Researchers at Washington State University and the ARS are currently evaluating the impact of tiny soil-growing organisms with the jaw-breaker name of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi) for enhancing onion growth and suppressing soil borne diseases caused by soil pathogens such as Rhizoctonia s...

The National Organic Coalition (NOC) hosted their annual fly-in for Hill Day in mid-June. The three-day fly-in schedule included an Organic Farmer Alliance planning meeting and policy coaching before legislative meetings. Nearly 40 NOC delegates from around the country met with their legislators. St...

In today’s world of assumptions and stereotypes, it’s often hard to separate fact from fiction. For example, what seems to be a new trend might just be one observer’s limited scope. Or a purchase may fall through for a reason completely different than the one you anticipated. For a business, a mista...

How can growers raise higher quality crops, bring tomatoes and cucumbers to market early and reduce costs while raising profits? Andy Radin of the University of Rhode Island (URI) Extension offered production tools at URI Extension’s mid-summer 2015 Twilight Meeting. Over 30 growers attended the wor...

When Edward Scott was a boy growing up in Ashfield, MA his family’s farm had an apple orchard, chickens and cows. He became well known for his gift of working with apple trees. “The kids would pick apples when the other apple pickers were away at war,” said his daughter, Donna Scott. Her mother Jani...

The recent upsurge in consumer interest in produce grown nearby has prompted a similar interest in farm-grown processed foods such as jams, jellies, honey and maple syrup. These products bring a diversity to farm stands and farmers markets that is likely to result in increased sales. Realizing the n...

There have been a number of interesting changes on the Donaldson Farms, near Hackettstown, NJ recently. According to Greg Donaldson, who with his extended family, farm 1,200-acres, about 400 of those in vegetables, 800 in grain and a retail greenhouse and nursery. In his PYO strawberry fields, Greg ...

by Karl H. Kazaks Plant diversity. Soil biology. Increased soil organic matter. These topics are at the forefront of minds of growers and agronomists around the world today. There’s a reason 2015 is the International Year of Soils. But often when people think of these issues, it’s in the context of ...

More than 8,000 farmers markets are now listed in the USDA’s National Farmers Market Directory. That number is up from just 5,000 in 2008. In small towns and large communities, markets directly connect producers with consumers, providing the local linkages foodies and families crave. As many communi...

You’re hiring. You have a shortage of young people on your team but few Millennials ever apply. So you assume they aren’t interested in the kind of work you do. But that’s not quite fair. Millennials are a generation as diverse as any other. Some want to be artists, some are in technology, others li...

Focusing on organic production and education, Russ Vollmer is enthusiastic about farming and it shows. He’s a 5th generation farmer at the helm of his family’s farm — Vollmer Farm. “It was in tobacco for many years,”said Vollmer, describing the 100-acre Bunn, NC farm. “Tobacco paid the bills, there ...

RUSTBURG, VA — For the first time in over two years, Bill Beni experienced something most of the rest us tend to enjoy with some greater frequency — a good night’s sleep. Beni is the Farm Manager at 7K Farms, a new apple orchard in Campbell County. He’s overseen the planting of 235-acres of tall spi...

Do what you like, like what you do and the rest will follow. That certainly works for husband and wife Mark and Annette Larareo. Enthusiasm is their middle name as they put out plants to sell in front of their business, The Village Green Greenhouse in Haydenville, MA; its been family-run for 29 year...

On an unusually hot spring afternoon, Brent Barnhart was working on a reducing the size of a corn planter so it would be more suitable for his needs. Barnhart is a young farmer who started farming in 2007, but is already seeing some of his some ambitious ideas come to fruition. He’s creating a produ...

SHEPHERDSTOWNS, WV — Brian Tanguay’s aquaponics operation is growing about as quickly as the tilapia which are the backbone of his system. Tanguay first started practicing aquaponics commercially two years ago. Within the limited space of his home, Tanguay was growing plants full-tilt, selling produ...