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...

George H. Black, Jr., 80 years of age, of Blairstown, NJ, formerly of Navesink, NJ, died at his home on April 7, 2013. Born in Jersey City, NJ, he was a son of the late George H and Margaret (Farley) Black. Mr. Black was the owner/operator of Glenview Christmas Tree Farm in Blairstown and had earlie...

During the 40+ years that the Haas family has been operating Cherry Hill Orchards in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, they have developed an impressive direct marketing operation. About a quarter of the fruit they grow on the 164 acres they own and lease is marketed Pick-Your-Own (PYO), and about hal...

With the massive clean-up effort following Storm Charlotte not yet complete, the Extension System of the University of Connecticut was able to avoid postponing the first of two programs for bedding plant operators on Thursday, Feb. 14 and go on with the show. The Tolland County Office of the Extensi...

Glenn Cook grew up in a large family, loved being outdoors and had been exposed to gardening since childhood — a good start for what would become his career. He had plans to become a forest fire fighter, but ended up as a horticulture major at Virginia Tech, specializing in pomology. Several farm pu...

Immigration & E-verify The picture of agriculture in the minds of mainstream America tends to be a dichotomy: either sustainable family farms with happy four-year-olds in overalls or big mechanized industries with 10-plus combines in every field, all run by computers with GPS systems. Truthfully, mo...

The “Award of Merit” was presented to Ken Ayars, chief of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM)’s Division of Agriculture by the Rhode Island Nursery & Landscape Association (RINLA). Jean Cotta, co-owner of Portsmouth Nursery in Portsmouth, RI, presented the award at the 2...