Sam Schipani

Cresting the northern portion of our nation’s capital, the state of Maryland is perhaps better known for its delicious crabs and Navy connections than it is for agriculture. Still, agriculture is the largest commercial industry in…
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Country roads, take us home! John Denver may not have actually called West Virginia his home, but famous tune has long captured the spirit and beauty of rural life in West Virginia. The West Virginia state seal even features a farmer with…
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Virginia’s state slogan may be that the mid-Atlantic commonwealth is for lovers, but is it for farmers and homesteaders, too? Image by Alawai from Morguefile Agriculture is still a booming business in Virginia. It is the…
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In the suburbs of Washington, D.C., where I grew up, the entire metropolitan area will shut down for a light dusting of snow. Still, my family had no snow day traditions to speak of. My city-born parents were skeptical of the stuff, and…
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Like many wayward millennials, I have spent the lion's share of my early 20s living in apartments without a dishwasher. Dishwashers may be more energy-, water- and soap-efficient than hand washing dishes, but in big cities, they’re as much…
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Country road in New Jersey. | Image by 1778011 from Pixabay Like any state, homesteading in New Jersey comes with its benefits and drawbacks. In many ways, the Garden State lives up to its name, with a fairly hospitable climate for…
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<img src="https://bdn-ss-hh.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/11/pennsylvania-108697_1280-1024x768.jpg" alt="Image by David Mark from Pixabay" class="wp-image-2650493"/>Image by David Mark from Pixabay Between the rich…
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Image by desmarsol from Pixabay If you investigate how to start homesteading in Rhode Island, you may soon find that the densely-populated, tiniest state in the union has little arable land to spare. Though there are good soils and…
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Winter is here, and ‘tis the season -- for lip balm, anyway. The cold, dry air chaps my lips faster than autumn in Maine gives way to the first frost. No matter what the weather, though, I feel like I’m missing a limb if I don’t have a…
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Mandy Wheaton milks one of the Nubian goats on May 22, on her homestead, Wheaton Mountain Farm in Bucksport. | Photo by Aislinn Sarnacki Aside from being quirky and charismatic livestock, goats produce a fair amount of milk for…
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Between the constant churn of fast fashion and the resources expended to make new clothes, the environmental cost of fashion is staggering. Creating and processing fibers — especially fibers made from synthetic materials — often uses…
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A few months ago, while I was squeezing a cheesecloth filled with pulped nuts to make almond milk, I realized that I had yet to milk a cow. It took the gush of almond juice between my fingers for me to realize that this was the closest to…
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