November 23rd, 2010 | by Neil Franzen | published in Engage WI, Sustainable Wisconsin, Your Stories
While reading my dispatches, you might think the sole work at Wellspring is their CSA program. In actuality, Wellspring also promotes community, education, and the practice of self and natural wellness. Many people and organizations have greatly benefited from workshops, retreats, and simply just spending time at Wellspring since its inception in 1982. This has included many groups of school children stopping out to visit the farm over the course of the season.
November 16th, 2010 | by Neil Franzen | published in Engage WI, Sustainable Wisconsin, Your Stories
“Permaculture, or permanent agriculture, is a school of thought which focuses on building sustainable communities, homesteads, or farming operations around the concept of mimicking nature itself. The use of patterns and contours such as circular or curved shapes is preferred versus man-made rectangular ones (think standard farm fields and city street grids). These elegantly-shaped flows encourage a harmony with surroundings, including the natural life which shares the same spaces.”
November 9th, 2010 | by Neil Franzen | published in Best of Engage WI, Engage WI, Sustainable Wisconsin, Your Stories
“Last week I proposed we consider organic versus conventional foods. This week I’d like to offer some insight towards arriving at an answer.” Read Neil Franzen’s followup to The Big Question.
November 2nd, 2010 | by Neil Franzen | published in Best of Engage WI, Engage WI, Sustainable Wisconsin, Your Stories
I’ve always been an early adopter. Back in 1998, for example, I bought my very first DVD player for about $800 dollars. Those players are obviously quite a bit cheaper now, but at the time I was excited about the technology and wanted to encourage wider public acceptance with my purchase. What started for me in personal electronics has now become much the same regarding local and organic foods.
October 26th, 2010 | by Neil Franzen | published in Engage WI, Sustainable Wisconsin, Your Stories
Neil Franzen has spent the last seven months living on a farm in a relatively rural area. This week, Neil takes us to the city where our living space is inundated with noisy cars and miles of concrete, but amidst the people and buildings, he explores two ground-breaking organizations focused on sustainable urban agriculture and urban-based environmental education.
October 19th, 2010 | by Neil Franzen | published in Best of Engage WI, Engage WI, Sustainable Wisconsin, Your Stories
In an ideal world, all our vegetables would be gigantic, full of nutrition, colorful, and picture perfect. Now that we’re putting food on the table for almost seven billion people, however, we’ve needed to utilize science to help us squeeze every last drop of “ideal” out of our foods.
October 12th, 2010 | by Neil Franzen | published in Best of Engage WI, Engage WI, Sustainable Wisconsin, Your Stories
My life has had one constant, albeit an undesirable one. I’ve labored with food allergies since I fatefully—but not fatally!—ate my first peanut at the age of two and had an extreme reaction. As a child, I always thought I was relatively alone as a food allergy sufferer…
September 21st, 2010 | by Neil Franzen | published in Engage WI, Sustainable Wisconsin, Your Stories
Neil Franzen made drastic life changes to follow his dream. An EngageWisconsin Blogger for the next ten weeks, Neil will share his experiences, growing food and living on a Wisconsin CSA farm.
