Add the Springs Market to your shopping list

This column focuses on organic, local food growing and production, which is, admittedly, a minute component of our overall agriculture economy. At the Springs Community Hall, our motto is “Healthy Farms, Healthy Food, Healthy Community.” Without healthy farms, we lose a vital component of the... Continue

Talkin’ Dog-talk

I'm not a dog owner. As I frequently quip when asked if I have a dog, "I don't have a dog, I have grandchildren." On my daily walk around town I do encounter many dog owners; in some cases, the dogs are so large and... Continue

Bugged to death

Many readers are now realizing that the biggest immediate threat to humanity is not global warming, but humans and all the super-germs we’re spreading. Yep. Not only are we and our environment-altering activities (coal-fired power plants, carbon-belching automobiles, belching cows, more wineries) responsible for global... Continue

More conversations with grandkids

Righteous Indignation ~ I pick up my granddaughter from school on her third day of kindergarten. “So, how was it?” “Well,” she says, arms akimbo, “they have a lot of rules here.” “Like what? “You can’t throw rocks, you can't throw the bark, you can’t tear... Continue

The importance of saying ‘thank you’

When I was a little girl, every year my grandparents would send me a birthday card with a little check in it so I could put it toward a gift I really wanted. The worst part about the gift was that before I was allowed... Continue

Who feeds the geese that lay the golden eggs?

On the heels of City Council’s vote to approve a trend-setting minimum wage ordinance, some in town are now awaiting the Economic Apocalypse, foretold in campfire ghost stories by a few employers in a failed effort to dissuade Council from mandating that employees be paid... Continue

Knock-Knock

Sense of "self" is just one among a constellation of mental states, and the experience of "I" varies considerably. "I" is described by some neurologists as a stable form of hallucination, which is to say, a subjective experience of being "in here" that seems to... Continue

Elegy to my father

Born on a Minnesota farm, you milked cows and picked corn. You hated farming; that’s why you left Minnesota, that, and your mother always telling you what to do. She cried when you left home; you were only 16. You had nine siblings, all with... Continue

Opinion: Fighting for a fair wage for workers

An activist for many years, I am always impressed by the May 1 marches organized by the farm workers union, inspired by the long-gone activist César Chávez. The sea of people with their signs from very many different sectors, people who work in different industries,... Continue

Fresh news: Sonoma Valley’s farm scene

For thousands of years, indigenous tribes managed native food crops such as acorns, berries, shellfish, and wild game in the Sonoma Valley. Spanish settlement brought cattle and other livestock as well as traditional European crops, such as wheat, barley, legumes, orchard fruits, figs, olives, and... Continue

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