Trip to Ecuador provides ideas for U.S. growers
What seems like a really long winter is finally giving way to spring. We were severely short handed this past winter, and when our Mexican guys got here last week, Frank breathed a huge sigh of relief: finally there is hope to get things back into some kind of order!Just as the workers arrived, Pamela […]
Expansion of wireless communications brings credit cards, food stamps to farmers' markets
Food stamp recipients lost access to most farmers’ markets during the 1990s, when USDA phased out the use of paper coupons and switched to a debit card system known as Electronic Benefit Transfer. EBT required food sellers to swipe the food stamp debit cards,but most open-air farmers’ markets weren’t able to provide the phone line […]
Squash – hate it or love it, but grow plenty of it
Summer squash is almost a “must have” at a farmers’ market stall. Customers love to eat squash in a variety of ways: raw in salads, sautéed with onions, in casseroles and grilled, to name just a few. This means that a market farmer really needs to have summer squash in his/her repertoire. Here at Au […]
Profit with potted herbs all season
By Sandie Shores Want to make more money selling herbs plants? In the February 2004 issue of Growing for Market I discussed selling potted herb transplants during the spring farmers’ market season. Without a doubt these spring sales will provide the most income from herb plant sales. However, by understanding the lifestyles of your customers […]
Scaling down helps farmers find balance
By Annelle Durham Ten years ago we began market gardening on 20 acres in a rural county in Northern California. We now have 4 acres designated for vegetable production, 5 acres of wine grapes and small plantings of apples, plums and table grapes. At the end of eight years we had a thriving, 90-member vegetable […]
Farms raise values
Penn State researchers found that farms and other open-space land uses increase the value of houses located within a quarter-mile radius. The researchers collected sales prices and other information on more than 8,000 Berks County homes sold between 1998 and 2002. Open space, including forested acreage and grass, pasture, and cropland, located with a quarter […]
Illegal bouquets
Three Louisiana women have filed a federal lawsuit against a 65-year-old state licensing law that prohibits anyone from arranging and selling flowers unless they have passed a two-part licensing exam. Louisiana is the only state with such a law. According to an article in Greenhouse Product News, the lawsuit was filed in December 2003 by […]
Flower farms fail
The number of flower growers belonging to the California Cut Flower Commission has declined from 360 in 1994 to 300, with just 95 selling at least $300,000 in cut flowers a year. Many growers have been forced to shut down and sell their land to developers. “It’s lamentable,” Lee Murphy, president of the California Cut […]
GE ban challenged
On March 2, 2004, Mendocino County, California, became the first county in the U.S. to ban the production of genetically engineered crops and animals. Mendocino residents voted for the GE ban despite massive spending by the biotech industry ($700,000) and a non-stop barrage of misleading advertising and disinformation. But now the Mendocino ban and future […]
Letter from the Editor: New barns
Our farm was first settled in the 1880s, and since then it has been home to all kinds of farming ventures, including dairy cows, sheep, horses, hay, wheat, corn and vegetables. Over the decades, buildings have come and gone to fit the needs of the farmers. When we bought this farm seven years ago, there […]