News & commentary on sustainability, activism, urban planning, politics, and our world.
Artichokes are a hardy perennial plant that can be simple to grow, as well as being a stunningly beautiful addition to your edible landscape. There are many varieties available to cultivate in your own backyard garden; though the Green Globe is by far the most popular in the United States. You might even say we have a monoculture of them.
There are several different varieties of the Green Globe on the market, but there are also many types of purple and violet artichokes that you can grow. Many Italian families have historically raised an incredible diversity of heirloom artichokes, from Violetta di Chioggia and Purple of Romagna, to Romanesco Italian Purple. But if you want to eat some of these more unusual cultivars, you may just have to grow them yourself.
Although our nation’s budget struggle is over for the moment, the extreme right’s repeated rabid attacks on Planned Parenthood funding have generated some unexpected consequences. All federal money for the vital health agency has remained in our national budget; but the republicans’ obsession with restricting abortion access, as well as ongoing threats from anti-abortion fringe groups, have now only served to greatly increase both public support and donations for Planned Parenthood.
Thousands of ordinary citizens, workers, students and union members swarmed the state capitol in Olympia Washington yesterday, the culmination of a week of peaceful protests and uprisings that have been taking place in the city. The massive demonstration was partly in response to the proposed five billion dollars in spending cuts that Washington legislators are considering for the budget’s next two-year cycle.
Being a serious coffee lover can sometimes be really intimidating. You want to support local indie coffee shops; you also need to figure out the balance between certified Fair Trade and small farm co-ops. There are countless kinds of beans and countless roasts, and just trying to figure out the best way to make a single cup of coffee can bring up intense debate among friends and strangers. The deeper you go, the less you seem to know, and in the end a real coffee lover will fall into saying: “it’s what I like best, but it’s not for everyone”.
