Chances are that the lettuce or other leafy greens eaten by the majority of consumers aren’t grown anywhere near their homes, unless they live in Arizona or California. According to recent data from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, Arizona and California dominate the market for shipped rom...

Founding a successful agriculture/culinary business relies on an owner’s ability to tweak the business to the times. Plenty have folded when demand drops, tastes change or another business offering more comes into the area. That’s why Alfresco FLX presented a panel on the topic at its recent virtual...

Nick Flax from Penn State Extension wants to know how many growers have a pesticide storage area that looks “nice, neatly organized, everything alphabetically sorted, clean labels where you can read everything.” His example was anything but that. The facetious photo showed a pesticide shed that came...

Knowing if your apple crop is ripe is very important for your farm’s profits. That’s certainly true at Buffalo Ridge Orchard, where co-owner Emma Johnson determines when it’s time to harvest the Central City, Iowa, farm’s crop. Johnson spoke on apple ripeness in a recent virtual on-farm workshop hos...

Vegetable growers are always on the defense against plant pathogens and diseases. But what happens when the crop itself is harboring a pathogen that causes human illness? Defending against human foodborne illness requires knowledge of the risks and a plan to prevent contamination in the field. Outbr...

One of the most profitable ways to sell fresh fruits and vegetables is to a specialty restaurant chef that uses the highest quality produce available. This type of marketing takes a lot of legwork to be successful because it involves visiting the chef several times during the season to check on thei...

An important lesson learned during 2020 is the awareness that if anything can go wrong, it may do so, and in a big and unfathomable way. As business owners grapple with finishing out a turbulent year, the realization of developing a contingency plan takes on new meaning. The question becomes what to...

“So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s a Great Balancing Act.” This little piece of wisdom comes from the sage Dr. Seuss. Even in a less chaotic year, keeping just the right balance in a multifaceted business is a formidable challenge. At A.T. Buzby Farm i...

Farming is in Irv Silverman’s blood. Irv’s father Ben grew up in New York City but moved to Connecticutduring World War I. Ben wasn’t fond of city life, so he found work on cattle farms that paid him a dollar a day. When Ben started working for a company that paid more, he was able to save money for...

The time is fast approaching when happy families will be participating in a ritual that often kicks off the holiday season – visiting a Christmas tree farm to pick out their tree for December. But what will that ritual entail this year? That’s what Elizabeth Lamb, senior Extension associate at Corne...

For the past 40 years, Farm Bureau has asked every presidential candidate to provide responses to issues likely to impact and affect farmers and rural communities in the next four years. Both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have provided their answers. The responses below ...

Joe Pizzo, a U.S. Marines veteran, had a circuitous journey from his home in Upstate New York back to a small plot of land in Utica that’s been transforming his life.His plan is to use his experiences to help others transform theirs. “It all started in 2012, with a big transition in my life,” Pizzo ...

Technology has advanced a bit since Werner Tree Farm was conceived. Amanda Werner, the third generation to work the farm, explained, “My grandfather planted only 10 or 15 trees that first year, 1980, and he literally just loved planting trees. He just kept adding to the trees he planted, but we sold...

Digital and precision viticulture is ever-evolving field, and while there’s not a lot of technology that’s ready to go into fields immediately, it’s good to know what will be available in the next five to 10 years. That’s what Hans Walter-Peterson, a viticulture Extension specialist with the Finger ...

If you want to increase your farm’s business, it helps to tell its story. Doing so attracts more customers and possible strategic business partners – and that was the subject discussed by a panel at the recent Alfresco FLX, “Telling Your Story.” The Alfresco FLX virtual panel this year included Jenn...