I’ve heard it said that farming is little more than moving piles. First you spend a pile on seed, compost, tools and tractors, and then you spend a pile on labor to shuffle everything around the landscape. After the crops grow you spend another pile to gather in, package, cool, palletize, and ship your harvest. […]
Beyond Spanglish: Be specific about where things go Read More »
For the past 15 years, Food Bank Farm in Hadley, Massachusetts, has operated one of the most successful Community Supported Agriculture projects in the United States. Food Bank Farm produces food for 640 shareholders over a five-month season. But that’s only half of Food Bank Farm’s production. The other half of the food it produces,
Super-productive CSA also helps hungry Read More »
Occasionally I get to experience market farming from the consumer’s, rather than the farmer’s perspective. It’s always helpful to feel what it’s like to be a shopper instead of a producer. In this issue are articles about two markets that I first approached as a consumer. First was the story about Food Bank Farm in
Letter from the Editor: Shopping at farmers markets Read More »
The current issue of Cooking Light, one of the most popular food magazines in the U.S., contains an article touting the peaches of Frog Hollow Farm, an organic orchard in California. The article says that Frog Hollow Farm’s peaches routinely attain Brix levels of 13 to 18 and sometimes higher. It quotes Jon Rowley, a
How to improve flavor Read More »
By Pamela and Frank Arnosky Every season in late May, we host a tour put together by our largest wholesale customer, the Central Market high-end grocery chain here in Texas. The store books a tour for its customers, charges a nominal fee, and provides a nice box lunch. Usually about 75 people show up, and
Yarrows great cut flowers for local sales Read More »
By Andy Griffin Ya gotta love King Alfonso the Wise. Hear me out. One of the virtues of selling produce to restaurants is that with a little effort you can make friends with people who really know how to cook. An excellent cook I’ve befriended from the restaurant trade is a fellow named Martin Bournhonesque
Beyond Spanglish: Some words aren’t in dictionary Read More »
“Ahh… do you guys get tornadoes down here?” our new worker Peg Sheaffer asked one stormy morning last fall. Now, this is not a question you want to hear down here in Texas, for obvious reasons. Peg is a grower in Wisconsin who had come down to Texas to work with us for the winter.
New cut flower varieties for 2003 Read More »
I run Pete’s Greens, a specialty organic vegetable farm located high in the hills of Vermont’s climatically challenged Northeast Kingdom. We focus on the production of salad and braising greens, and are rapidly diversifying into many other specialty crops. We sell to over 30 stores and restaurants, and our twice weekly delivery route makes a
Delivery truck can be a mobile ad Read More »
A thank-you gesture to a restaurant chef has turned into a business venture that brings in money all winter for Bill Warner and Judy Hageman of Snug Haven Farm in Belleville, Wisconsin. Two years ago, Frontera, the famous Chicago restaurant, bought a large quantity of spinach from Bill and Judy when a heat wave threatened
Frozen tomatoes keep cash flowing Read More »
For 14 years, Steve Pincus grew organic vegetables on 21 acres he rented on the edge of Madison, Wisconsin. A few years ago, an adjacent piece of land sold for $40,000 an acre, for use as an industrial park. With land selling at such steep prices for development, Steve and his wife Beth Kazmar realized
Moving to a new farm Read More »
