Not long after thousands of reenactors and visitors came to Gettysburg, PA for the 150th anniversary of what many consider the turning point of the Civil War, another group of visitors came to the region for an entirely different reason. The International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) held its annua...

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT Research Assistant Lowbush Blueberry Disease Program School of Biology and Ecology The research program for plant disease on lowbush blueberry is looking for a Research Assistant to conduct and support lowbush blueberry research. Tasks include implementing and documenting results of...

Customer complaints can be a real pain for management and employees to deal with. Does a method exist that effectively handles complaints? Yes it does, according to Ann Lofgren, Senior Trainer for the Zingerman family of companies in Ann Arbor, MI. Her words are given extra weight because Zingerman’...

Every flower harvested by Mike and Polly Hutchinson at Robin Hollow Farm in Rhode Island is the result of many years of dedication with both hands firmly in the dirt. Their well-blooming farm spreads over four acres. Robin Hollow Farm has created a specialty crop of flowers, both cut and potted. The...

GLEN ALLEN, VA — Finding new markets can be one of the biggest challenges for a small nursery looking to expand its business. But for A Thyme To Plant, a wholesale herb and vegetable operation owned by Stan and Nicole Schermerhorn in central Virginia, businesses having been seeking them out in recen...

Dwight Baugher walks through a six and one half acre, 30-year old block of Montmorency cherries and says the fruit growing there isn’t enough to supply what his customers will purchase. Although he admits that’s a good problem to have, Dwight would like to be able to grow enough for all who visit th...

NORTH GARDEN, VA — On May 11, close to 40 people gathered at Vintage Virginia Apples outside of Charlottesville to attend a day-long Organic Orcharding 101 Workshop. The day’s keynote speaker was Michael Phillips, who (together with wife Nancy) operates an herb and apple farm in New Hampshire. Phill...

Teresa Summers grew up on her family’s dairy farm, studied dairy science at Virginia Tech and had plans to return to the family farm. But the dairy herd was sold, and instead of returning to the farm, Teresa ended up working in the food industry. She recalls that in 1993, she read about a Florida fa...

by Anna Meyerhoff, Farm Safety Educator, NYCAMH As warmer weather approaches, it’s time to make sure everything is ready — and safe — for the growing season ahead. For orchards and vegetable growers, it’s time to get everything ready: workers arrive and are trained, equipment is repaired, supplies a...

New York, NY— Greenmarket, a program of GrowNYC, is soliciting proposals from fruit and vegetable producers in Orange County, NY for a funding opportunity to build new or improve existing produce washing stations. The aim of this funding program is to improve labor efficiency, enhance food safety an...

It’s hard to miss high tunnels perched on a hillside in the heart of the Adams County, Pennsylvania fruit belt. Although many growers have added greenhouses, high tunnels and covered rows to extend the season for fruits and vegetables, the McCleafs have gone a step further: they’ve put a high value ...

Dr. Frank Drummond, Entomology professor at the University of Maine, spoke on the role of native pollinators, honeybees and bumblebees in pollinating blueberries. Each of these insects offers ecologically- and economically-important services. Dr. Drummond presented “A wild, wild world of pollination...

After noting the success of farmers expanding their operations to offer more local, fresh produce at Metro DC farmers markets, Robert Schubert purchased his own 10-acre farm just outside of Purcellville, VA in 2011. Three months after the close of the sale on his property, Schubert began marketing h...

Skip and Silas Paul of Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton, RI have been grafting tomatoes for over ten years. Like other greenhouse growers who graft tomatoes, Skip started because of production problems — largely due to growing tomatoes in the same greenhouses year after year. Diseases like Corky...

HILLSBOROUGH, NC — A stroke of luck pushed Franklin Garland into truffle notoriety. It was the early 1990s. Garland, at the time a commercial shiitake and oyster mushroom producer, was hosting a group of students from Duke University at his farm. Someone asked about the truffle orchard he had plante...