The most exciting part of summer is the bounty of fruit and vegetables it gives us. Fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, strawberries and herbs taste just as they should. Often, we don’t realize how many parts of the plant end up in the compost that could be incorporated into delicious recipes, like the ones below. Carrot and […]

When Merlin Varghese’s great-grandfather, Moothedan Varghese, went to Malaysia for higher education a century ago, he didn’t know he would bring back something that would transform his entire village in the south Indian state of Kerala. The mangosteen tree he planted in the village of Pariyaram with the seeds he brought along still yields fruit […]

For James McSweeney, compost is the new black — black gold, that is. McSweeney, a composting consultant, shares his passion and expertise for this soil-building, job-creating, local-food-growing and planet-saving material in his new book, Community-Scale Composting Systems: A Comprehensive Practical Guide for Closing the Food System Loop and Solving Our Waste Crisis. Modern Farmer talked […]