Free Articles
We frequently find ourselves with the good problem of having more stories than can fit in the magazine. Since the website is unlimited, we created this space for articles in addition to what runs in the paper magazine. The Archive contains all of the articles that have run in the magazine since 2001 (before that only available on paper), and access is included with any Growing for Market Magazine subscription.
Since 1992, Growing for Market is the only publication exclusively for direct-market growers of vegetables and cut flowers. If you grow for farmers markets, a farm stand, CSA, local/regional wholesaling or florists, join us today to connect with an expanding community of growers. We focus on practical news and ideas on growing, marketing, and the business of running a local farm.
Topics include how to grow vegetable and flower crops like tomatoes, sunflowers, cucumbers, lisianthus, lettuce and greens, dahlias, microgreens, zinnias, eggplant, herbs, and many other vegetable and flower crops, in and out of greenhouses. The world of market farming is rapidly changing- keep up with the changes with a subscription to Growing for Market.
Elizabeth Fichter
At my flower farm in St. Louis, Missouri, I grow more than 150 varieties of flowers exclusively from seed. I know that sounds strange in an era where many flower farmers get product to market faster by ordering plug plants, but I personally love the whole cycle of growing. It
Tommie Burch
Talking yourself into sacrificing a cash crop for a cover crop is a hard thing to do on a small-scale operation where every square foot counts. When done well, cover crops can have multiple benefits like improved soil, fewer weeds, and reduced pest pressure. But there are risks with cover
Ben Hartman
A method for increasing your production on a small footprint Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Ben Hartman’s new book The Lean Micro Farm (Chelsea Green Publishing, November 2023) and is printed with permission from the publisher. In the book, Ben talks about shrinking his own farm’s footprint from
Jean-Martin Fortier and Catherine Sylvestre
This excerpt from the new book, The Winter Market Gardener, is reproduced with permission of New Society Publishers. All subscribers can get 20% off The Winter Market Gardener and all the books sold at growingformarket.com/. While the cold is certainly one factor limiting winter growing, it is not the only
Nella Mae Parks
How to work with its difficult characteristics and beneficial properties I grew up on a small farm about 12 miles from where I now farm in the high desert of Oregon (zone 6b). That farm was in the middle of the Grande Ronde Valley where there are 200 feet
Ellen Polishuk
Back in the mid-1990s, I was at a SSAWG (Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group) conference in Austin, Texas. I’d been hired by Potomac Vegetable Farms (PVF) in Virginia to develop a satellite property with organic sweet corn as the main crop. That goal daunted me: 15 acres of organic sweet
Katie Kulla
Slowing down before returning to work On a busy September harvest day in 2012, our farm’s two employees drove in and out of the fields with totes. Meanwhile, my husband, Casey, and I were shut up in our farmhouse, curtains drawn, focused on a different project: the birth of our
Katie Kulla
Three years after starting up our Oregon farm, my husband, Casey, and I decided it was time to grow our farm family. In April 2009, I found out I was pregnant with our first child. Looking at the pregnancy test double lines felt like the start of a whole new
Jesse Frost
Growing lettuce in the summer is a challenge almost anywhere. The heat stifles growth and kills germination rates. The sun scorches leaves and rapidly wilts the fresh harvest. Summer is just not lettuce’s season. But fresh, local lettuce is as in-demand in the summer months as any time of the
Gretel Adams
Some flowers are more difficult to deal with than others. They may be hard to hydrate, particular about the time of day for harvest, or have an ideal harvest stage. We have eliminated some flowers that are overly difficult, such as basil and euphorbia, but there are some that we
Katie Kulla
Ten years ago, a spot on my husband Casey’s neck grew darker and larger in a way that I noticed, my mother noticed, and even my best friend noticed. If you aren’t aware, changes in existing moles or birth marks are a big red flag and potential indicators of skin
Andrea Heim
There’s nothing sustainable about sustainable farming when it comes to personal maintenance. The hours are too long, demands too time-sensitive, and physical requirements exceed healthy levels — especially in the summer heat. I had been a farm manager for more than 10 years when I decided the lack of sustainability
Gretel and Steve Adams
Part of our scaling up process was figuring out how to deal with weed control. We knew wheel hoeing the whole farm was not sustainable unless we hired a horde of college kids. We first tried laying black plastic (with and without a plastic layer), but ended up with too
Harris Ivens
Farming an acre of vegetables in Wilton, Ontario, Evan Quigley has always aimed to bring the highest quality and consistency to market with a keen eye on profitability. Evan has achieved high quality and yields with a combination of techniques and careful management at The Kitchen Garden farm. “After a
By Pamela and Frank Arnosky
“Well, I heard seven of ‘em can eat as much as a cow,” one fellow told us. Another person said that three of them could eat as much as a sheep. Seems like everyone had some sort of story on this new menace. No one was surprised that we had