Today on a bright autumn day, in the heart of West Baltimore, Bryan Ibrafall Wright gives me a tour down rows of indigo plants, on a spongy path of wood chips. The plants are little shrubs, all green leaves about the size of a finger. Soon, they’ll be harvesting the branches and sending them off ..read more

Mania Castelli is involved in every aspect of La Torre Tolfe: wine-making, olive oil, restaurant, hotel. She's using all organic, regenerative methods to keep up the farm in Tuscany ..read more

We drive up a narrowing road to the farm where we are staying at la Torre alle Tolfe, which dates back to the 8th century.  In the center is a watch tower, built by a knight of Charlemagne’s to defend the city of Siena, 3 km away.   Now it’s a 50-hectare farm, with quarters for ..read more

I confess, I am not a farmer. Until now, I had not grown much more than a bunch of kale. The mighty groundhog poses for a picture after feasting on the community gardens in Druid Hill Park. I was looking for a just ripened tomato for a sandwich when I encountered him. Maybe you can tell, by Farm-finds, that I am in awe of farmers who nourish the earth, using the least harmful methods, those tough men and women who dig and seed and nourish the earth with their smart ways. And bottom line, I love to eat local food– food of such variety, color and texture–as in luscious white peaches, heirloom to ..read more

Stephen and Casey-Mae McClintock, former suburbanites from Bowie, Maryland, have discovered the good life farming with their five children, in the Emmitsburg foothills. Soon after their marriage, Casey-Mae and Stephen McClintock had settled in the Bowie, Maryland, suburbs and began to try farming. Their little garden overflowed from backyard to front. Casey-Mae taught Spanish at a middle school, and Stephen was working on his Masters in theology.  Then Stephen got cancer,  a diagnosis of lymphoma, and they found out they expecting their first child. Those were mind-blowing, life-chan ..read more

Old 360 Diner attracts the sheriffs department, EMT workers and locals for lunch. Roaming around my home-country in Halifax County, Virginia, this summer, I have been looking for a good old-fashioned diner that serves good- old-fashioned food. I only had to drive about a mile and half to the Old 360 Mountain Road Diner, on the curvy two-lane Route 360 to Danville. There is no MacDonalds or Burger King on this road–only a deserted gas station on the left just before the parking lot, full of trucks, ambulances, jeeps and sedans. Two sheriff’s cars were parked right in front. In Baltimore, this m ..read more

Lady Carole Bamford has created an organic empire from Daylesford, her farm in the Cotswolds. I’d heard about it from my cousin Paula, who grew even more enthusiastic about going organic for her farm (next to ours in Virginia), after a visit to Daylesford. So eager for some inspiration, I headed to Daylesford on the second day of my trip to the Cotswolds. I love how Lady Bamford, wife of multibillionaire Anthony Bamford, founder of the construction firm JCB, has embraced farming as the route to a healthy, prosperous life. The socialite travels the world by helicopter and jet. She’s officially ..read more

I didn’t want any grass to grow under my feet, so as soon as I got settled at the hotel, I prepared for the walk to the Broadway Tower, a curious landmark and the second highest point in the Cotswolds. Photo by Newton 2, cropped by Yummifruit I quickly settled in at Lygon Arms which feels welcoming like a sweet, aristocratic ancestor. After all, there has been some kind of hostelry here for 1,000 years. In contrast to many open air, high ceilinged American hotels , the Lygon Arms has cozy, dark nooks and crannies, its floors with dips and stone floors smoothed by centuries of feet. I counted f ..read more

At Paddington Station in London, feeling lost like Paddington Bear. After a break for the winter doldrums, I’m relaunching Farm-finds with a trip to the Cotswolds, the heart of the beautiful English countryside. I came to London for a family wedding and figured I would take off a few days to walk a part of the Cotswold Way, a 102-mile walking trail, the main route between Bath and Chipping Camden for the last 500 years. Thousands of hikers tackle the whole trail, which has become one of the most popular in England. I am just doing segments. My base will be Broadway which couldn’t be further fr ..read more

. On the last Christmas before she died, two years ago, my sister Emma had urged me to go with her to  visit the Moore’s, where we had gotten the best trees and wreaths over the years but I made an excuse—too much to do. Betty had some good stories about our father, Emma said, besides bringing in a bumper crop of Christmas trees from the mountains.  This season before Christmas, alone at home in Halifax, I was missing the family I’ve lost—my parents, Emma and my dear husband John. That’s occupying too much real estate in the cemetery.  My sister Anne and I  have been placi ..read more