“Get your fresh local insects, and frass too!” If Pat Crowley had his way, insects and their byproducts (most notably frass used as fertilizer) would take their place alongside vegetables and flowers as profitable enterprises for local farms. And the best part is, they are fed on a widely-available byproduct: some of the 100 million […]
Over more than 30 years, Featherstone Farm has grown their CSA and wholesaling to the point where they are now growing on 135 acres and have scaled up some of their major crops- for one example, they are storing 120 tons or more of carrots every year. These are distributed through their CSA and wholesaling.
Anne Massie and Virginia Pleasant share how they’ve grown Region Roots Local Farm and Food Hub to increase opportunities for famers to feed their regional communities. “The Region” is how the area of Northwest Indiana where they are based is known locally. Both co-executive directors of the NWI (Northwest Indiana) Food Council, they tell
As I grow older, and gain in wisdom, I am more skeptical of black and white ways of seeing things. Although “either or” is an easier way to understand the world, I don’t find it’s the most accurate or allows me as much room to learn or to understand others. When I was coming up
How to find the right amount of tillage for your soil Read More »
January isn’t tomato season in northern Indiana, even if you have heated greenhouses like the two at Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen where I worked last year. But on a freezing winter day, Ben Hartman and I headed out to work in the tomato greenhouse anyway. We weren’t planting or trellising or harvesting or even
Strategies for keeping greenhouse tomatoes healthy Read More »
From fecal shields to golden shells While tortoise beetles (species in the Cassidinae subfamily) may not be a worrisome agricultural pest that causes significant crop loss, they do occasionally show up in larger numbers that may cause concern at first sight. Understanding this insect’s habit and lifecycle can help growers avoid unnecessary pesticide applications. As
The curious tortoise beetle Read More »
Wheel hoes have been around in one form or another for centuries. The basic form most of us are familiar with are two handles that you push attached to a hoe blade that cuts through the soil while a wheel in front of that helps you set the depth and support the weight of the
A new angle on wheel hoes Read More »
China asters (Callistephus chinensis) are a staple crop on our cut flower farm, Moonshot Farm in East Windsor, New Jersey. They fill an important late summer focal flower gap, generally blooming in August after our main lisianthus flush in July and before the dahlias in September. Asters have an awesome vase life for our retail
How to grow great asters Read More »
Though their family has been farming in Ontario for over 200 years, success looks different in the 2020s than it did in the early 19th century! Hear how the Coopers changed their family farm in order to steward it into the future by becoming early adopters of the CSA model. Learn how the business has
Linley Dixon discusses some of the challenges facing organic farming, particularly the issues of greenwashing and the need for maintaining organic standards in this week’s podcast interview. Linley is the Co-Director of the Real Organic Project (ROP), in addition to running her own Adobe House Farm in Durango, Colorado. She emphasizes the importance of transparency
