In its early years, the Eat Local Resource Fair at Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center stressed the environmental, economic and health benefits of eating locally sourced foods, a message that fell on receptive ears. Now in its sixth year, the Eat Local...

Meet Tom Hartwig, an 80-something farmer in small-town Wisconsin whose favorite hobby is firing his homemade cannons. Hartwig is at the center of Michael Perry's touching memoir, Visiting Tom: A Man, a Highway, and the Road to Roughneck...

It's just a typical day in the Menomonee Valley. Just a few steps from Canal Street...

In 2003, the Shepherd Express decided that a world-class city like Milwaukee needed a world-class international film festival. With that in mind, it set up a nonprofit charitable corporation, Milwaukee's Future Foundation, to create and run the 11-day...

Choosing a venue for a wedding can be a tough decision. It has to be special in some way, whether it reflects the bride and groom's values and beliefs or just offers a great view. Many newly engaged couples find the process exhausting...

Joshua Clover is an accomplished writer, critic, teacher and journalist specializing in poetry and poetics, with an emphasis on the contemporary. Clover, who currently teaches in the Department of English at UC-Davis, is the author of two books of poems...

Our city’s “Eat Local Challenge” (through Sept. 14; www.eatlocalmilwaukee.org) encourages Milwaukeeans to reflect on what we consume and where it comes from as a way to inspire us to eat healthy and live lightly. Stepping outside of the industrial food model and our consumer-driven, fast-paced, fast-food culture by purchasing locally grown food at farmers’ markets and natural food stores is becoming...

Despite all the energy and excitement surrounding our city’s summer events, Milwaukeeans remain a frugal lot, demanding low-cost diversions during the all-too-short warm-weather season. Happily, there are free and low-cost entertainment and activities in spades this summer. Free for all...

...Inspiration can always be found on a tour of Will Allen's Growing Power, through the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, at the Urban Ecology Center, at a meeting of the Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Network (MUAN), or by connecting to the Shorewood Victory Garden Initiative, Alice's Garden in Johnson's Park, or the Bay View Garden and Yard Society. To learn more about renting a plot from the county, contact the UW-Extension program. (Space is limited, so you may have to wait a year for some land.)...

Milwaukee walkers are lucky to have easy access to the Lake Michigan shore and our incredible park system. But there are days when dedicated walkers just have to put on their hiking boots and try something a little more challenging. Fortunately, there are more hiking options than the much-loved Kettle Moraine State Forest in the western suburbs and beyond. The Urban Ecology Center on the East Side is a great place to start reconnecting with the Milwaukee River corridor, which is becoming Milwaukee's Central Park. Once on the trail, it's hard to believe that you're just steps from...