Posts by Haley Rylander
Experimentation with small-scale mealworm-rearing and processing of insects into food products sheds light on new opportunities for the adventurous entrepreneur and farmer. Entomophagy. Insect protein. Sustainable ‘meat.’ Producing invertebrates for human consumption is nothing new. Over 2 billion people around the world already eat insects as part of a regular diet, and the trend is…
Read More
Researchers working on reduced tillage take opaque tarps, simple and affordable tools with the potential to reduce tillage, to farms in the Finger Lakes Region and Hudson Valley to test their usability on real farms. The Cornell Small Farms Program is working to find effective ways to reduce tillage on small farms throughout New York…
Read More
Research on the potential of tarps to reduce or even replace tillage by controlling weeds and decomposing crop residue. By Haley Rylander Introduction Organic vegetable farmers rely heavily on intensive soil tillage to control weeds, incorporate amendments and cover crop residue, and prepare clean seedbeds. Intensive tillage, however, can decrease long-term soil health by causing…
Read More
As the growing season winds down, Haley Rylander, a masters student working with the reduced tillage project of the Cornell Small Farms Program, has been visiting with farmers who have taken an active role in her research. Haley shares some of these farmers’ experiences and gives insight about using tarps to suppress weeds and reduce…
Read More