Farmers who grow a diverse array of crops for a CSA, farmers markets or direct from the farm sales often struggle with finding a suitable insurance plan to protect against the risks associated with farming. An important winter task for such farms should be a thorough review of insurance options for ...

“All cities, suburbs and rural towns have Norway rats and house mice,” said Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, coordinator of community integrated pest management for Cornell, who recently presented a talk on rodent management as part of a webinar on IPM. In rural settings, many enticements attract rodents, in...

Whether you put a teaspoon of clover honey in your tea, stir some in your oatmeal cookie recipe or enjoy a good mead, you’re supporting local beekeeping family businesses that pollinate plants and nourish a nation. In a bit of good news, Mother Nature’s worker bees have claimed the number one spot a...

Phytophthora species can attack many crops, from vegetables and fruit to ornamental plants and forest trees. All Phytophthora species are water molds, and as such thrive in wet conditions, spreading in water itself or in moist soils. Responsible for the Irish potato famine, tomato late blight, sudde...

Welcome to Cultivating Thoughts, a new column that will appear each month in Country Folks Grower . I’m currently a professor emeritus in the Department of Plant Science at Penn State. I was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania. I vividly remember dairy cows being paraded past our elementary school...

Recent times have mandated the primary business strategy of survival – of remaining viable in the middle of challenging circumstances. Most business planning and revamping have centered around immediate needs and day to day operations. As you face the first quarter of a new calendar year, strategic ...

Some very interesting news came out of North Carolina State University last month regarding a particular variety of grape that grows across much of the East Coast and the Midwest. The mighty muscadine, often used for jams, jellies, juice and wines, contains a chemical compound that can inhibit a SAR...

The ever-changing, always-updating digital landscape can be challenging to keep up with for even the most seasoned professionals. This past year has seen a tremendous shift in the way our world operates, and no industry can remain successful without learning to roll with the new tides of post-pandem...

Acreage that had been farmed continuously for more than 200 years is now home to a thriving vegetable farm, thanks to brothers Daniel, Quincy and Patrick Horan . “My older brother Daniel started farming in 1990 on what was our grandparents’ country house property,” said Patrick. “He was fresh out of...

It was forward-thinking Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau who first called wild blueberries “bluets.” Now, forward-thinking vintners Michael Terrien and Eric Martin are taking bluets to a new level with their sparkling blueberry wine. Both born and raised in Maine, Terrien said he and Martin hav...

Wrapping up its series of agritourism roundtables last month, NAFDMA, the International Tourism Association, highlighted the success stories of three operations from the Midwest and the Northeast.The producers shared their resources, their ideas and the practical solutions that helped them not only ...

How do you start a new farming enterprise? Sow seeds, grow plants, harvest. It seems simple enough – except sometimes those plants take years to grow to maturity. Sometimes the potential for a new crop is there, but a region’s climate may have other ideas. That’s not holding back the New York Nut Gr...

For the sixth November since 2015, the University of Maryland’s Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI) hosted its annual Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference. Sponsored by the Maryland Farm Bureau and MidAtlantic Farm Credit, the event brought together agricultural professionals, attor...

First introduced in 2011, spotted wing drosophila has been affecting cherry harvests. Cornell researchers studied the impact on tart and sweet cherry crops in New York State and estimated a 2% loss. That estimate jumped by 78% for both tart and sweet cherries in the year to follow, resulting in a $3...

In a recent webinar, Aaron Wightman, maple specialist at Cornell, highlighted emerging value-added opportunities for maple syrup producers. According to Wightman, maple syrup production has increased dramatically in New York in the past 18 years, and other states are experiencing similar trends. “Al...