Richard Blakeley has been growing clams and oysters on the Wellfleet flats since the 1980s. A year ago, he spoke of slowing down, perhaps even getting ready to pass the […]
Farm & Garden
What would it look like to grow, harvest, and protect our bounty?
Browse all Farm & Garden stories below or dive into a topic:
HOMESTEADING
Getting to Know Your Flock
Some chickens are social butterflies that like to be scratched behind their ears
WELLFLEET — Most chickens on the Outer Cape are, like the rest of us, among the fortunate on this Earth. Instead of inhabiting large-production poultry farms, our backyard babies live […]
PLANTCRAFT
Goldenrod for a September Salve
Longer nights call forth flowers the color of autumn light
September, the golden month on Cape Cod. Sunrises and sunsets that linger in the mind’s eye with color and light. Solidago sempervirens, seaside goldenrod, is just beginning to open at […]
GALLERY
Fences for ‘Where There Are No Cows’
How to build barriers that are better for nature and for views
All of us on the Outer Cape are in some way or another living in a national park. Even if our homes are not within its boundaries, we are surrounded […]
letter from the publisher
One Year and Counting
This week marks a year since we sent our very first edition to press. It was a “preview” edition, full of hope that we’d find the support to develop into […]
HOMESTEADING
Those Chicks You Got in April Will Be Laying Soon
If your adolescent chicken starts to crow, you’ve won the pullet surprise
When we became backyard chicken farmers five years ago, I had oodles of enthusiasm, but very little actual knowledge of chickens. I didn’t know, for example, that our six brand-new […]
BEYOND THE TURNIP
To Market, to Market in Eastham?
Residents plant seeds of support for local food and community
EASTHAM — For several years, the outer reaches of Cape Cod have been home to weekly farmers markets, where a wide variety of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, […]
VIEW FROM THE HIVE
Late Summer Jobs for Field Bees
Carrying water in a dearth, then making white wax for the new nectar flow
Most people know that honey bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers. But field work for honey bees is much more diverse than that. Field bees suck nectar from the […]
PLANTCRAFT
Plant Matter to Dye For
Mix solar rays and garden clippings for earthy fabric hues
Solar dyeing starts with a gathering: deadheaded blooms, freshly unfurled petals, bright green leaves. Dyer’s Coreopsis, Queen Anne’s lace, and Rudbeckia. My garden shears make quick work of the task. […]
BEEKEEPING
Bee Yard Basics
What your neighbor’s boxes, stones, smoke, and other gear are all about
Deep into summer, beekeeping on the Outer Cape is mostly a waiting game. The queen has been laying since April; the hive population is perhaps 60,000. Though we’re in a […]
GARDEN VARIETY
A Jeweler’s Hidden Gems
Gunter Hanelt tries out Hügelkulture in Truro
TRURO — On a sunny hill overlooking Cold Storage Beach in North Truro, Gunter Hanelt, a jeweler by profession, tends to more organic treasures. His overflowing vegetable garden boasts sugar-snap […]
OUTER CAPE PORTRAIT
Ingenuity on the Flats
NANCY CIVETTA / SHELLFISH CONSTABLE / WELLFLEET In early July, things are different on Wellfleet’s shellfish flats. Even as restaurants begin to open more fully across the commonwealth and country, […]
GROWING SEASON
Farmers Markets Are Back, for Food and Connection
Pre-ordering online helps with needed distancing
After a pre-season full of uncertainty and adjustment, welcome seeds of normalcy are sprouting at the Provincetown and Truro farmers markets, though at both, new restrictions and guidelines have reconfigured […]
VIEW FROM THE HIVE
Swarming Is a Sign of Success
When honey bees take to the woods, they’re driven by a collective purpose
A honey bee colony’s plans and those of its beekeeper often diverge, and those disparate intentions of bee and keeper can confuse and confound the objectives of both. At no […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
Finding the Woods on a Search for a Bird
Following a hermit thrush call, an encounter with mystery
There is a little bird that lives in the woods. It nests low to the ground, at the edges of clearings. It is about the size of a sparrow. The […]
