A small sampling of Eli Rogosa’s display of heritage wheats at MOFGA’s Spring Growth Conference. English photo. Spring Growth Conference 2009 Eli Rogosa spoke at Spring Growth about her work with traditional farmers who grow landrace wheat. She explained the hidden crisis of modern “Green Revolution” wheat, the most widely grown crop on earth, which
Spring Growth Conference 2009 Rick Kersbergen of UMaine Cooperative Extension presented information on a SARE project for growing small winter grains in Maine and Vermont. Small grains might fit into a dairy crop rotation after a corn silage crop to offset corn prices. Kersbergen noted that to feed 10 pounds of barley per cow per
Spring Growth Conference 2009 Ellen Mallory of the University of Maine reported on weed control tactics in organic cereals for graduate student Lauren Kolb, research associate Tom Molloy and associate professor Eric Gallandt. Mallory said that the primary strategy for weed control in organic cereals now is tine harrowing when weeds are in the white
by Elizabeth Henderson Elizabeth Henderson gave the keynote speech at MOFGA’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Conference on Feb. 21, 2009. Henderson is a CSA pioneer, farmer (at Peacework Organic Farm in Newark, New York) and author of Sharing the Harvest: a Citizen’s Guide to CSA. I am delighted to be in the People’s Republic of
Weaving Direct Connections Between Producers and Consumers by Mary Dickinson Bird What wool producer wouldn’t rejoice at the thought of a secure source of cash up front to support production costs, a guaranteed market for fiber after shearing or processing, and even, perhaps, free labor during the farm’s busiest seasons? Such are the benefits of
After their organic cranberries have gone through a sorter, Rick and Linda hand sort the fruits for color, size and firmness. by Joyce White You don’t need to wait for Nature to establish a cranberry planting: You can create your own cranberry farm from scratch! Richmond and Linda Woodward have done just that on land
Japanese knotweed or Japanese bamboo is not a true bamboo. Eliminating it takes diligence – cutting it back frequently during the growing season and then mulching heavily. English photo. A window covering made by Cleveland artist Eric Vanyo from Japanese knotweed stalks. English photo. Close-up of the bamboo window covering. English photo. By Bruce Blake
Pollinator Profiles More than 270 species of bees are native to Maine. Here are a few that you might see in your meadows and crops this summer: Bumblebees (family Apidae) – Sixteen species of bumblebees live in Maine, ranging in size from under 1/2 inch to about an inch long. They are hairy, and usually
The CoolBot “fools” an air conditioner into thinking that the temperature in a room is 65 F, even when it is much colder. The small device enables growers to turn a storage room with an ordinary air conditioner into a cold storage facility. Photo by Phil Norris. By Phil Norris Now and then an invention
by Molly Little What struck me most in my first few weeks as a MOFGA farm apprentice two summers ago wasn’t the hard work. It wasn’t the beauty of the clear night sky far from the light pollution of Providence, Rhode Island, where I had been going to school. It wasn’t even the simple joy
