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
By C.J. Walke, Orchard Program Manager As we approach the end of winter and the beginning of spring, one of our favorite and best-attended orchard events is the Seed Swap & Scion Exchange held near the end of March each year. This year, the event is on March 24, from noon to 4 p.m., at
By Roberta Bailey Happy 50th birthday to The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener. You have grown so much! Look how tall you are now! I see that you have matured into such a refined newspaper! So much poise, such eloquence! You have shared so many voices, so many stories. You have celebrated great news and
By Holli Cederholm Organic agriculture has a plastic problem. The problem is, said vegetable producer Lincoln Fishman, plastic is useful. Drip tape for irrigation, bread trays for harvest, and perforated bags and woven plastic feed sacks are all “beautiful inventions,” he told a room of growers during a session on plastic reduction at MOFGA’s Farmer
By Sonja Heyck-Merlin A quick glance at most seed catalogs reveals a plethora of season-extending tools, from sprouting trays to cold frames. From there, season extension gets progressively more complicated: bendable hoops for do-it-yourself caterpillar-style tunnels, small backyard greenhouses with polycarbonate walls and large high tunnels most commonly found on commercial vegetable farms. The use
By Will Brinton Organic farming is grounded in the principle and reality of a vibrant living earth, supporting healthy plant-animal-human communities. This linkage has been encapsulated in the contemporary and somewhat abstract term “ecosystem services,” essentially referring to the benefits humans obtain from natural systems, as formulated in the early work of Paul Ehrlich and
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