Over the past couple of decades, winter-grown greens have increased dramatically in popularity, and subsequently in ubiquity. We are miles beyond the era of my grandmother’s northern Vermont childhood, where the hungry period set in during the end of winter and the beginning of spring, as the supply of stored food in the root cellar […]
Downy mildew: managing the scourge of winter-grown greens Read More »
Sarah Gretsinger worked for other farms for over a decade before starting her urban farm, The Kale Next Door, on the land around her house in Akron, Ohio. Hear how she scaled down techniques she had practiced on larger farms in order to grow intensively on a small land base. Host April Parms Jones, one
Whether buying or making your own, how do you tell if compost is any good? We go deep on this question with Jason Gearheart of Integrated Elements Compost in Columbus, Indiana in this week’s podcast interview. Jason honed his compost-making skills as a student of Dr. Elaine Ingham’s Soil Food Web School, and now he
After retiring from more than 30 years of farming, much of it at Potomac Vegetable Farms in Virginia, Ellen Polishuk started Plant to Profit to keep teaching the next generation of growers. In this interview, we talk about the farm trends she is seeing with her clients, and how the farm business landscape has changed
Market analysis, crops and partnerships Welcome back, or thanks for joining us. This is part two of a four-part series on growing flowers for weddings. In part one from last month’s magazine, I shared about the changing face of weddings in terms of the new generation of engaged couples, a change of the guard in
Growing flowers for weddings part 2 Read More »
A new invasive pest coming to a field near you First detected in the United States in Pennsylvania in 2015, Allium leafminer (Phytomyza gymnostoma) is native to Europe and a potential threat to all crops in the allium genus. Since its first detection, allium leafminer has rapidly spread throughout the northeastern United States. Every growing
Blue flower magic If you have a cut flower operation, delphinium and larkspur offer that rare and hard to find blue flower. Besides cynoglossum (forget-me-not), bachelor button, and statice, I can’t really think of any other long-lasting, highly productive, and easy-ish to grow blue annuals. Blue flowers are magic when it comes to selling market
Delphiniums and larkspur Read More »
What it is, why you care and how to manage it Soil pH can have a huge effect on your plant health, but because it’s not always a problem it is often one of the lesser things to concern a farmer. Like many of the aspects involved in making a living growing direct-market crops, if
Understanding soil pH Read More »
Ornamental curcuma and gloriosa lilies We’ve invested in a lot of heated greenhouse infrastructure on our cut flower farm, Moonshot Farm in East Windsor, New Jersey. These greenhouses provide the conditions needed for deep winter production, enabling us to have fresh cut blooms from November through February, the coldest months of the year. They also
Trialing tropicals Read More »
Learn about the origins of Turtle Tree Seeds, and why co-founder Beth Everett returned to her family’s fourth-generation farm in this week’s podcast with host April Parms Jones. Founded in 1994, Turtle Tree Seed grows and sells exclusively biodynamically certified seed. Beth has continued to grow and sell seed from her family’s farm in Nebraska,
