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One of the first books ever written about gardening in America was recently released in paperback, after being out of print for 150 years. The American Gardener was written by William Cobbett, an Englishman and the most powerful political writer of his day, who fled to America in 1817 to escape certain imprisonment over his […]

By Brett Grohsgal Many of today’s market farmers are “start-ups”. We didn’t inherit well-chosen farmland, we didn’t grow up with livestock chores or tractor work, we didn’t have intimacy with cultivated earth as one of our deepest relationships. Start-ups have to buy or rent land to plant even a single large market crop.  Vital questions

By Andy Fellenz “It’s looking a lot like Wegmans over there.” This is what my wife, Jan, heard one morning from another vendor as she was setting up. Wegmans is the #1 supermarket in Western New York where we live, and while the comment might have been meant as a dig, it wasn’t to us.

We’re no strangers to a good auction here in Texas. Time was, every little town had an auction barn and a livestock auction every week. These barns typically had a little cafe out front (sometimes open all week), and they were the place to see your neighbors and get a good ol’ chicken fried steak.

Turning eco-labeling on its head, Dennis and Alex Avery of the Hudson Institute are promoting a new seal of approval they are calling “Earth Friendly/Farm Friendly.” The Organic Consumers Association denounced the CGFI as a notorious front group for corporate agribusiness, chemical and pesticide manufacturers and portrayed its leaders as attack dogs against the organic

Variety selection is crucial to profitability in tomato production, particularly in a hoophouse or high tunnel, where costs are higher than in the field. Yield can range widely among varieties – in some trials, some varieties have produced twice as many marketable fruits as others. That makes a big difference in the bottom line. If

Tomatoes grown in an unheated hoophouse were 30 days earlier and twice as productive as field tomatoes, according to trials the past two summers at the University of Missouri. Researchers found that 1,000 square feet of tomatoes (170 plants) would cost $1,073 to grow in a hoophouse (high tunnel). Yield was 10 pounds of marketable

By Rich Schell J.D. It seems like a match made in heaven: U.S. farmers growing vegetables, fruits and flowers need lots of labor, and many people from foreign countries want U.S. dollars and are willing to work hard for them. At first glance matching up the labor and need for it would seem to be

By Lynn Byczynski Growing for Market In the culinary world, microgreens are the current hot crop, supplanting mesclun mix in many upscale restaurants. Microgreens are tiny seedlings of salad greens cut at the first true leaf stage of growth. Chefs use them for garnish on a wide range of dishes and add them to salad

By Erika Jensen The clock on the computer says 10 p.m., and you are staring at your computer with no idea of what you’ll put in the newsletter this week. You work on the “what’s in the box this week” section—an easy place to start, although the list looks too short and you have a