HOLYOKE - It's a hot day in late June, and the driveway doesn't make it any cooler. Asphalt covers most of the front yard of this duplex in the working-class neighborhood of Elmwood, sending up waves ...

In the middle of an ordinary residential neighborhood in Holyoke lies a hidden Garden of Eden, where pollinating insects buzz from flower to flower and nearly everything is edible. Despite appearances ...

Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates operate Food Forest Farm in Holyoke, Massachusetts. They were just two guys living in the country, running a mail-order seed company while trying (and failing) to ...

As the climate crisis heats up, agriculture is in the hot seat, not only as a contributor to climate change, but also as a potential solution. Eric Toensmeier has spent the last several years tracking ...

Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates are not your average backyard gardeners. They call themselves plant geeks, and they’re not kidding. Toensmeier sustained a serious head injury in 1994, and to heal, ...

In this charming, true-life tale of urban regeneration and the birth of a forest garden movement, Toensmeier, famous among permaculture enthusiasts for his Perennial Vegetables and as coauthor of ...

It was the build-it-and-they-will-come principle that inspired two self-described plant geeks to buy a soulless duplex on a barren lot in this industrial city 10 years ago and turn it into their own ...

If you liked this story, share it with other people. Toensmeier: In order to avoid catastrophic climate change we need to return to 350 ppm of atmospheric carbon dioxide or below. Even if we stopped ...

Expand your understanding of food systems as a Civil Eats member. Enjoy unlimited access to our groundbreaking reporting, engage with experts, and connect with a community of changemakers. Marisha ...

Eric Toensmeier is a lecturer at Yale University and a senior researcher with the climate change-focused nonprofit Project Drawdown. He is the author of “The Carbon Farming Solution.” When I began ...