Although this isn’t a banner year for new seed-propagated flowers, a few new varieties deserve your consideration. Let me focus on some of the plants that you still have time to grow this year. Among the new items from seed companies are three cultivars of Celosia argentea plumosa. First, there is the greenish-yellow ‘Sylphid’ available […]
Whats new for 2007? Read More »
Counterintuitive as it may seem, the idea of downsizing your cut flower operation may make sense for you. After growing cut flowers on my own farm for five years —as I now enter my sixth season— as is true for most of us, I use the downtime of the winter season to analyze my business.
Flower business can get TOO big Read More »
Spinach bolts in the spring, brassicas become bitter when hot weather arrives, but Swiss chard and a few other vegetables can provide fresh, tasty, succulent greens through the summer with little effort, and very few troubles. Chard (Beta vulgaris cicla) is related to beets and like them, is a biennial. Hence it will not flower
Keep the greens coming: Swiss chard and other summer spinach substitutes Read More »
Most of the vegetables we grow are annuals. Every year we have to fight weather and soil conditions to get them planted. Many have to be seeded in heated greenhouses and transplanted. Because they are annuals, they are programmed to flower, fruit/set seed and die. Then we have to compost or turn under the remaining
Easy, reliable asparagus anchors early markets Read More »
The Food and Drug Administration called on produce processors to install monitoring systems to prevent contamination, but declined to make the recommendations mandatory—at least for now. At a hearing before the agriculture subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held in Madison, Wisconsin on March 12, a representative of the Center for Science in the
CSA farmers report a jump in inquiries after the March 12 issue of Time magazine, which has a cover photo of an apple with a sticker that says “Forget Organic. Eat Local.” The headline says “The best food you can eat may be in your own back yard.” Inside is a long essay by John
Another boost for local farms Read More »
For a fraction of the cost of a traditional walk-in-cooler, a new device called the CoolBot will turn any brand of window air conditioner (purchased separately) into a cooler. It provides a much simpler alternative to the air conditioner rewiring that has been promoted by USDA and mentioned in Growing for Market many times. The
Make your own cooler Read More »
Tough new immigration restrictions in Colorado have farmers worried that they will lose up to half their migrant farmworkers this season. In response, many farmers are signing up for a program that will put prison inmates to work in their fields. The pilot program by the Colorado Corrections Department will send up to 100
By Dan Nagengast Most small horticultural producers view much of U.S. agricultural policy from a distance. That policy is generally summed up in a sprawling patchwork of legislation known as “The Farm Bill” and dealt with about every five years. 2007 is one of those years, and many people hope to change the focus and
At last, a farm bill for the rest of us Read More »
Farmers market season is upon us again, so it is a good time for market vendors to brush up on what I like to call “vending best practices.” (By the way, market managers can learn a thing or two here, too, and then advise their vendors for success.) When it comes to teaching vending best
Get ready for farmers markets Read More »
