We interviewed  musicians and artists Ben Luxon and Susie Crofut about their extensive flower and food gardens, and occasionally we turn the discussion to our gardening.  In place of our regular theme Nature’s Dream, we hear a bit of Ben playing the accompaniment to the Puccini aria O Mio Babbino Caro which his granddaughter will be performing in the future.

.  Now in their 80’s, they have had full lives as artists, musicians, and co-creators of beautiful gardens blending the formal and the wild in their Sandisfield Center property overlooking a beaver pond and forests.  Ben’s singing career of opera, oratorios, songs from various genres, and Susie’s art and design sensibilities have lent richness to the Sandisfield Arts Center where they are key creators of this community gem,  We spoke with them in late June 2024 on their back deck overlooking the flower gardens, and then had a walk and talk around the vegetable, flower and fruit beds and trees.

This also broadcasts Mondays in July from 10-11 AM EDT on WBCR-LP Great Barrington 97.7 FM, Berkshire Community Radio,  streaming at berkshireradio.org where you can find recent episodes of our show and make a donation to support locally produced programming

.  Thanks for listening!

is our interview with folks at The Seed Farm at Princeton. Growing our and saving seeds from all over the world, with a focus on troubled regions where protecting locally adapted genetics is needed, and building connections with indigenous and other people. We interview Nate Kleinman from Experimental Farm Network, Tessa Desmond, Seed Farm director; 2 students (Kennedy and Katie who will be the student farm manager), Chao Lao, post doc at Princeton working on developing a high oil okra; Chris Smith from Utopian Seed Project; and Gina Talt, Project Specialist at the Seed Farm. Edited to broadcast on WBCR-LP Mondays 10-11 AM EDT in June 2024 although a technical issue prevented it from playing on June 3, 2024.

The subtitle “The past 100 years: 1924-2024” points to the themes of this sextet (oboe, bassoon, percussion, harp, piano, and cello).  Notes about the piece and synthesized audio are below.  The performance by American Modern Ensemble will be posted around September 2024.  The synthesized audio misses the middle statement of a 3 note motif, but see the September 2024 post with the video of an actual performance!,

Normalizing Evil

Interview with Ben Falk, author of The Resilient Farm and Homestead, 2nd edition.  He shares 20 years of experience creating abundant landscapes, lessons learned by trial and error.  This is the May radio show at WBCR-LP Great Barrington, streaming at berkshireradio.org Mondays 10-11 AM EDT and also at the above.  The interview starts about 5 minutes in, after local announcements.

In addition to information on my albums (at the bottom of the blogs) and music updates, there are postings around regenerative gardening and farming and a radio show Jaye and I host.  As for music, I will be at the Mostly Modern Festival again, in June 2024.  I have a new piece, “Normalizing Evil”, not a cheerful topic but timely.  I will be posting audio and information on this piece in late April.  Thanks for visiting, and enjoy the posts below!

In addition to cover crops, mulching, keeping ground always covered in plants, there are some healthy nontoxic things to spray on trees, shrubs, and crops or soil drench.  Nigel Palmer was on our radio show in 2023 and here is that show:

The Holistic Orchard Network has recipes also specific to oversoming  fruit tree challenges.  https://groworganicapples.org/