Archives: Resources

Footprint Farm’s Record-Keeping Philosophy

Keep it easy, motivating and enjoyable By Jennifer Wilhelm As a small-scale fruit and vegetable farmer, I spend hours each year planning for the growing season. When the ground is still frozen and daylight is at a minimum, when the seed catalogs flood my mailbox — harbingers of the color, smells and tastes to come

Read More »

Build a Simple Cold Frame

By Ivonne Vazquez Living in a cold climate requires ways to extend the growing season. One method, a cold frame, does not require too much space and can be tailored to your gardening needs, space requirements and availability of materials. What is a Cold Frame? It is a bottomless box, usually made with a glass

Read More »

Water in the Garden: Too Much or Too Little

By Will Bonsall Water is essential to every biological process, so successful gardening depends on enough water being available at the right time. It may be in the soil or even in the plant tissues themselves, but it must be present and available. Without it you can load the soil with endless nutrients and they

Read More »

Mexican Bean Beetle

Pest: Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna varivestis) Pest/disease identification and lifecycle, most common damage symptoms and crops affected: If Mexican bean beetles have historically been a problem on your farm or in your garden, you will very likely see them again this year. They may be pests on snap beans, dry beans, soybeans and lima beans.

Read More »

How to Bundle Dye Using Plant Materials

By Samantha Verrone The report released in March 2023 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change renewed in me a sense of urgency about how and what we consume. When I think about using what’s here rather than buying something new, bundle dyeing comes to mind as a gateway to a climate-conscious lifestyle. It connects

Read More »

Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus

Pest: Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV) Disease identification: Tomato brown rugose fruit virus, otherwise referred to as ToBRFV, is a highly virulent and aggressive plant virus that can cause serious infections on tomato and pepper species. ToBRFV behaves very similarly to other tobamoviruses such as ToMV (tomato mosaic virus) and TMV (tobacco mosaic virus).

Read More »

Allium Leafminer

Pest: Allium Leafminer (Phytomyza gymnostoma) Pest/disease identification and lifecycle, most common damage symptoms and crops affected: Allium, or onion, leafminer (ALM) is an invasive pest of alliums. Adult allium leafminers are small (approximately 3 millimeters) gray/black flies with a distinctive orange/yellow spot on the tops of their heads, and yellow “knees” (Fig. 1). ALM have

Read More »

No-till Farming

In September of 2022, MOFGA visited Orange Circle Farm in Berwick, Maine, to talk about no-till farming with Jeff Benton, the owner, and Becky Deering of Tiny Roots Farm in Litchfield, Maine. In their conversation, Benton and Deering discuss the why and how of no-till farming, a practice that promotes soil health by avoiding conventional

Read More »
Categories
Scroll to Top