Biomass heating may be cost-effective where growers burn a lot of fuel, have a long heating season, produce at high volume or need high temperatures. Andy Jones of Intervale Community Farm in Burlington, VT, has had extensive experience with using a biomass heating system. The Intervale Community Fa...

Transitioning the farm is one of the hardest things a farmer does. The process is both intimidating and emotionally exhausting. Where do you start? Who do you contact? How do you talk about it with your family? These issues and more led the Land Stewardship Project in Minnesota to create the Farm Tr...

At the end, or the beginning, of the calendar year, we tend to think back over past seasons and rate our accomplishments. Although these are most often defined as achievements, completions or fulfillments, accomplishments can also mean having overcome a feat or acquiring or developing a skill. In bu...

Last month we discussed how difficult it is to market to the Millennial generation, those born between 1980 and 2004. How do you get these young customers into your door or farm stand? How do you convince them to spend money? As a member of this generation, I have provided a few tips this month that...

Your local grocery store is the place to go when you need food. The antique store is a nice place to visit, but the big amusement park outside of the city is what many people know as the place to be. Think about the places you put into those categories every day, and then compare that to business ve...

Rhizosphaera needlecast is not an unfamiliar term to Christmas tree farmers. The disease, caused by the fungus Rhizosphaera kalkhoffii, causes trees to lose their needles from the inner branches, outward, making the infected tree look almost hollow. And the spread of the fungus appears to be increas...

Farmers are used to waking up early. So Cranston’s Christmas Tree Farm owners Cynthia and Tom Cranston weren’t too surprised when a friend called them at 6:30 a.m. in September. But they were surprised when the friend informed them they had aced the Triple Crown of Christmas trees at the Eastern Sta...

Pennsylvania state agricultural officials announced on Nov. 5 that a colorful flying insect has prompted quarantine in five of the 44 townships in Berks County. Officials described the discovery of the Spotted Lanternfly during a webinar featuring several Penn State Extension Service experts. At thi...

When it comes to buying plants and produce, Ben Campbell, assistant professor and Extension economist from University of Connecticut, is interested in learning, “How do people think and how do we change it” so they buy more. He discussed this topic during his “Perceptions and Misperceptions of Label...

It’s a common refrain I hear while on the road, interviewing farmer after farmer: young people don’t support my business. Millennials aren’t part of my customer demographic. No one under 40 hires my services. The Millennial demographic, sometimes called Generation Y, refers to people born roughly be...

When Pooh and Anne Sprague purchased a 170-acre farm in Plainfield, NH on the banks of the Connecticut River, they were buying a bit of agricultural history. Edgewater Farm had been owned and operated by one family since 1835, until the Spragues purchased it in 1974. At the suggestion of their count...

Paul Arnold and his wife continuously seek equipment and growing techniques that minimize work and maximize profits. In the past eight years, the Arnolds have built three large high tunnels. Their tunnels are 30 or 34 feet wide and 144 feet long. They recommend a minimum width of 30 feet for winter ...

A customer walks up to a convenience store clerk with two items — a hot pizza and a cold salad. What will the clerk do? Bag them together, or ask the customer if he would prefer two separate bags? Smiling, the clerk recognizes the challenge and suggests two separate bags — one for the hot, one for t...

Less than a mile from the bustling think tank of the University of Massachusetts lies 47 acres of fertile riverbottom land that comprises King Creek/Queen’s Greens, owned by Matthew Biskup and his partner, Danya Teitelbaum. Teitelbaum started her business, Queen’s Greens, as a winter green growing o...