The New York State Nut Tree Trail

by John Wertis The John Gordon Demonstration Nut Grove near Trumansburg, NY is just one of the possible stops on the evolving New York State Nut Tree Trail. John Gordon was a well-known horticulturist with a nursery near Buffalo. He specialized in breeding and growing woody plants; particularly nut trees, paw-paws and persimmons.  He was … Read More

New Videos Teach Sheep Shearing

by Tianna DuPont Finding someone to shear your sheep is becoming more difficult and expensive every year, and more and more farmers are looking to shear their own. Producers interested in learning to shear their own sheep, or those who may just need a refresher to brush up on their skills, can now look to … Read More

Marketing Help for Sheep & Goat Farmers

by Dr. tatiana Stanton SheepGoatMarketing.info originated in the late 1990s.  It grew out of the Northeast Sheep & Goat Marketing Project at Cornell University which received a grant from USDA with the goal of improving producer access to equitable markets while building regional capacity to supply the growing consumer demand for high quality lamb and … Read More

Report Rare Nuts, Please!

NY Nut Growers Association Seeks to Preserve Heirloom Nut Trees By John Wertis In the 1930’s, a lot of interest developed in growing English (Persian) Walnuts in New York State. The Canadian Minister, the Rev. Paul Crath, had collected seed nuts and seedling trees from his native Poland and was growing them successfully in Southern … Read More

Realizing the Potential of NY Grasslands

Report recommends taking action to realize the potential of underutilized grasslands as a farming resource that will spur rural economic development, grow the regional food supply, and enhance environmental outcomes for all citizens of New York State. by Dan Welch There are over 3 million acres of grasslands in New York State that are not … Read More

Beginning Farmers: Help us, Help You!

Northeast Beginning Farmer Project Seeks Respondents for Phase 2 of Beginning Farmer Needs Survey Starting a farm is difficult, and succeeding beyond the first few years may be even more so. According to USDA definition, farmers are considered “beginners” until they have been in operation for 10 years. Many new farmers don’t make it to … Read More

Save the Unicorns and Farm the Forest

By Bryan Sobel Through forest farming, I can help to save the Unicorns (Aletrisfarinosa) and you can too. Forest farming is the cultivation of high value specialty crops under the forest canopy.  For those of you not familiar with Aletrisfarinosa, also known by ‘Unicorn Root’, it’s a perennial flowering herb found in open woodlands. Here … Read More

The Art of Silvopasturing: A Regional Conference

By Nancy Glazier The practice of Silvopasturing is causing quite a buzz these days. It was a fairly new concept to me until a year and a half ago, a concept that brings together forestry management and grazing management into one single system of sustainable woodland grazing. It can diversify income by tapping into products … Read More

2010 Cornell Small Farms Program Publications

As we at the Cornell Small Farms Program look back upon 2010, we are proud of how many new Small Farm resources we published this year.  In case you missed some of them, the following summarizes the 2010 publications available from our office. Resource Guide to Direct Marketing Livestock and Poultry The revised edition of … Read More

Resource Spotlight: Organic Insect and Disease Management

By Elizabeth Lamb As new plant diseases seem to appear every year, it is a good idea to have some resources to help you identify and treat them.  Here are a few places to find information on disease identification and control that fits into an organic production system. 1) Disease and insect management for organic … Read More

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