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When people ask Bob and Joy Lominska why they work two jobs – teaching and farming – Bob has an easy answer: I teach so I can afford to farm, and I farm so I can afford to teach. A lot of people say that they work off-farm jobs so that they can afford their […]

Nearly a year after finding asbestos in vermiculite, and warning that commercial greenhouse growers may be at risk of asbestos-related illnesses, the federal government has not taken action to recall, regulate or label vermiculite products. One of the country’s leading manufacturers of gardening products, the Scotts Company, recently announced that it would stop using vermiculite.

When you pay your children to do farm work, you’re not just promoting responsibility, you are also creating some very healthy tax benefits for your business and family. The money your kids earn can reduce your own taxes, and it can be used as a tax-free vehicle for college savings. Here’s the good news: Deductions

The first time I worked for money – picking tomatoes from our small patch, a preview of our real farming life – I was 7 years old. It wasn’t very much work, of course, or very much money. My brother was 10, and I remember thinking that he: a) had to work more, and b)

Potomac Vegetable Farms Vienna, Virginia When I was growing up my parents had “kiddie jobs” for us – jobs suitable for people of our size and ability. One of them was milking our Guernsey cow, Emma. Sometimes, as I sat with my head against her smelly side, in the dark shed after dinner, I thought

Should market farmers require their children to work on the farm? When we decided to explore that question for this issue of Growing for Market, we expected to find a variety of opinions and philosophies on the subject. Instead, we found absolute unanimity among everyone we talked to. The answer was Yes – we should

Flower grower Bob Wollam has succeeded in the competitive Washington, D.C., market with a simple formula: grow everything imaginable, grow lots of it and grow it well. His 4 acres of cut flowers, with more than 100 varieties of bulbs, woodies, annuals and perennials, keep him selling from the first week of April until the

Display is an important part of selling at farmers’ markets. The best displays are those that do three things: catch the customer’s eye from a distance and pull him or her to your stand; make your produce look fresh and beautiful; help the customer understand what’s for sale, how much it costs, and how to

Indicators for flameweeding Flameweeding carrots for pre-emergence weed control is made easier if you sow a few beets at the end of the row. Beets germinate just a little faster than carrots, and will tell you when to flame. At most temperatures beets come up the day before carrots (see New Seed Starter’s Handbook, or

From the University of Connecticut Under favorable growing conditions, cole crops can withstand substantial defoliation from cabbage “worms” as long as the harvestable portion of the plant is not damaged. To maintain quality for most markets, however, high caterpillar populations must be controlled once the harvestable portion of the plant is present. To assess populations,