In areas with large populations of particular ethnic groups, the demand for the fresh vegetables typically used in their cuisine can be huge. These customers are looking for sources of fresh, traditional vegetables they are familiar with and know how to prepare. Do your homework before you plant, th...

Recently the UConn Extension team of Jude Boucher, Extension Educator and Joan Allen, Assistant Extension Educator serving as plant pathologist, presented informative sessions designed to bring growers up to speed regarding the latest in control measures against the wide range of pests. The common s...

by Emma Garrison, Bilingual Agricultural Safety Educator, The New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health Each year, more and more farm owners welcome eager and curious visitors onto their farms. The nation’s agritourism industry has grown significantly in recent years, mostly in response t...

Pawpaws, the country’s largest edible native fruit species, are gaining in popularity with consumers, and if your CSA or local farm market needs something different to appeal to customers, pawpaws may just be the ticket. Pawpaws are a local delicacy. They store only two to three days at room tempera...

Niche marketing has been a popular tool for agricultural direct sellers for a number of years. Growers have been encouraged to find specific, targeted markets and to produce, define and sell to a particular audience. For some agricultural-based, food and value-added products, niche marketing works v...

Scheduling irrigation is a whole new ball game for growers today. The precision made possible by readily available information on EvapoTranspiration rates for your particular crop, and the soil moisture sensors that gives real-time readings of soil moisture at varying depths can enable growers to sa...

The Plantsmen Nursery, in Groton, NY, just outside Ithaca is a family owned, no spray nursery and landscape business. Owners Dan and Sarah Segal bought the business in 2006. From the start they have had clear goals. “We have focused on three things: sustainable growing methods, native plants and hig...

An intensive four-day organic land care course was held Feb. 22 – 25 at the Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, CT. This 30-hour course was designed for landscape architects, landscaping professionals and environmental educators to inform them of the latest information in their field to bette...

According to a 2014 study on small businesses by Verizon, 85 percent of businesses reported that their customers discovered their business through word of mouth. So how do you get customers talking about your business? Beyond traditional advertising, customer events like seminars and greenhouse tour...

When is a business plan, not a business plan? The answer is when selling efforts direct you to a different path. If a new farmers market opportunity opens up, a change in retail location presents itself, or you consider a farm gate expansion, your over-arching business plan may require some adaptati...

The USDA recently announced that organic farmers are eligible to enroll land utilized as conservation buffers in the Continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CCRP). Buffers include windbreaks, pollinator strips, riparian buffers, filter strips and field borders planted with native vegetation. Grass ...

Cameron Pedersen was working on a PhD, but decided it wasn’t the direction he wanted to go. “I apprenticed on an nearby organic vegetable farm,” he said. “It was good training, and I met my wife Audrey there.” In 2009, the couple started growing vegetables on a one-half acre plot on Pedersen’s paren...

“A lot of growers, particularly in the southeast, are using basic fertilizers because we don’t have much alkalinity in the water,” says Brian Whipker of North Carolina State University, explaining how this topic even came about. The floriculture research and extension specialist says that people sti...

Researchers at several universities are working hard to get “biodegradable” mulches ready for Prime Time. Dr. Carol Miles, horticulturalist at Washington State University, Mount Vernon, is working with a team of 19 university researchers at several locations, including Principal Investigator Doug Ha...

Robert Nolan’s great grandfather started farming in Middle Village, Queens, NY at the turn of the century. At that time there was plenty of fertile acreage for farming, but rapid development of the area forced a move. Several moves later, Deer Run Farms settled in Brookhaven. Nolan is the fourth gen...