The bride-to-be walked into my hoop house in late June and literally gasped when she saw the Echo Champagne lisianthus. I could see her mind racing through possible ways to use it in her wedding. Unfortunately, her bridesmaids had already purchased their red dresses, and the pink-and-cream flowers just weren’t going to work. But her […]
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Sweet potatoes store well and are a good market or CSA crop for late fall or winter. We used to buy bare-root sweet potato slips for transplanting, believing growing our own would be very tricky. The collapse of our supplier, plus our desire to have organic plants, plus a need to reduce our expenses one
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January through March seems to be the prime time for farm conferences, probably because except for a few crazies using high tunnels and other devices to extend the season to an unending thing, it’s the most downtime part of the year. But why would farmers want to spend time and money – both precious commodities
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If you are like me, the sight of someone approaching with a clipboard sends you fleeing, and the phone ringing at dinnertime spreads fear through your family. It is the dreaded survey – the “S-word” – come calling, and it might as well be a dental appointment. Given the disdain with which many seem to
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Upcoming meetings Maryland Cut Flower Growers Association welcomes growers from any state to attend meetings. The next will be at 9 a.m. Feb. 20 at the Maryland Department of Agriculture building in Annapolis and the featured topic will be the cut flower industry in New Zealand. For directions and information, call 1-800-492-5590. Ohio Ecological Food
Research into the health effects of food is biased by industry funding, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at studies about the health effects of soft drinks, juice and milk and correlated results with the funding source. The researchers found that, overall, there was a strong association between the type of funding available for these
Phil Howard, professor at Michigan State University, has updated his “Who Owns Organic? chart, which shows corporate ownership of organic and natural food brands. The update also shows 21 new organic brand introductions such as Dole Organic, Heinz Organic and Tostitos Organic. Sixteen of the Top 25 food processors in North America now have organic
At The Henry Ford, a living-history museum in Detroit, 70 percent of the produce used at restaurants and snack bars is bought from local farms, says an article by the Michigan Land Use Institute. That’s a recent development, attributed to The Henry Ford’s food service director, Susan Schmidt, who realized one day in 2005 that
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Science News reported in the December 16, 2006, issue on various research projects around the U.S. to eliminate pathogens from fresh produce: •Texas A&M researchers are spraying lactic acid, a chemical used to sanitize carcasses in the meat industry. •At Purdue University, fresh produce has been treated with chlorine dioxide gas, the sanitizer used
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In response to produce contamination outbreaks last year, California’s leafy greens industry is moving to implement safety procedures for growers and handlers. A marketing agreement in which handlers pledge to buy only from growers using good agricultural practices is already in the comment period, and a grower marketing order was scheduled to be released for
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