November 1, 2009

When I asked cut flower growers to write me about their most profitable crop (in our October email contest), I got some surprising answers: dahlias, spuria iris, sedum, and gomphrena. Granted, I did tell people not to write me about zinnias, because they are the top money-maker on most flower farms, and everyone knows how […]

Drip tape can last three or four seasons before it starts to clog or develops too many holes. So it pays to handle it gently and try to prolong its life. One of the best ways to take care of drip tape is to gather it at the end of the season and store it

Five years ago a regular farmers market customer shared with us his inventive spin on our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.  We were at our Saturday farmers market in Tulsa, OK, and were in the process of signing people up for our CSA program when he approached us with his proposal. At the time, our

© 2009-2015 Pam Dawling and New Society Publishers   In hard financial times, it’s a waste to throw out all leftover seed at the end of the planting season and buy all new for next year. Yet it’s a bigger waste to keep everything and risk poor germination of a vital crop. Here’s a systematic

A down economy might be waking the rest of the country up to the importance of savings and DIY, but for farmers working on low margins and high risk it’s business as usual. Although we still live off the income from our 200-family CSA, I developed and now sell the CoolBot, a device that makes

As 2009 draws to a close, food safety is high on the national agenda. Fruit and vegetable growers are facing pressure to comply with food safety standards, known as Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), and wholesale buyers are increasingly requiring a third-party GAPs certification. Although certification is technically still voluntary, nearly everyone in the produce industry