This year, the members of the Allegheny Mountain School participated in the 2nd Annual Taste of Highland celebration. It was a dinner which celebrated the summer bounty of Highland County and served as a fundraiser for our “host organization,” The Highland Center. The dinner happened on Friday night, 19 August, and we spent many hours [...]
Hoping for some quiet time to myself, I decided to go home this weekend for some much needed R&R… however mother nature also invited Irene.
On August 27th around 1pm the first bands of Hurricane Irene reached Richmond. Although she was a category one she was slow moving and had sustained winds of over 40 [...]
Here’s a little taste of what we’ve been doin’. More to come…
One recent morning, fresh off some early-morning goat chore inspiration, I sat down and made panir, which is just like a farmer’s cheese that uses citric acid instead of vinegar. After it drained for a couple hours, I was faced with the prospect of all the leftover whey. We’d been cooking rice in whey, using [...]
Here at AMS, I’ve been enjoying practicing the art of cheesemaking. Thanks to Val and Tess, our dairy goats, we get about a gallon of goats milk a day that quickly fills up our fridge space. Our first attempts at cheesemaking were super simple batches of farm cheese–basically heat it up and add [...]
just been having too much fun with my new lens…
here are some night time shots and a very short hand held stop animation video that I took as the clouds were racing by… note the rays of sun at about the 6 second mark!
Also here is a two picture preview of a series of pictures [...]
I was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship to a really awesome conference, Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, that takes place every year in North Carolina on the campus of Western Carolina University.
I learned a bunch about some of the hidden history of the design and implementation of the Blue Ridge Parkway, creating a [...]
Monotropa uniflora, the Indian Pipe, challenges the U-S-American pioneer values of self-reliance and earning your keep. Seen several times now on our hikes, this chlorophyll-less plant takes its energy from mycorrhizal (root-friendly) fungi. Trees elegantly convert solar energy to sugars, which feed these soil-inhabiting fungi, who in turn work hard to help the tree [...]
