Blogs

By Jill Henderson

With Christmas just around the corner, the last thing people might be thinking of is gardening, but the two go together like pumpkin pie and whipped cream. In fact, if you grew your own pumpkins or squash this year and plan on using the sweet flesh to make delectable holiday treats with, now is the perfect time for saving their seeds. Extracting and drying seeds from hard-shelled squash and pumpkins is fairly straightforward, however, you must first be sure that the seeds you save now will come true to type next year. Read more »

When Henry Rowe Schoolcraft first entered the Ozarks in 1818, he found the area lightly populated by settlers whose livelihoods included hunting, trapping and timber. At that time, the Ozarks were still a secret wilderness overflowing with thick virgin timber and teaming with wildlife. But it wouldn’t be long before prospectors began to cash-in on the abundance of the land, and a great assault on the precious resources of the Ozarks began. Read more »

By Jill Henderson

Last week I was in the shop working on a project when I realized that for the entire hour that I had been there, I had been hearing the steady, drumming rhythm of a woodpecker pounding a nearby tree. I stepped out of the shop to look for the source of the sound, hoping to find out which species of woodpecker it was. I scanned the trunks of nearby trees without luck. Finally, I walked around the side of the well house to get a better look at the lower portion of the trees when a small woodpecker shot out in front of me and landed in a low-hanging branch ten feet away. I turned to look at the side of the well house and immediately saw a tidy hole in the wood siding just below the eave. Read more »

Humans have a love-hate relationship with winter. On one hand it’s cold and sometimes dreary and on the other it is a respite from the heat and bugs of summer. With unsurpassed vistas, clear woodland paths and limitless opportunities to spot birds, raptors and other wildlife, winter also allows for some of the best hiking of the year. During winter hikes one can spot some of nature’s best architectural wonders, specifically those created during freezing weather, such as ice falls, hoary frost and frozen fog. My all-time favorite wintertime sculpture has to be the elusive and transient frost flower. Read more »

By Jill Henderson

As we round into the third week of November the Ozarks is enjoying blissful days of low-70 degree temperatures and generally sunny skies. The winds have been gusting steadily all week long and have finally blown in a good soaking. I view the weather from the perspective of a gardener, homesteader, and naturalist and this week’s weather has afforded my husband and I the perfect opportunity to check our fence lines and enjoy a hearty hike in the woods. But now that the official hunting season has begun, we will spend the next two weeks a little closer to the house.
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By Jill Henderson

In the small town of Berryville, Arkansas, a piece of Ozarks history is slowly re-emerging from the past, thanks to two dedicated souls with a dream. Six years ago, Alexander Virden and his partner Sandra Doss, sold everything they owned - including their own home - to finance the restoration of a 109 year old landmark known as the Grand View Hotel. Their dream - to turn the abandoned and condemned beauty into a thriving community arts center and local gathering place. After pouring all of their own money into completing the main floor, the duo now lack the resources to fully complete their dream of a non-profit center for the arts. This is their story. Read more »

By Jill Henderson

The clear, cool days of fall are perfect for wrapping up last-minute garden chores, such as winterizing perennial herbs, flowers and shrubs. It’s also a good time to cultivate (till) the garden or to create new beds for the spring garden. Fall is also the time of the annual leaf fall in the Ozarks. Many homeowners spend days trying to get rid of the deepening piles of leaves from their yards. But instead of raking and burning or bagging them for the garbage, consider putting fall leaves to use in the garden as a protective, nutrient-rich mulch. Read more »

Gorgeous Green Tomatoes

Jill Henderson, Editor, Show Me Oz

Fall is in full swing and November is just around the bend. Time to say goodbye to the fresh bounty of the summer garden and tuck everything in for the winter to come. After the particularly tough growing season we just had, you won’t want to waste a single edible thing from the garden – and that includes green tomatoes! With a little creativity, those crispy green orbs can be turned into an amazing array of sumptuous edibles.

Read the entire article here: Show Me Oz - Gorgeous Green Tomatoes

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By Jill Henderson

Saturday morning I was curled up in a blanket watching Bob Ross paint a winter landscape on PBS. I was enjoying his rapturous meditation on loving life and the subtle nuances of painting glacial mountains against a blue sky when a slight movement outside the window caught my eye. Like a cat to a bit of bright yarn, my eyes were immediately drawn to a silky grey titmouse flirting in the low branches of the oak tree.

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By Greg Swick, contributing author

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” - Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth Read more »