The story of California’s water shortage is the story of Manifest Destiny in the US: a belief that people can dominate the natural landscape and bring it to its knees in servitude of Our Way of Life. The American Dream: to enjoy boundless growth, unimaginable luxury and to always have the ability to do and have more.
Read MoreThousand Islands Sun contributing writer Mary Whiting has written an absolutely lovely feature on Better Farm in today's issue of the Thousand Islands Sun.
Read MoreEditor's Note: This is a guest blog from our friends over at RedShed.
Gardening is a great way to eat healthy and enjoy the outdoors. This guide is made for anyone wanting to learn how to make a garden and how to grow vegetables for that garden. In this guide you will learn how to select the proper location for your garden, learn about tools needed for the garden, how to prepare soil and how to grow basic vegetables.
Read MoreWe've got the first round of plantings done in our brand-new apple orchard! Last week we planted Honeycrisp and Jonemac trees sourced from the Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District in Watertown.
Read MoreBetter Farm and betterArts have announced dates for the 2015 Summer Festival Series: June 20, July 18 and Aug. 29.
Read MoreFormer betterArts resident Maggie Fishman recently shared with us photos from her time at Better Farm last summer, which we'd like to now share with you. People often wonder what the scene is like around here, and we think Maggie's done a perfect job of showing just that.
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Boston-based author Gemma Cooper-Novack will host a reading from one of her novels at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 11, at the Lyric Coffee House & Bistro in Clayton, N.Y.
Cooper-Novack has been in the North Country since March 23 through the betterArts Residency Program at Better Farm in Redwood. Her poetry and fiction have been published in more than 20 journals, including Amethyst Arsenic, Ballard Street Poetry Journal (Pushcart Prize nomination), Bellevue Literary Review, Cider Press Review, Hanging Loose, Lyre Lyre, The Saint Ann’s Review, Santa Fe Writers Project, Spry, and Printer’s Devil Review. The writer’s plays have been produced in Chicago and New York.
Cooper-Novack’s articles have appeared on Feminist Review and Elevate Difference, and in NASPA Knowledge Communities as well as on her collaborative diablog, the Sinners Creek Commission. She has been awarded artists’ residencies Can Serrat Centro de Actividades Artísticas in Catalonia, the Betsy Hotel Writer’s Room in Miami Beach, and Wildacres in North Carolina in addition to betterArts. Cooper-Novack enjoys baking cookies and walking on stilts in her spare time. Her work can be viewed at www.gemmacoopernovack.com and at sinnerscreek.com.
For her reading, Cooper-Novack will share excerpts from her new adult novel-in-progress Told You So, in which 19-year-old Maya struggles to reconcile a new relationship with her adolescent fantasies.
The Lyric Coffee House & Bistro is located at 246 James St. in Clayton. The betterArts Residency Program offers artists, writers, performers, and musicians the space and time to work on specific projects against the backdrop of a 65-acre sustainability campus. Learn more at www.betterarts.org.
The snow and ice are sadly not entirely receded from Better Farm's property, but we're thinking Spring as we get plants started in the main house and greenhouses. We're also germinating seeds that will grow into plants exclusively for Redwood's Food Pantry and dispersed to individuals and families in need.
Through a new Working Lands for Wildlife partnership between the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Better Farm has been selected as a host site for conservations efforts to restore habitat that will encourage increased golden-winged warbler population.
Read MoreWriting coach, playwright, author and arts educator Gemma Cooper-Novak is our latest betterArts resident, joining us at Better Farm through April 11 to work on two of her novels.
Read MoreBetter Farm is installing an apple orchard to provide the public with fresh-pressed cider, pick-your-own apples, harvest festivals and much much more in the coming years.
Read MorebetterArts resident Leila Namin will host an artist's reception and gallery showing of her work from 4-6 p.m. Saturday, March 28 at the Thousand Islands Arts Center in Clayton, NY.
Read MoreVisiting artist and one-man band The Suitcase Junket will be performing at Savory Downtown in Watertown at 8 p.m. this Friday, March 27.
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