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“The retail grower must keep on adding to his assortment of flowers whenever possible. It isn’t enough to grow Snapdragons, Sweet Peas, Summer Larkspur, Stocks and Calendula. These and a few others may be considered the most desirable, but there are always some among your customers who are on the lookout for flowers they have […]

The North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association started to offer direct marketing liability insurance two years ago, and in that time, claims totaling a half-million dollars have been filed against 13 farmers. All of the injuries resulting in claims have occurred on farms, none so far at farmers’ markets. The majority of the injuries have

The Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance was founded by eight eastern Kansas farm families in 1994 as a cooperative Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. We provide a bag of fresh produce each week for 26 weeks to 300 to 350 subscribers in Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City. The editors of GFM own one of the eight

This spring we’ll be starting out at farmers’ market with a seasonal, value-added, completely farm-grown product: Birdhouses made from gourds. These birdhouses are beautiful, simple, useful, and enjoyable to make. They completely fit into my own and my customers’ environmental interest and aesthetic tastes. I have the pleasure of offering them to my customers, without

During the 2000 growing season, Organic Agrosystems Research at Summit Farm investigated the economic feasibility of growing lesser value crops using row cover technology for direct market sales (e.g. farmer’s market, PYO, farmstands, CSA). Armed with a need to expand our early sales, an idea to solve the problem and a small grant from the

Two articles in the January issue of Growing for Market prompted us to write a description of our attempt to address the challenges that face many farmers. The articles, one on how young people begin a life in farming and the other on how established farmers effect the transition to a new generation of farm

Terminator Technology. Genetically Modified Organisms. Bt toxin in your cereal, salad, corn and potato chips. Patent genes. Genetic trespass. All this headline news is enough to make a person wonder. Where do all these great ideas come from anyway? Who thinks all this is a good idea? Aren’t there any ethical, environmentally minded mad scientists

Have you noticed the raft of new “catalogs for the organic grower” arriving courtesy of your subscription lists? Expect more. By 2004, organic crops sold in Europe will have to be grown with organically produced seed. Realizing organics are no longer a fringe market, the mainstream European seed companies have all sprouted “organic divisions” to

Making raspberry jam was my first task as an intern at Blue Heron Farm in the rainy mountains of northwest Washington State. I collected half-pint and pint mason jars, rings, and new lids, poked frozen clumps of last season’s berries as they thawed, and measured out thick golden honey and pectin. Before long a sweetly