A lot of people are talking about permaculture, a system that relies on designing planting configurations to work more like an ecosystem. Until recently, the practice has largely been associated with the landscape industry. However, farms nationwide ranging from less than five acres in production to...

Running a business is all about managing risk. Agriculture and horticulture are both steeped in chance. Thus, your farm-based business comes with twice the amount of worry as many other vocations. Because of that, growers often lean conservatively when it comes to trying new things. We’re as skeptic...

It was a gray day as I drove into Schartner Farms in North Kingstown, RI. The blackened shell of the farm stand dominated the landscape, as did the acrid smell of creosote although it had been nearly a month since a fire destroyed the local landmark. Despite the devastation, a spirit of resilience s...

An ambitious young boy didn’t have any way of knowing what he started when he began selling vegetables at an open-air stand on his family’s Circleville, Ohio farm. But young Brent Rhoads’ venture was successful; within a few years the family constructed a small building where they offered their own ...

The 2014 growing season was surprisingly difficult for many apple and pear growers in Southern New England. The warm, wet spring resulted in widespread fire blight, a bacterial disease whose symptoms include blossom blight, shoot blight, cankers, fruit lesions and in extreme cases tree death. To hel...

Now New Hampshire and PA Extensions have a grant-funded calibration unit that can quickly and accurately measure the output of each nozzle on the sprayer. In Pennsylvania, the cost to the grower is $50 for the first sprayer and $35 for a second one. The rest of the expenses, estimated at $200, are p...

Marketing professionals understand, and use to their advantage, the feedback gleaned from focus groups. These small multi-person group sessions target specific information on product development, usage, buyer preferences and future buying trends. The feedback is used to identify the strengths and ch...

“It surprised me when I did the research that we appear to be the first commercial cocktail syrup company in the United States with a direct link to the farm,” Sumptuous Syrups of Vermont co-owner Linda Fox said. “Sumptuous Syrups farm-to-bar concentrated craft cocktail syrups are old-fashioned bar ...

ROSEVILLE, NC — This past winter was no lightweight, with a number of storms visiting the Eastern seaboard with cold temperatures and precipitation. At J & B Farms, in the north central part of North Carolina, in the middle of the Piedmont, the extreme weather presented challenges unusual for their ...

“We have to manage soil nutrients and irrigation together, because the two are intertwined,” stated Dr. George Hochmuch, Professor at the University of Florida, whose research focuses on developing Best Management Practices for plant nutrient use to protect water quality. “A grower can do a visual d...

October 2015 will mark the first time an FDA court mandated rule will affect producers of fresh produce in the marketplace. “This is coming!” said Produce Safety Alliance Program Director Elizabeth A. Bihn, Ph.D. “Don’t panic, but do something now so it doesn’t hit you like a freight train when it h...

Marketing. Everyone has heard how important it is but implementing it can be intimidating. Carsha Lapp has devoted her career to educating business students on this very topic, working as a marketing instructor at Northwest Technical College in northern Minnesota for 27 years. When it comes to marke...

Rachel Armstrong led an informative webinar on the legal considerations regarding unpaid and compensated volunteers. “Ag. law is incredibly complex,” said Rachel Armstrong, lawyer and former grower. Farmers should carefully distinguish between a volunteer and employee. A volunteer must not displace ...

Farm ponds can be both beautiful and functional as irrigation reservoirs. In addition, having a pond can save you about 10 percent on your farm insurance premium, if you install the right type of fire hydrant hookup for your local fire department. “These hook ups cost only a couple hundred dollars t...

Although Drew Norman wasn’t raised in a farming family, his high school aptitude test indicated that he should be a farmer. More importantly, that’s what he wanted to do. Drew started working on farms as soon as he was old enough to work and eventually studied agronomy at the University of Maryland....