As I write this, I am pulling my head up from a miasma of research. I don’t like data, or black and white — things without wiggle room or a fudge-factor paralyze me. Gray areas are usually my comfort zone. And I don’t like professional jargon; it intimidates me and I feel ignorant. So yes, […]
Geneviève Villamizar
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Branching Out: A Sit Spot or Two
Barefoot, I step quietly through waves and drifts of green. I can hear heavy birds scratching in the underbrush. With one wary eye at a time, they peer about, swiping their beaks back and forth through the decomposing duff. Concealed within a filagree of aspen leaves, I finally spot them. Angry chatters fill the air […]
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Branching Out: Making love with a tree
With a lifetime of working in nature, I feel like a “holder of secrets” at times. My second favoritest job ever was as an arborist, working for my friends Mickey and Susan as an undergrad. Each morning at a new job site we’d step into our saddles, gear clinking just as it did on the […]
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Modern love, foraging and fungi
Merriam-Webster defines “symbiosis” as an interaction between two different organisms living in intimate association, typically to the advantage of both. Think of Nemo, impervious to the sting of sea anemones, taking refuge within its tentacles. In thanks, Nemo scares off predators of the anemone; his wastes nourish the anemone. Trent and Kristen Blizzard also enjoy […]
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Branching Out: Raising chickens for a lot more than eggs
When people hear about our WildChild Chikken Co-op, they either say “Oh, cool!” or “Can I join, too?” The co-op started with a Facebook post almost four years ago: “We are moving and can’t bring our chickens. 1½ year-old hens for sale; some supplies included, $80.” This was at the same time that a restaurant […]
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Film features connection beyond basecamp
“It was a group of us, John Callahan, the Marolt brothers, and Jim Gile. We all grew up on Cemetary Lane, skiing and ski racing,” says Mike Marolt, the son of an Olympic ski racer. “But we really got started into this stuff in the eighth-grade outdoor ed program here in Aspen. The public school […]
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A family prescription for fun nutrition
It was just as the cucumbers were coming on and the fruit trees were heavy with apples and pears that I saw an announcement for a series of farm-to-kitchen cooking classes. My daughter, Sprout, has grown up with her own “backyard grocery store”. We’re lucky she digs it so much. How can you not, when […]