Agriculture and Farming

May 26, 2023

A Japanese Pearl Farm Shows Nature’s Artistic Process

SHIMA, Japan — It was raining hard, with blustery winds roiling the sea — unusual conditions on the spring day when I visited the Mikimoto Tatoku […]
May 2, 2023

The Coronation of King Charles III and the Food That Comes With It

British supermarkets are brimming with packages of coronation cupcakes, hoppy coronation ale and coronation crisps seasoned to taste like king prawn cocktail. There are even Jack […]
September 5, 2022

Tending to Grass, and to Grief, on a Tennis Court in Iowa

Mark Kuhn is hunched over, one knee on the ground, pulling dandelions from an otherwise immaculate lawn. With a small, serrated blade, he carefully carves tiny […]
August 18, 2022

The Hottest Party Is at … the Farm

With a summer schedule packed with dinners, concerts and dances, these community-minded farms are as social as any country club. A field of flashy zinnias and […]
June 12, 2022

Crop Circles Were Made by Supernatural Forces. Named Doug and Dave.

Intricate patterns carved in fields across England in the 1980s were a viral phenomenon long before the internet fed us such prankster curiosities daily. CONHOLT, England […]
April 16, 2022

The Fiddle Leaf Fig Is Dead

Mike Rimland, the “plant hunter” for Costa Farms, one of the largest houseplant growers in North America, was touring a tiny nursery in Southeast Asia about […]
April 16, 2022

The Fiddle Leaf Fig Is Dead

Mike Rimland, the “plant hunter” for Costa Farms, one of the largest houseplant growers in North America, was touring a tiny nursery in Southeast Asia about […]
February 19, 2022

Caplan's Store Closure Reflects Shifting Tides of Labor in America

For more than 14 months, Gary Ely has quietly shown up for a job he no longer has at Caplan’s Army Store in St. Johnsbury, Vt. […]
March 19, 2021

The D.I.Y. Developers

After a young couple sold the Catskills retreat they built themselves for a nice profit, they started thinking bigger. On a cold morning not long ago, […]
September 17, 2020

Fall’s Almost Here. Can We Still Go Apple Picking?

Across much of the country, fall is the season of apple-picking, corn mazes, winery harvests and Halloween hauntings, luring day-trippers and weekenders to rural areas. But […]