When students at Howard Driggs Elementary School in Holladay started planting seeds at the Mount Olympus Community Garden in the spring, their outdoor classroom consisted of six garden beds filled with soil and little else. By the time the children returned after summer break, they found that a thick growth of vegetables and flowers had sprouted at the site, including … [Read more...]
Wallace Stegner’s Lasting Legacy at the University of Utah
This year, Wallace Stegner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Angle of Repose turns 50 years old, thrusting him once again into the spotlight as one of the American West's greatest writers. His nomadic childhood led him to form a deep bond with Salt Lake City, as he spent much of his adolescence here hawking hot dogs at Saltair resort, adventuring in the wilderness with his LDS … [Read more...]
Growing Sprouts in your Kitchen
Healthy Eating Without Having to Weed My husband Ken and I have killed more plants than we have kept alive. Every orchid he has brought me has turned into a stick in a pretty pot. We have managed to keep some houseplants thriving over the years, while others returned to compost. We got the idea during COVID-19 to try growing sprouts in our kitchen, while everyone else was … [Read more...]
Eat the Weeds: How to Harvest Wild Foods
I have foraged and eaten wild foods of all kinds for the past 40 years. For most people, foraging revolves around mushrooms, berries or wild asparagus, and I certainly harvest those. But while preparing to teach my first foraging class for West High School’s Community Education program several years ago, I discovered a forging book, Eat the Weeds by Ben Harris, that … [Read more...]
Are Sports More Important than Safety?
High school has been extremely difficult for students because of Covid-19. For 2021 seniors, it is even tougher. Their last year of high school has been unprecedented. Things have been flipped upside down. School dances and many other events have been canceled. In hard times, students need friends and extracurricular activities to unite them as a community. Yet, … [Read more...]
You can create glass beauty at Red Flower Studios!
Tucked away in Park City, and guarded by two friendly golden retrievers, is a unique and off-the-beaten-path resort destination — Red Flower Studios. Here, owners Daniel Bell and Micah Goddard teach the ancient art of glass blowing. Customers melt color into glass before a 2000 degree oven, blow air into the molten globules to give them shape, and then put finishing touches on … [Read more...]
Astonishing Discoveries about Utah Indians
Climate Change in Paleolithic America Resulted in Massive Lifestyle Changes Americans are always changing our lifestyle habits: especially in how we live and what to eat. Every year there is a new fad diet and more people make drastic changes such as living in vans or tiny homes to live the dream of a nomadic life, less attached to the “burdens of society or “working for the … [Read more...]
Then and Now: Marriott Library Exhibit Examines Parallels Between Pandemics
As a contagious respiratory illness spread in Utah, authorities closed public places and issued mask mandates, setting off a dispute over whether those measures were necessary to combat the virus. “The general closing order is mere hysteria,” Dr. Samuel G. Paul, Salt Lake City health commissioner, said. “There is no occasion whatever for closing down any business, and … [Read more...]
COVID in the Classroom: Teaching Dilemmas in 2020
Coronavirus, Corona, COVID-19, The Rona, The Wuhan Virus. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s here, and it looks like it is here to stay. The Coronavirus, commonly known as COVID-19, has changed the way education looks in Utah and across the country. COVID-19 plans for academic institutes have left many parents scrambling for options for their child’s education. Many … [Read more...]
Starry Starry Night: Dark Sky Parks and Research Flourish in Utah
One of the great delights of a camping trip, or better yet, living in one of Utah’s remote places away from the lights of the larger cities, is looking up on a clear night to see the sky filled with stars. Staring into the dark sky, punctured with points of light and maybe the glowing brushstroke of the Milky Way, can be inspiring, humbling and exhilarating. It is … [Read more...]