As published in AGDAILY Too often, my childhood dreams were haunted by Dawn of the Dead’s flesh-eating zombies. In a nightmare made real, and years later, I have to choose between flesh-eating Japanese zombie beetles and poison in order to save my Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee, hemlock trees. Poison, hemlocks and beetles, oh my. Read more here.
Coal Creek Farm is full of some wonderous things, many well off road, accessible only by foot. The thing is, to get to the place where we can then hike to find the hidden treasures, we need roads. Not a lot of them, but enough to get us and the livestock and land managers and…
Don’t get me started on invasive species like phragmites being introduced in South Florida. We have had to make some hard decisions on the farm: poison the bugs killing our Hemlocks or release zombie beetles to eat the tree-killing beetles… it’s an ongoing battle. In Maryland they are trying to turn an invasive issue into…
Blue Cohosh Berries
Coal Creek Farm started my love affair with Tennessee. I’ve loved the farm, and I’ve learned so much about hemlock trees and zombie beetles, about controlled burns and uncontrolled invasives (this is bad in every form.) Thanks to the farm, we started to make business investments in Knoxville, Nashville, and Chattanooga.
Coal Creek Farm has rolling hills, flowing water, flora and fauna, and clear cuts. Such beauty contrasted with such abuse. For years, as I drove by those clear-cut trees, I was troubled by the look of it. I knew that the land couldn’t be put into productivity and wasn’t providing much in the way of…
Ginseng has quite the reputation. Did you know that Rasputin used ginseng to treat the hemophilia of the last Czar of Russia’s son? Or that ginseng’s scientific name Panax means all-healing in Greek? Now researchers are looking at ginseng to treat COPD and boost cancer-treatment drugs. Wisconsin farmers who cultivate the plant are hopeful that…