Uprooted, an eco/travel blog

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers also feed the soul. – The Koran

It was planting season when I visited Zephyros Farm and Garden: snow melting off the mountains, grass high and green, and everything beginning to sprout. We spent most days preparing beds for tiny plants that would soon grow tall and fragrant. As [...]

It started out innocently enough: it was a sunny Friday afternoon, and everybody at Zephyros was ready for a break from work. On Fridays, most of Paonia heads to Revolution Brewing. Daphne and all the interns (except Siwar, who was too young and therefore tasked with cooking dinner) hopped in the Subaru to go have [...]

That’s right, it’s AmeriCorps Week, and this year it’s a bigger deal than usual: less than a month ago, President Obama signed the Serve America Act, which hugely increased funding for national service. He also urged all Americans to think about how they can contribute during this economic downturn, and I can’t say but I [...]

Yes, that’s right: it’s time to talk about irrigation! WHOO exciting! IRRIGATION YEAH!
Okay, calm down all yous. It may not be the most fascinating topic, but it’s more interesting than you think. And it’s necessary: in places like Paonia, which gets less than 20 inches of rain a year, it’s next to impossible to farm [...]

Last Sunday, I arrived at Zephyros Farm and Garden, where I’ll be staying and working for a couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I knew I’d love this place. 35 acres of organic, healthy goodness: Zephyros abounds with beautiful veggies, scampering lambs, mouthy goats, budding blooms, and one big black dog called Ullur who spends [...]

Boulder, Colorado: Denver’s uppity well-off neighbor. It’s prettier, hillier, more educated and liberal. The air is cleaner, the people are whiter, and they all wear outdoor-recreation jackets with tasteful little logos on them. The University of Colorado’s main campus is here, and students cruise through the town on bikes, play Ultimate Frisbee in the park [...]

Because it’s still pretty chilly out, I’m not back on the WWOOF train yet. Still, I wanted to do some volunteering while I was in town, so I signed up to spend a day working with Habitat.
Volunteering is easy: you just sign up on habitat.org, show up at the build site, and they put you [...]

Springtime in Taos is a lot like winter in most places, except maybe harsher. People are full of stories about it:
“Oh yeah, you’ll be out working in short sleeves and then suddenly there’ll be snow and lightning and then the rest of the day you’re in full-on winter gear.”