse properties—medicinal, ecological, even recreational—and has spawned its own quirky subculture dedicated to exploring the weird biology and celebrating the unique role it plays on earth. In Mycophilia, accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century.
Honeybee Democracy
by Thomas D. Seeley
September 2015
Honeybees make decisions collectively―and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. In fact, as world-renowned animal behaviorist Thomas Seeley reveals, these incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective decision making. A remarkable and richly illustrated account of scientific discovery, Honeybee Democracy brings together, for the first time, decades of Seeley's pioneering research to tell the amazing story of house hunting and democratic debate among the honeybees.
Microgreens: A Guide to Growing Nutrient- Packed Greens
by Eric Franks
August 2015
With simple instructions, Microgreens: A Guide to Growing Nutrient-Packed Greens by Eric Franks and Jasmine Richardson, shows readers how to grow their own little greens of arugula, basil, purple cabbage, chard, radishes, broccoli, cilantro, and more. Microgreens teaches the easy process of how to plant and grow, as well as how to harvest little greens, which on average is about 2 weeks after sowing. Eaten alone, as a salad, or added to soups, entrees, sandwiches, burgers, or anything else, these tiny greens of nutrition will enhance everyday food and life!
Good Morning Beautiful Business: The Unexpected Journey of an Activist Entrepreneur and Local Economy Pioneer
by Just Wicks
July, 2015
Good Morning, Beautiful Business is a memoir about the evolution of an entrepreneur who would not only change her neighborhood, but would also change her world-helping communities far and wide create local living economies that value people and place as much as commerce and that make communities not just interesting and diverse and prosperous, but also resilient. Wicks recounts a girlhood coming of age in the sixties, a stint working in an Alaska Eskimo village in the seventies, her experience cofounding the first Free People store, her accidental entry into the world of restauranteering, the emergence of the celebrated White Dog Café, and her eventual role as an international leader and speaker in the local-living-economies movement. Her memoir traces the roots of her career - exploring what it takes to marry social change and commerce, and do business differently. Passionate, fun, and inspirational, Good Morning, Beautiful Business explores the way women, and men, can follow both mind and heart, do what's right, and do well by doing good.
Seedtime: On the History, Husbandry, Politics and promise of Seeds
by Scott Chaskey
June, 2015
Scott Chaskey—working farmer, poet, and spiritual father of the community farming movement—considers "the web of biodiversity and resilience at the heart of our cultural inheritance" by masterfully weaving history, politics, botany, literature, mythology, and memoir into a beautiful and instructive book.
The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently
by Sunni Brown
May 2015
What did Einstein, JFK, Edison, Marie Curie, and Henry Ford have in common? They were all inveterate doodlers. These powerhouse minds knew instinctively that doodling is deep thinking in disguise-a simple, accessible, and dynamite tool for innovating and solving even the stickiest problems. Sunni Brown's mission is to bring the power of the Doodle to the rest of us. She leads the Revolution defying all those parents, teachers, and bosses who say Stop doodling! Get serious! Grow up! She overturns misinformation about doodling, demystifies visual thinking, and shows us the power of applying our innate visual literacy.
How to Move Like A Gardener, Planting and Preparing Medicine From Plants
by Deb Soule
April, 2015
Herbalist, gardener, teacher of 40 years, and founder of Avena Botanicals, Deb Soule takes us on a journey through her Maine herbal garden to teach us about biodynamic practices and how to find a deep love for the spirit of the medicinal plant. She shows us how we can turn our failing ecosystems into healthy ones by activating our farms with biodynamic methods. She gives detailed explanations of how to make and apply the biodynamic preparations, especially Pfeiffer's Barrel Compost. The back half of the book focuses on her Materia Medica, including key North American healing herbs, growing, harvesting, applying them, etc.
"The biodynamic book of the year and required reading on our farm for interns, this book is a huge gift to the biodynamic gardener both novice and experienced. "
The Spirit Level: Why greater Economy Makes Societies Stronger
by Kate Pickett & Richard Wilkinson
March 2015
The remarkable data assembled in The Spirit Level reveals striking differences, not only among the nations of the first world but even within America's fifty states. Almost every modern social problem―ill-health, violence, lack of community life, teen pregnancy, mental illness―is more likely to occur in a less-equal society. Wilkinson and Pickett lay bare the contradiction between material success and social failure in today's world, but they do not simply provide a diagnosis of our woes. They offer readers a way toward a new political outlook, shifting from self-interested consumerism to a friendlier, more sustainable society.
All Over Creation
by Ruth Ozeki
February, 2015
Yumi Fuller hasn’t set foot in her hometown of Liberty Falls, Idaho—heart of the potato-farming industry—since she ran away at age fifteen. Twenty-five years later, the prodigal daughter returns to confront her dying parents, her best friend, and her conflicted past, and finds herself caught up in an altogether new drama. The post-millennial farming community has been invaded by Agribusiness forces at war with a posse of activists, the Seeds of Resistance, who travel the country in a camping car, “The Spudnick,” biofueled by pilfered McDonald’s french-fry oil.
Stella Natura 2015 Calendar: Working with Cosmic Rhythms, Biodynamic Planting Calendar
by Sherry Wildfeuer
January 2015
This biodynamic calendar has many aspects:a basic introduction to astronomy and a planting guide and agricultural articles by nine different authors detailing the making of preps, musings about biodynamic dairies and much more.