Makana Farms has been going strong for eight years. Seven years ago, first generation farmers Pierre Belhumeur and his partner Keri Gauvin planted 600 grapevines. Choosing for delicate taste plus winter hardiness, they planted 300 Petite Pearl red grapevines and 300 cold-hardy Itasca white grapevine...

“The food preservation team spent a couple of years getting questions from the public about freeze-drying, and we recognized that there was not a lot of evidence-based information,” said Shari Gallup and Candace Heer. Gallup and Heer are assistant professors and Extension educators with the family a...

As the last of the harvest comes in and the fields begin to rest for winter, the energy shifts. The air feels heavier, the nights stretch longer. You can feel it – the turning of the year! Samhain (pronounced sOW-in) marks the end of the harvest season and the start of the darker half of the year. I...

Tucked into the tranquil countryside of Montgomery County, PA, Bustard’s Christmas Tree Farm has stood for nearly a century as a symbol of seasonal spirit and enduring family tradition. Since 1929, this 50-acre farm in Lansdale has helped families celebrate Christmas with handpicked evergreens and h...

Planting the trees, getting them to produce healthy fruit and then successfully harvesting from the orchard takes a lot of work for those in the apple industry – so optimizing management to limit post-harvest apple rots while in storage makes sense. That was the focus of a discussion led by Kari Pet...

Penn State attorney Brook Duer recently provided tips for employers concerned about an encounter with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS). Duer stated that the information he provided should be considered guidance and not legal advice. “The two...

“The Americans with Disabilities Act, or the ADA, is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability,” explained Bonita Croyle, the communications manager at Farm Commons . Croyle and Chloe Johnson, a Farm Commons staff attorney, explained the legal obligations that employers ha...

Pesticide applicators know the label is the law, and the EPA’s recently released final insecticide strategy means there’s more to know. The plan identifies protection plans for federally endangered and threatened species from the use of insecticides while providing flexibility for growers. The EPA s...

Per reports from Chestnut Hill Nursery in Florida, chestnuts can make growers a tidy little profit. They report wholesale prices for large, high-quality chestnuts range from $3 to $5/lb. (and higher for organically grown chestnuts). Retail prices can range from $3 to $10/lb. However, just like any o...

It is never too early to start planning for retirement, especially for Millennial farmers who have some success under their belts in the industry but still have plenty of years until retirement approaches. Michael Robertson, NY FarmNet farm business specialist, gave tips for retirement planning to M...

Pondering planting pear trees for a profit? You should know all cultivars are not created equal – at least when it comes to fire blight resistance. Emma T. Alstott, Suzanne M. Slack and Xiaochen Yuan, researchers from Iowa State, have been studying the fire blight susceptibility of European ( Pyrus ...

“The three main tenets of the Worker Protection Standard [WPS] are informing folks about pesticide safety, protecting individuals from potential pesticide exposure and mitigation,” said David Huber at a Vermont Vegetable & Berry Growers Association meeting. Huber is the deputy director of the Public...

Often on farms, we get so busy in the day-to-day management we don’t get the time to step back and evaluate our operations from a 30,000-foot view. As the calendar turns the page on summer, I encouraged many of my farmer clients to prioritize the time to zoom out and look at their big picture. Fundi...

In stating the obvious, a group of Extension educators noted, “We’re in a changing environment – the Midwest and the Northeast are getting more precipitation in winter and spring but hotter and drier summers.” That’s why irrigation management and efficiency especially are so important as the hot sum...

Each summer, Connecticut comes alive with rows of strawberries ripe for picking, and families wander fields throughout the state with baskets in hand. Strawberries have long been a beloved crop in the state, both culturally and as a valuable crop for farmers in an increasingly competitive market. Bu...