Mother Earth News

I wrote a review for Mother Earth News back in August, 2008 and posted it to Triond, an online article publication site. You can read my original review here.

Since then, Tara and I stopped buying the odd magazine from the news stand and paid for a subscription. We look forward to each issue and have learned some valuable tips and tricks. Another amazing thing about this magazine is the vast online resources that are available for subscribers and non-subscribers alike on their website, www.MotherEarthNews.com. There are a few pop-up adds here and there asking you to subscribe, but it's not that bad for the gobs and gobs of otherwise free resources you can sift through.

Another neat thing was when I showed my mom one of our issues and she chimed in with, "Oh yes, I used to get this magazine when you were just little."

But there are some things that bother Tara and I when we read through the new issues. Sure, there are green articles, but seldom is it that you get good how-to advice. One recent dander-raiser was an article about a woman who went green by finding a co-worker who owned a farm and then spending a lot of time at her house. Sure, that's great if you just happen to have a co-worker who has worked to buy farmland and is nice enough to allow you to mooch off the fruits of their labor, but what about the rest of us? And then there are the articles about how some couple built their own home for under $30,000. Of course, the piece is mostly background information on the couple and doesn't include plans or how the building materials could be acquired by the average individual.

Maybe I should write a letter to the editor and request that we get more articles about the various new green home kits that are being produced. Or maybe a few about yurt living. The truth is, we don't subscribe to the magazine for feelgood articles, we thirst for knowledge.

We've loved the resources for propagating seeds from one season to start the next and it has helped to expand our sustainable living mindset. The article for cheese making got us both very excited, though we have yet to attempt to make our own cheese since things have been so busy, but I loved making mead from the instructions I found online. (I'll post about that soon!)

All in all, we enjoy receiving this magazine in the mail. We don't always agree with their opinions, but we do find information that has become very valuable to us and in the end that's what's important.