Year: 2012
There’s a group of women famers in the Northeast that are turning their farms around and making an impact in their communities. They’ve been able to accomplish it as a result of participating in a unique training program managed by Holistic Management International (HMI) and partially funded by the USDA National Institute for Food &…
Farm Credit East offers multiple programs to support young, beginning and next generation farmers The long range strength and soundness of the future of agriculture in the Northeast is dependent on individuals entering the industry. As with any industry, starting a new business comes with challenges. Farms require capital for upfront expenses, such as land,…
For the fourth profile in a series highlighting distributors of New York State farm-grown products, I spoke to Rhys Powell. Rhys is the Founder and President of Red Rabbit, located in New York City. Red Rabbit was founded in 2005 “to fix the school food system”. According to their website, they do this in…
Vermont holds the brass ring as the premier state hosting the most artisan and farmstead cheese makers per capita in the country. Not bad for a little place with a lot of rocky hillside farms and barely 650,000 people. As the cheesemakers expand and improve, the prizes keep coming, the sales keep mounting and…
Cucurbit downy mildew (CDM) (Pseudoperonosporacubensis), is a serious disease of cucurbits worldwide that attacks all cultivated cucurbits. Symptoms progress from yellow, angular lesions on the upper leaf surfaces restricted by leaf veins to the production of gray sporangia that can be seen on the lower leaf surface. Lesions expand, become necrotic, and kill the leaves.…
by Elizabeth Lamb, Margery Daughtrey, Margaret Kelly Chrysanthemum white rust (CWR) is a fungal disease of chrysanthemums caused by Pucciniahoriana that can cause severe damage, including complete crop loss due to direct effects of the disease or to quarantine procedures. Pot mums, garden mums and mums grown for cut flowers are all susceptible to the…
Is it really possible to extract heat from compost to warm your barn, greenhouse or home? A grassroots research network is finding out. Any farmer is well aware that a large heap of fresh manure, livestock bedding and other organic farm residuals will generate substantial heat for several weeks or months. What is less widely…
by Sara Runkel and Tianna DuPont Equipment is expensive. But often it can pay for itself quickly if you get the right tool for your farm. We would like to share a few considerations and tips we have learned through a recent equipment demonstration at the Seed Farm New Farmer Training and Incubator Program in…
It’s been a long, hot summer. July was the hottest month in over a century, and a lot of farmers, from tiny one acre plots to hundreds-of- acre century farms, have been worried about their water supply. It turns out that those who farm using old fashioned or organic principals are faring best in this…
78 year old Vermont farmer shares memoirs with Lindsay Debach, daughter of a Pennsylvania-based butcher, after reading her Small Farm Quarterly piece “Slaughter Daughter”. Introduction In late February of this year I received a letter bearing the name of Stuart Cheney. A native of Brattleboro, Vermont, Stuart wrote to tell me that he enjoyed my…
