Archives: Resources

Livestock, Littles, and Beyond

By Jacki Martinez Perkins, Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist I grew up not only in a different time but also in such a different world than most everyone else I know. My dad was a dairy farmer, and my mom was the only female large animal veterinarian in Maine at the time. By the time

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Trialing Fungicide Products in an Organic Winter Squash Crop

By MOFGA Crop Specialist, Caleb P. Goossen, Ph.D. Today there are many more plant disease management products available to organic growers than in decades past, but it continues to be difficult for me to confidently recommend some of the newer products as “worth it” — especially when I’m talking with commercial growers that are relying

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Harvest Kitchen: Blackberry Days

By Roberta Bailey Blackberries are the cruel temptresses of the berry kingdom. They promise sweetness yet they can make you bleed. The berries are so delicate. The thorns leave scars. There are always stories to tell, clothes to be mended. And yet, the berries can be divinely sweet and delicately flavored. The promise of more

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Grow Your Own Sprouting Seeds

By Will Bonsall Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, eating sprouts was all the rage, unsurprising since they are rightly reputed to be loaded with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and easily digested proteins, far more than the unsprouted seeds. Many folks even went so far as to grow their own sprouts (many still do), sprouting clover,

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Jumping Worms in Maine

By Tim King Non-native earthworms, Amynthas agrestis, were greeted with some hysterical, and inaccurate, media reports when they were first observed in appreciable numbers at the Viles Arboretum in Augusta, Maine, and several other locations in Augusta and in Portland a decade ago. Seemingly reputable news sources claimed that Amynthas worms, commonly called jumping worms,

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Multi-Cultivar Grafted Trees for Pest Control

By C.J. Walke, Orchard Program Manager Plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar) is considered one of the most destructive insect pests in apple and plum orchards and has been referred to as the “Achilles’ heel” of organic orcharding because of the difficulty controlling this pest with cultural methods and materials approved by the Organic Materials Review Institute

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Invasive Species: A Very Human Problem

By Mariam Taleb, Ph.D. If it feels like new invasive species are showing up faster and faster, the research says you’re right, and that there’s no sign it will slow down soon, according to Nature Communications. Biological invasions can feel like an existential threat, and often leave us anxious and ready for action. In some

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Leaf-Silage as a Nutritious and Climate-Resilient Feed for Ruminants

By Shana Hanson Most livestock want to eat woody plants. Cattle, sheep and goats in Europe were historically wintered on abundant, tannin-rich forages; farmers dried tree leaves for sheep and goats, and ensiled leaves (stored anaerobically to ferment), or sometimes cooked or steeped dried leaves, for cattle and hogs. From 6,000 years ago until horse-drawn

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Kernza: An Ecological Grain Crop

By Kevin Haggerty and Eric von Wettberg Have you ever heard of perennial wheat? As the ecological impacts of some annual farming systems become better understood alongside the growing need to adapt to climate change, new approaches to producing grains are gaining significance. One such approach to building resilience is through adopting new crops well

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