February 1, 2013

So far 2013 is off to a full and flying start! In the first few weeks alone I’ve rebuilt the farm’s website, overhauled my blog, looked at a dozen potential farms to buy, enrolled in two intensive floral design workshops in California, and spent a handful of days with my flower farming BFF, Jennie Love. […]

We stopped farming in 2011 after 30-plus years growing vegetables. One of the hottest items at our farm dispersal sale were the 80 greenhouse pallets we made, starting in our earliest years. They are cheap – current cost of materials is $18 – and easy to build.   The 4×8 pallet holds 18 standard 1020

This fourth article in my series about being resilient, understanding what’s going on with the plants and the weather, and knowing when to take action, is about tools to help busy farmers with complex decisions that have to be taken quickly. The middle of a hot field in mid-afternoon of the day you need to

Walking around the farm, driving deliveries, or lying in bed worrying about stuff, I’m constantly noticing things that need my attention. All of this stuff can stack up in my brain like a pile of dirty vegetables. And just as a pile of dirty vegetables won’t do you any good – and will, in fact,

  The Organic Seed Grower: A Farmer’s Guide to Vegetable Seed Production by John Navazio The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz Although these two books may seem to have little in common, both are about ancient skills: on-farm plant breeding and seed saving; and one of the oldest methods of preserving food. Both

A new meal-planning service helps CSA members cook their veggies. The business, Local Thyme, offers CSA farms the opportunity to have customized recipes that match what’s in the share each week. It also offers a second tier of service, with more general seasonal recipes. In both cases, the members of the CSA get access to

With last year going down as the hottest year on record, finding vegetables with heat tolerance needs to be a high priority for growers in many part of the U.S. Dr. Lewis Jett, the commercial horticulture specialist at West Virginia University, looked for heat tolerance in head lettuce last year at his research station in

Two years after the Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law, the Food and Drug Administration has published its proposed rule for food safety on produce farms. The comment period closes on May 16. The proposed rule exempts farms with less than $25,000 annually in food sales. It also exempts those who grow only