Staff Reports / The New York Times It’s hard to know how many of us citizens are monitoring the mess oozing from the ground in Ohio, where toxic waste water from fracking is bubbling out of the soil in dozens of places and is all but certain to show up one day in the drinking … Read more
The domesticated tomato may date back 7,000 or more years, but the 2026 edible variety didn’t show up in Murphy, North Carolina, until July 23 at our local farmers market. At least this was the first I had seen this season. So, naturally I’ve been eating a summer’s worth of tomato sandwiches since. And every … Read more
Valerie Turner lays lead guitar, handles lead vocals, and specializes in intricate Piedmont-style ragtime fingerpicking, while her husband and bandmate Benedict (Ben) Turner provides traditional roots percussion using the washboard, bones, harmonica, and harmony vocals. The two serve as cultural historians and educators preserving early African-American country blues.