ABOUT BINDWEED FARM

Bindweed Farm began as an experimental habitat for leafcutter bees, which Ralph had raised for two decades. With local agricultural practices reducing the bees' potential foraging area to less-than-subsistence levels, he hoped two acres of wildflowers would replace the colonies' natural needs. The two acres of Indian Blanket and poppies became a hundred species of everlastings, which in turn evolved into about ninety cut flower varieties planted on five acres, seven thousand square feet of which is under plastic.

In the winter, when cold Idaho winters and short days preclude farming, Ralph writes creative nonfiction and his wife, Jeriann, is a watercolorist. Ralph's literary work has appeared in the Georgia Review  and the Cimarron Review , while his horticultural expertise has been published in Growing For MarketJeriann has sold work throughout the world and has displayed art at galleries on both coasts of the U.S. Recent work has graced the cover of Cross-Country Skiing magazine with such overwhelming reception that it is now available as a reproduction. Her newest work, Dharma, which enters the field of "book arts," involves a folding watercolor structure displaying the Buddhist Eightfold Path, and has been shown at local universities to some renown. More whimsically, she creates scrapbook art for the American company PCCrafter.