January 27 is National Have Fun at Work Day, and if that sounds impossible, it’s not. Really! Don’t wait for fun and joy to come to you. Sometimes you have to create it yourself, and that’s okay. We’ve all played games to make tedious or tough activities pass faster. How many bales can you throw in ...

Whether your office is in a traditional workspace or tucked away in a spare room at home, practicality rules and, above and beyond all else, your office is a place for productivity. That often means a computer, printer and related equipment, along with a lot of paper and hard surfaces. Adding someth...

Hardy green vegetables are exactly what we need when it’s still gray and dark out there. Fortunately, January is Artichoke and Asparagus Month! According to National Today , the following is the history of the two veggies: “Also known as globe artichoke, green artichoke or French artichoke, an artic...

Maple syrup is usually the product people think of when there’s talk of tapping maple trees. But there is an emerging market for something else – something simpler – that sugarmakers may want to tap into. In “Maple Foods Beyond Syrup: Maple Sap Water, An Emerging Functional Beverage,” hosted by Univ...

January is a month to: Assess your yard for areas that need winter interest . Plants with evergreen foliage, berries or interesting bark are great ways to add to the winter landscape. Exfoliating bark such as that of paperbark maple and river birch provides rich tones in the landscape. Witchhazel pr...

Another grazing season has passed, and today the grass-finishing steers go back home to a full plate of excellent stored forage and eventually to feeding families in the Northeast market. Such is life for a custom grazier who specializes in directly grazing pasture and being a link in the local chai...

At the 2022 Commodity Classic, a well-respected meteorologist presented an almost hour-long session on what farmers across the country might expect, weather-wise, for the rest of the year. This was in early March, and the trained scientist was working off years of previous data, general trends from ...

On Jan. 5, 2023, an Instagram Reel (a short-form video on the Instagram social media platform) I made surpassed 2 million plays. Essentially “going viral” for the ol’ grass-whispering farmer . My farmer friends asked “How much is that worth?” Zilch. Doing it for fun releases the pressure for money a...

In what I find to be a hilarious case of “what goes around, comes around,” during the holiday season I have noticed online retailers sending out physical, glossy-papered catalogues so kids could circle with real pens, pencils and crayons what they wished for. That Toys ‘R’ Us mailer was always a hit...

There are many reasons to propagate your houseplants. Maybe you want to share with a friend. Maybe your plant has gotten too large and you’d like to replace it with one of a more manageable size. Or, sadly, it’s taken a turn for the worst, and you want to be sure you have another if it doesn’t recov...

During the holidays, poinsettias show off in shades of red, pink and cream. They’ve been hybridized to decorate our homes during a season when the garden outdoors is fast asleep. Most people treat them as a holiday plant to be enjoyed for a limited time then disposed of, but that doesn’t have to be....

Mistletoe may be a welcome holiday sight when hung over a doorway if a loved one is near. Still, it can be an unwelcome intruder when found in your trees, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service horticulturist. “Mistletoe is a hemiparasite – a semi-parasitic plant,” said Allison Watkins,...

In honor of National Horse Day, I had the opportunity to sit down with Tina Krieger, former manager of Country Folks Mane Stream (the equine-focused sister publication of Country Folks , our flagship and agriculturally-focused trade paper), life-long horse owner and our resident expert on anything w...

Cows, horses, sheep, pigs, goats and chickens are still the most common forms of livestock in the U.S. but llamas deserve some love too. The ancestors of llamas are believed to have originated from the Great Plains of North America around 40 million years ago. However, they migrated to South America...

The National Garden Bureau has deemed 2023 the Year of the Amaryllis. The Amaryllis you decorate your home with during the winter holidays is a Hippeastrum. A member of the genus Amaryllidaceae, Hippeastrum bulbs are native to Central and South America and include 90 species and over 600 cultivars. ...