When Tim Stanton of Stanton’s Fuera Farms & Market decided to quit the dairy business, he wasn’t ready to give up farming entirely. Instead, he raised hay and vegetables for a farm stand and turned to agritourism as a revenue generator for his new business model. A U-pick pumpkin patch was the first...

Community supported agriculture (CSA) programs have become another means for producers to bring income to the farm as well as lock in markets and a revenue stream. Garrett Ziegler, MSU Extension Community Food Systems Educator, recently spoke on the topic as part of the MSU Extension Beginning Farme...

Your smartphone is with you all the time, but you likely ignore one of its functions that could really benefit your farm: recording videos. That’s why MidAtlantic Women In Agriculture presented “Smart Phone Movies,” led by Michele Walfred, communications specialist with University of Delaware. “Ther...

Fred Hulme, with the Technical Services division of ICL Fertilizers, opened the Greenhouse Growers Day at Shady Maple Smorgasbord earlier this year by saying that he wanted to talk about fertilizer and nutrition in a broader context – “in terms of your growing systems … intertwined with your cultura...

“I like to think of it as ‘the smell of the flower will draw in the bee,’” said Matt LeRoux, describing the importance of creating an identity for your farm business. “We’re not going to survive, especially small farms, if we don’t have an identity. This identity will draw in your target customer.” ...

A researcher from the University of Wisconsin is working in conjunction with academics in Oregon and a collective of agricultural professionals to reduce the rate of viral infection in seed potatoes. “Seed Potato Production and Breeding in Organic Systems,” a webinar hosted by Oregon State Universit...

Here are some factors that influence flowering and fruiting in vegetable crops. The vine crop family has the following factors that cause poor fruit set: Low pollinator activity (lack of honeybees), low temperatures, overcrowded plants and/or excessively dense canopy and lack of pollinator plants (i...

In some recent research into producers commercially growing chickpeas in the Mid-Atlantic states, a common theme in niche marketing materialized: “If I grow it, can I sell it, and how much money will I make?” An exotic or trendy item becomes popular with consumers, and as a producer you’re tempted t...

The National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture, whose mission is to grow a healthy world through the art, science and business of plants, gardens and landscapes, recently shared a detailed array of resources for growers during its “Doing Business Under Difficult Circumstances: Finding the Resourc...