I’m primarily a vegetable grower, but I enjoy experimenting with all sorts of other crops: flowers, herbs, berries, fruits and, especially, seeds. Growing crops for seed adds a series of challenges beyond mere vegetable growing in the harvest and separation of the actual seed from the rest of the plant. Grains and dry beans, also […]
Threshing beans and grains Read More »
A movie trailer on the website of Dutch flower breeder Maruwa B.V. opens with dramatic space-odyssey style music over the words “Twenty years ago, passion became reality.” Then it cuts to a couple of guys in a field, inspecting and measuring a patch of steely blue flowers. The flowers are Eryngium, often called
Sea holly and its many cousins Read More »
The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook dispels the notion that there’s no money in farming. Richard Wiswall, who is a vegetable and herb grower in Vermont, asserts that farming can produce a decent livelihood — and he shows how to make it happen. Market farmers are notoriously bad at keeping records, analyzing sales, and
Book review Words of wisdom about making a farm profitable Read More »
Growing for Market in partnership with Johnny’s Selected Seeds has created a library of expert information about growing and selling vegetables and flowers. Links in the article will take you to johnnyseeds.com. Subscribe to Growing for Market for more great ideas about growing and marketing! For more topics in the series, click on Market Farming
This is a good time of year to plan and make preparations for planting new perennial crops. As well as the better known fruits, options include rhubarb (also known as pie plant) and asparagus. Both are early harvesting crops, so can provide fresh produce to start your CSA season or enhance your market booth or
Rhubarb and asparagus Read More »
In May and June, The Japan Foundation supported reciprocal visits between organic farmers and food professionals from both Japan and Kansas. Global Partners for Local Organic Foods (www.gplof.org) is a project of the Kansas Rural Center (KRC) in cooperation with the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements – Japan (IFOAM-Japan). Farmers hosted visitors
In the April issue of Growing for Market, we published an excerpt from Eliot Coleman’s new book, The Winter Harvest Handbook, in which he promotes low tunnels as an inexpensive alternative to high tunnels/hoophouses. Coleman says that high tunnels make sense for the crops that you have to tend to or harvest during the winter,
New tool makes strong hoops for overwintering crops Read More »
Growing for Market in partnership with Johnny’s Selected Seeds has created a library of expert information about growing and selling vegetables and flowers. Links in the article will take you to johnnyseeds.com. Subscribe to Growing for Market for more great ideas about growing and marketing! For more topics in the series, click on Market Farming
There's Still Time to Plant Read More »
This article was reprinted with permission from The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook. This book is available on our website at the Online Store. One of the most important books on my farm is the Crop Journal. This is just a basic pocket folder with loose-leaf pages inside, one page for each crop or enterprise, arranged
Farm for profit, not production Read More »
