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Tommy Stauffer (left) and Shawn Kuhn “never planned to be farmers,” writes Jenna Congdon. “Fresh from their senior year of college, the idealistic duo decided to start a farm built on regenerative agriculture principles and a deep sense of community.”

Neither of them had an ounce of farming experience, but 15 years later, Vitruvian Farms is a thriving staple of the Madison, Wisconsin, area, with organic produce, an indoor mushroom facility, and a shop featuring goods from all over the region. Read more about how they learned to farm on the fly. 

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“In 2025, the climate battle [shifted] from developing new solutions towards implementing existing solutions at scale. It’s become clear that no single person, company or technology will solve the climate crisis independently. The courage needed to win this battle is therefore rooted in collaboration." – Adrien Roy, a Corporate Knights 30 Under 30 climate champion

We hear it over and over again from those who’ve been working in the climate space for years — the scientists, the activists, the organizers: We have the solutions to address our climate crisis. What we need is the will.

And yet … too often we wait for a silver bullet, one that will allow us to maintain the status quo while somehow mitigating the damage we’re doing. But as 29-year-old Adrien Roy, who has, according to Corporate Knights, “completed more than 60 climate projects focused on baselining greenhouse gas emissions, modelling decarbonization pathways, and building net-zero transition plans and strategies,” tells us, collaboration to implement the solutions we know work at scale is key to finding our way through this. In other words, there is no magic bullet. There is only the work of so many, coming together.

• Cemeteries: How the Dead Protect the Wild

• Bike Buses: Rolling Discos for Children

• Co-op Gardening, One Yard at a Time

• Caribou Trivia

• Dear Dot: How Can I Grow a Tree from Seed?

• Learning to Farm on the Fly

• Glow & Grow Kits

• Climate Quick Tip: A Nutty Fix for Wood Scratches

• Mr. Howard Mocktail

• How to Reach Out to Your Reps in the U.S. and Canada

• Holiday Leftovers? Let Bluedot Help You Avoid Food Waste

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Fix flaws in wood furniture by rubbing a walnut over the scratch.

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Mr. Howard Mocktail

Wild Facts About Caribou

While we’re still within the 12 days of Christmas, did you know that Santa’s favorite deer is also the one featured on the Canadian quarter? That’s right. Reindeer and caribou are the same species: Rangifer tarandus. Here are five more facts that you may not know about the reindeer, er, the caribou. 

Dear Dot: How Can I Grow a Tree from Seed?

Illustration by Elissa Turnbull

Dear Dot, 

Can you recommend a good book with some information about growing trees from seed?

–Margaret

Dear Margaret,

What a delightful question! As that old chestnut goes, “the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The next best time is now.” And “now” really means now. As I write this from my home in the North, the snow is piling up outside, but we needn’t wait til the weather warms to begin the process of planting a tree under whose shade we hope eventually to sit. 

A few years ago, Dot planted four pawpaw trees, thanks to a local environmentalist who, keen to restore populations of these formerly ubiquitous and beloved trees, offered up seeds to anyone interested. Just one of those trees survived. Clearly, I’m no expert at nurturing tree growth, but I found someone who is. So we will not only offer up a selection of books that will tell you how to grow a tree, but also some straightforward instructions, courtesy of Jordan Jones, a regenerative tree farmer in Kansas. 

Jordan Jones started off in tech (AI! 30 years ago!), but has always had a thing for trees, he told Dot. “When I was a little kid, I loved trees, and I would always plant tree seeds and dig up seedlings,” he said. And so, when he returned to Kansas, where he was born, he founded Mad Cat Farm (named for a beloved feline with a cantankerous personality). “Over years and years, I pretty much was studying biology, biochemistry, ecology, regenerative agriculture, all forms of agriculture, and just kind of became a plant nerd and a tree nerd.” Today, Jones applies that knowledge and nerdiness to genetic resilience in fruit and nut trees. 

His market, he says, is the “advanced” backyard grower, which is potentially you, Margaret, and people like you! Who better to help us?

Want Jordan’s instructions? And his reading list? Click here. 

BUY LESS/BUY BETTER: Glow & Grow Kits

If you make a purchase through our links, including from Amazon, we may earn a small commission.

Among my favorite things in our new Shopify store are these Modern Sprout Glow & Grow Kits, which are exactly what they sound like: soy-blend candles that transform into planters after the flame has burned down. They even include the kits to grow basil, daisies, aloe, or a spruce tree.

What You Can Do: Write to Your Reps

Democracy is a participation sport, so don’t hesitate to reach out to your elected representatives to tell them what matters to you and what you want them to do about it. If you live in the U.S., click here. Canadian readers can click here.

The Keep-This Handbook

You might just find yourself with a fridge full of uneaten food, left over from the holidays. Let Bluedot help you figure out what you can still eat, what should be tossed and where with Bluedot’s Guide to Avoiding Food Waste.

Visualizing the New Year

I keep a stack of old magazines, some from my alma mater, some from thrift stores, and others donated by my sister’s mother-in-law who works in a medical office with way too many subscriptions. Each one has pages cut up and hardened with dried glue, but they’ve evaded the recycling bin and instead sit occupying precious real estate on my shelf. Every year, once a year, these magazines pay their rent. 

Come time to make New Year’s resolutions, I ravage what’s left of their pages for scraps. I cut out photos, graphics, headlines, individual letters, and glue them back together on a manifestation board (or vision board, if that’s too woo-woo) that will hang on my wall for the rest of the year. It’s a practice that helps me set new short-term goals while working toward my forever goal of creative reuse and sustainability.

What sustainability goals do you have for the new year? How do you hope to achieve them? We’d love to hear all about ’em!

– Emily Cain, (and Jamie Kageleiry, Robin Jones, and Leslie Garrett)

Editors

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades.  She makes her home in Canada, west of Toronto. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.

Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Martha’s Vineyard, says her favorite spot on earth is out on a kayak there, looking at birds.

Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long Beach.

Emily Cain is a recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach, where she wrote and edited for the university’s award-winning magazine, DIG.

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