My name is Sky L. Moss and both sides of my family were engaged in farming for decades before my mother and father "left the farm". My mother is from rural Pa. and grew up on dairy farms my father grew up share cropping as a young man in Northern Georgia. As a young man I spent time with my paternal grandfather who routinely grew peanuts in up-state and once grew cotton! Like many in my generation I was introduced to gardening and growing at a young age but did not incorporate it into my adult life.

Eight years ago I went to work for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chemung County (CCE). I met a number of agricultural minded folks and started to reclaim my roots. In my 50' by 70' city plot I have grown 70-100 varieties of vegetables in the last four years. I have participated in farmers' markets (The East Side Market) and proudly helped to create the niche locally. This was some of my fondest work at CCE.

I constantly mine the minds of my mother and father and my aunts and uncles unearthing the secrets of my growing history. When I was asked to write a gardening column I saw it as an opportunity to share with my generation the joy and reward of growing. My "job" is instructing history at Corning Community College as such I will also talk about growing history.

My blog will be entitled GROWING. It has multiple implications and always reminds me of a great Lauren Hill(Fugees) quote, "anything that is not growing is dying or dead". I look forward to sharing my experience, insight and love of growing.