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,
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,
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
By Roberta Bailey After last year’s rainy growing season, I spent the winter thinking about strategies for this growing season. We had standing water in garden rows numerous times throughout the growing year. Do I make raised beds and rows in all the gardens and field plots? If so, how high? What if we have
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
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
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
By Will Bonsall Spices have always held a peripheral importance in virtually all cuisines, despite their relatively low nutritional value. They’re especially significant in diets based on bland foods like rice and potatoes, whose nutrient value itself is not enough to stimulate the appetite. To be clear, I’m distinguishing spices from leafy herbs, most of
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, MOFGA’s Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist At MOFGA’s 2023 Farmer to Farmer Conference we hosted a session about new fencing technology and how it is being implemented in rotational grazing systems in the Northeast. Dan Smith, who has worked with the dairy industry for decades, secured funding through the Northeast Dairy
Looking back on the impacts of low-impact forestry principles and practice By Tim Libby, Low-Impact Forestry Steering Committee Chair I started working in the forest as a low-impact forestry (LIF) practitioner over 10 years ago. In that time, though very small on the timescale of a forest, I have seen exciting changes as a result
