“All cities, suburbs and rural towns have Norway rats and house mice,” said Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, coordinator of community integrated pest management for Cornell, who recently presented a talk on rodent management as part of a webinar on IPM. In rural settings, many enticements attract rodents, in...

Whether you put a teaspoon of clover honey in your tea, stir some in your oatmeal cookie recipe or enjoy a good mead, you’re supporting local beekeeping family businesses that pollinate plants and nourish a nation. In a bit of good news, Mother Nature’s worker bees have claimed the number one spot a...

Phytophthora species can attack many crops, from vegetables and fruit to ornamental plants and forest trees. All Phytophthora species are water molds, and as such thrive in wet conditions, spreading in water itself or in moist soils. Responsible for the Irish potato famine, tomato late blight, sudde...

Welcome to Cultivating Thoughts, a new column that will appear each month in Country Folks Grower . I’m currently a professor emeritus in the Department of Plant Science at Penn State. I was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania. I vividly remember dairy cows being paraded past our elementary school...

Recent times have mandated the primary business strategy of survival – of remaining viable in the middle of challenging circumstances. Most business planning and revamping have centered around immediate needs and day to day operations. As you face the first quarter of a new calendar year, strategic ...

Some very interesting news came out of North Carolina State University last month regarding a particular variety of grape that grows across much of the East Coast and the Midwest. The mighty muscadine, often used for jams, jellies, juice and wines, contains a chemical compound that can inhibit a SAR...

The ever-changing, always-updating digital landscape can be challenging to keep up with for even the most seasoned professionals. This past year has seen a tremendous shift in the way our world operates, and no industry can remain successful without learning to roll with the new tides of post-pandem...

Acreage that had been farmed continuously for more than 200 years is now home to a thriving vegetable farm, thanks to brothers Daniel, Quincy and Patrick Horan . “My older brother Daniel started farming in 1990 on what was our grandparents’ country house property,” said Patrick. “He was fresh out of...

It was forward-thinking Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau who first called wild blueberries “bluets.” Now, forward-thinking vintners Michael Terrien and Eric Martin are taking bluets to a new level with their sparkling blueberry wine. Both born and raised in Maine, Terrien said he and Martin hav...