Rainbows End Farm

07/03/2026

🤣🤣😂

06/27/2026

🐄🐮🤠

06/17/2026

Beautiful!

I’ve followed a lot of trends in my life. I wore a lot of layered tank tops in the 2000s. In college, I printed off motivational quotes to hang on my wall. I watched Tiger King as soon as it came out.

And I convinced myself skinny jeans were forever (I’m still not convinced they aren’t).

(For anyone still trying to figure out whether it's Rebekah or Josh behind these posts, I assume the skinny jeans reference gave it away. If not…sorry, Josh).

Most of those trends eventually faded, but there’s one that I’ve noticed a lot of lately that I want to talk about today.

Hating solar.

I’m not talking about questioning individual projects, or debating land use, or having legitimate concerns about siting, permitting, or community impacts.

I’m talking about pure hatred, about denial of the economics and the environmental impact studies, and the income these projects are bringing to farmers.

I’m talking about presenting someone with the facts, and being told all my photos are AI-generated (which, honestly, is just a testament to how far iPhone cameras have come along, so I really take this one as a compliment. Hats off to Apple).

Hating solar is fashionable and cool, and what’s funny is that many of the arguments I hear against it would sound downright ridiculous if we applied them consistently.

A subdivision gets built? That's growth. A warehouse goes up on farmland? That's economic development. A parking lot covers 50 acres? Nobody starts a Facebook group.

But you put solar panels on a field, and now, everyone is an expert in land use, international finance, electrical engineering, wildlife biology, geopolitics, and panel manufacturing. The same people demanding cradle-to-grave environmental accounting of solar often have no interest in doing the same analysis for whatever energy sources they prefer.

The same people worried about foreign ownership of solar companies often buy products, fuel, food, and services from foreign-owned companies every day without a second thought.

I don’t think solar should be above criticism. By all means: question projects. Challenge developers. Demand accountability. Push everybody to be better.

But know this: there’s a difference between scrutiny and scapegoating. As someone who spends a lot of time on solar sites, we know that the reality “IRL” (as the kids say - see? I’m trendy) looks a lot different than the internet version.

The internet version of solar is a wasteland where everything is dying, including the birds flying overhead and the soil microbes below. The real version is just what this picture shows: grass growing, sheep grazing, pollinators buzzing around blooming plants, farmers making a living.

Maybe someday, hating solar will go the way of layered tank tops and Tiger King.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. We’ll still be over here, just farming under the panels.

And I’ll still be loving my skinny jeans.

06/14/2026

Fun

✨ A group of fireflies is called a sparkle.

📜 Note: In an earlier carousel post on our feed, I misidentified a group of fireflies as a twinkle when they are very much a sparkle. I’m sorry. I removed the image and updated it here. This collective noun is mostly poetic and not used scientifically. Another poetic name for a group of fireflies is “glow” but they are mostly known as a swarm.—Ashley

06/01/2026

New Study: While the environmental and health harm of pesticides are well-known, many people ask: Can agriculture thrive without them? The answer, backed by a groundbreaking 10-year study in France, is a resounding YES. And the benefits extend far beyond mere feasibility. Although some pesticide-free systems yields were below those of conventional farming, some reached equivalent levels or even exceeded them. Moreover, estimated income was twice, three times or more the French national minimum wage in 80% of the monitored arable land. This 10-year study, led by France’s national agronomic and environment research institute INRAE, analyzed nine farming systems - including arable and mixed farming - across various regions of France. The trials were designed collaboratively with farmers and agricultural advisers within experimental units. They used an approach based on agroecological crop protection principles (prevention of the diseases, reliance on plant biodiversity and improvement or protection of soil health), while mineral fertilizers were allowed. The goal was to use zero pesticides while reducing biotic stress (caused by pests, fungi and weeds), with rotations that varied in duration from 5 to 9 years. Even biological pesticides were not used. Under certain conditions, pesticide-free crops matched or even surpassed conventional yields. At the Auzeville farm, pesticide-free wheat production exceeded conventional production in 2018, reaching 500 g/m² whilst the conventional version remained at around 400 g/m². The same applies to the production of other crops. For example, pesticide-free durum wheat production reached conventional levels in 2017, while pesticide-free triticale production surpassed conventional production in 2016 and 2019. Yield objectives were achieved in many site-years, even for crops whose yield performance is considered to be highly dependent on pesticides, such as rapeseed, sugar beet, and potato.

We don't need toxic pesticides. Anyone that's telling you that our farms and food systems would collapse without toxic chemicals is either misinformed or is outright lying to you.

Read more: https://www.pan-europe.info/blog/pesticide-free-agriculture-profitable-and-boosts-yields-new-french-study-shows

06/01/2026

The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver

04/06/2026

Heehee.

oh what a feelingggggg

02/07/2026

🐐🐐🐐