March 1, 2013

With all of the focus on the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, it’s easy to forget that it’s not all about log sheets, audits, and bureaucrats: it’s about keeping the food we grow safe from microbiological and other dangerous contamination. Let’s be clear about what we’re talking about when we’re talking about foodborne […]

It’s hard to believe that March is already under way and another flower season is right around the corner. We’ve been super busy this past month, working hard to stay ahead of the game. There are three new 140-foot ‘Kerr Hoophouses’ in the works and a dozen 150-foot caterpillars set to be erected by the

I was sitting at a coastal restaurant in Belize this January on a too-short but much-needed vacation, waiting for my breakfast to arrive, when my thoughts drifted back to the tomatoes I had left back home in our greenhouse. Ever the worrywart, I pictured a blanket of northern Indiana ice coating trays of frozen seedlings,

Based on a chapter in Sustainable Market Farming, © Pam Dawling, New Society Publishers, 2013 Parsnips are workhorse root crops that thrive in mild weather, store well and can provide high yields for the time invested. Parsnips are a traditional northern European vegetable that is surprisingly easy to grow in warmer climates, while also being

Last spring we had solar panels installed on our farm for the first time. A combination of federal tax credits, USDA grants, and rising energy costs are making this an increasingly sensible economic decision for many farmers, in addition to the environmental benefits.   We started by looking at the power bills for our farm

As the snow falls here in Maine and I look back through my records for last year, I realize that somehow or another, I ended up having a good hoophouse year in 2012.  In fact, I doubled my tomato yield from the previous year in the same size house. In 2011, I grew just over