UNH Extension Fruit & Vegetable Production Field Specialist Heather Bryant started her half-hour class on pruning blueberry bushes by introducing the tools she uses. Long-handled bypass loppers provide the leverage needed to cut and remove no-longer vigorous blueberry canes, Bryant explained. Commer...

Nearly everyone looks forward to retirement, and many anticipate collecting Social Security. However, planning is essential. Paula Ledney, Penn State Extension program specialist, retirement planning and business management, explained, “Social Security is a federal program that provides retirement b...

Hello, farm family! Yesterday, an old memory resurfaced from some dusty corner of my mind. It was of my great-grandfather sharpening a hoe on our old foot-powered wheel grinder. Hoes We used hoes a lot on our farm back then. Naturally, we employed them for transplanting seedlings and weeding vegetab...

Russell Wallack of Breadtree Farms and Brian Caldwell of Hemlock Grove Farm discussed commercial organic chestnut production, marketing and processing as an outreach of their Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP) mentorship. The U.S. imports millions of pounds of chestnuts annually; Walla...

Alby and Heather Brandon own and operate Brandon Family Farm in West Kingston, RI. It’s a certified organic diversified vegetable farm with about 15 acres in production. About 10 years ago, they added strawberries to their crop rotation. The strawberries are sold through farmers markets, a CSA progr...

The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers hosted a webinar recently focusing on flower growers interested in expanding their business by selling to florists. Ellen Frost, the owner of Local Color Flowers in Baltimore, has been sourcing flowers from local farmers for over 20 years. Frost has ha...

While helping develop a farmers market in Skowhegan, Maine, in 2007, Amber Lambke discovered a perplexing problem: many producers’ value-added products lacked flour to create their baked goods to meet the market requirement of locally sourced ingredients. Bakers were “wild cards,” she recalled, beca...

Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury Center, VT, boasts the Café at Cold Hollow, a store, a bakery, an online store, wholesale purchasing and more. It is also a popular Mother’s Day destination. “Many locals take advantage of the mill’s unique offerings for special occasion and holiday shopping,” sai...

With graduation season upon us – along with spring and summer wedding season – some revelers may be tempted to celebrate by tossing confetti in the air. While exciting in the moment, those little pieces of plastic can cause long-lasting harm to our environment. Knowing this, Isabella Dodson of Texas...