“Most small family farms have already closed,” remarked Dale Baker, while sorting Asian pears at his fruit farm in the Hudson Valley. “This farm has been in my family for over 100 years but the fruit part was started by my grandfather, Gordon Baker, in the early 1920s.” The farm, which lies just a f...

STEVENSBURG, VA — A few years ago, Joe van Wingerden and his wife Georgia found themselves facing a problem —as the owners of a 12-acre greenhouse, they were about to lose their business’ anchor — a tulip operation. As experienced horticultural entrepreneurs, the couple turned their predicament into...

On Dec. 1, 2015 the Connecticut Pomological Society held its annual meeting at the Gallery Restaurant in Glastonbury, CT. Ninety members, guests and support staff met for the annual update as to what is new in orchard management and listen to fellow orchardists share their thoughts on issues of comm...

Farm safety takes many different forms. Sometimes safety concerns arise due to the physical environment itself -slippery floors, or misplaced tools – at other times, the proper use and maintenance of equipment is the concern. Sometimes safety is about common sense. Don’t smoke around flammable mater...

MORRISVILLE, NY – Hop growers and enthusiasts could find everything under the sun at the 2015 Cornell Hops Conference & Northeast Hops Association’s annual meeting on Dec. 5 at Morrisville State College. Wherever you have hops, you will have abundant concerns about the weather, diseases and pests, s...

It’s been almost three years since the original proposed Rules for Produce Safety and the Preventative Controls for Human Food, both portions of the 2011 Food Safety and Modernization Act, designed to prevent food-borne illnesses, were unveiled. Since that time, stakeholder input has led to re-evalu...

Benjamin Franklin called New Jersey a barrel tapped at both ends: New York City and Philadelphia. For better or worse, this is still true. Many New Jersey farmers take advantage of this by growing specialty crops for the cities’ restaurants. In addition to the lucrative tourist market, the ethnic di...

As cold weather sets in, greenhouse growers are already preparing for the spring season. Efficiently managing greenhouse crops means knowing your market’s needs and meeting those needs in the most cost-effective manner. Producing quality crops while minimizing the cost of operation is crucial, yet f...

Nearly 14.3 percent of the total carrot crop acreage in the United States is grown in organic farming systems. “Carrots are a significant organic production vegetable component in U.S. agriculture,” said Micaela Colley, executive director and research education director for the Organic Seed Alliance...