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...

Pollination prices are expected to be trending upward on the east coast this spring, with a shortage of hives for rental in some areas. Commercial pollinator Grant Stiles, whose home base is in New Jersey, but who winters his bees in the south, said he’s seeing $3 a mile trucking costs to move hives...

If your childhood memories include watching a sunset through the settling fog of grain dust or kissing your High School Sweetheart behind the bins on the back 40, then you are one of the increasingly-fewer Americans who can call yourself a “farm kid.” Growing up on a farm, you probably heard all sor...

The global commercial seed market is estimated to be worth over $25 billion annually, with the top 10 seed companies representing close to half of world seed sales, according to a report by Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics. So how does a smaller, independently-owned American ...