The most recent Farm Bill provided funding for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Transition Option - a new initiative to help beginning and minority farmers access the 4.2 million acres of farmland that is about to come out of the CRP, by offering incentives to farmers to sell or lease to them. Current is reporting […]

read more from this topic.....

The sprayer bottle is filled with milk diluted in water at a ratio of 1 to 10. You can see the characteristic white spots and yellowed edges of powdery mildew on the leaves.

I loved watering the crops in my hoophouse last spring, daydreaming about summer. Little did I know that sprinkling the plants would cause […]

read more from this topic.....

I can grow tomatoes that look bigger and better than any in my local supermarket, but my bell peppers - no matter whether they are green, red, yellow, orange or purple - all end up looking puny beside those grown by professionals. What’s the key?
I have learned that sprinkling some Epsom Salts around each pepper […]

read more from this topic.....

Late one night, I saw a pitchman hawk these contraptions on cable TV (the guy was not as good the ShamWOW! spokesman, but then, who is?). Bleary-eyed though I was, the idea made sense. Growing tomatoes means investing in something — a cage or stakes - to keep those heavy vines supported enough so the […]

read more from this topic.....

In a triumph of optimism over experience, I planted some grapevines, as well as a few blueberry and raspberry bushes. What was I thinking? That the deer had taken a holiday? By the next morning, one blueberry bush was gone, and there were deer tracks all around the other plants. If the deer didn’t […]

read more from this topic.....

My neighbor Dave (who is helping with the hoophouse) has been gently reminding me that it’s time to start composting. (My soil is basically beach sand.) He also offered me some free pallets, since he accumulates so many as part of his roofing business.
I then found a great PDF handout from “Green Man” that […]

read more from this topic.....

There is a lively discussion on a listserv I belong to about whether buying locally may not always result in a lower carbon footprint. A provocative article in the New York Times last December called
“If it’s fresh and local, is it always greener?” raises good some good questions. As one listmate noted, it […]

read more from this topic.....

BBC “Kitchen Nightmare” Chef Gordon Ramsay has touched off a fierce debate by proposing a legal ban on all out-of-season food in all British restaurants. Chefs would therefore be forced to offer menus limited to locally grown foods in season.
Europeans are much more concerned about climate change than most Americans. However, even in England, the […]

read more from this topic.....

I awoke the morning after setting up the Wall of Water gizmos to find the first one tipped over. The next morning, two were goners. Now it appears a third has a slow leak.
County Ag Extension Master Gardener Instructor Gary Heilig suspects that deer may be crashing into them at night or early morning, when […]

read more from this topic.....