Archives: Resources

Get the Sugar Out

By Cheryl Wixson For a variety of health, social and environmental reasons, I’ve been tweaking a number of my recipes to get the sugar out. Table sugar, or sucrose, is obtained by refining the juice from sugar beets or sugar cane. Today, about 80 percent of the white table sugar consumed in the United States

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Wholesale

Wholesale Success is a guide to wholesale marketing, including building relationships, crop planning and pricing, negotiating contracts, postharvest handling, cooling, packing and more. By Cheryl Wixson The market demand for local and organic food is growing. In 1990, U.S. organic food sales were $1 billion; by 2011, they had grown to $31 billion. Certified-organic cropland

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Raising Rabbits Organically at Rabbit Hill Farm

The rabbitry at Rabbit Hill Farm. All photos by Cheryl Wixson. By Cheryl Wixson For the urban gardener or homesteader, domestic rabbits can be valuable livestock. Rabbit meat is an excellent source of protein; the pelts can be used in numerous applications including hats, lap robes, cushion covers, vests and coats; and rabbit manure is

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Notes from Livestock Meetings

By Diane Schivera, M.A.T. The Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance (NODPA) Field Days, held in Mansfield, Penn., in September, featured talks on innovative ideas, current research and practical strategies for enhancing the health, productivity and profitability of organic dairy farms. Here are some tips from that event. Fodder from Sprouted Grain John Stoltzfus of Be-A-Blessing

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Loss of Scab Resistance in Once Resistant Apple Cultivars

Scab on an apple. Photo by C.J. Walke. Scab lesions on apple leaves. Photo by C.J. Walke. By C. J. Walke For organic apple growers in the Northeast, one of the major disease challenges is managing apple scab in orchard trees. Apple scab, caused by the fungus Venturia inaequalis, can severely affect unsprayed or unmanaged

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Harvest Kitchen Kale

‘Red Russian’ kale. English photo. By Roberta Bailey Kale is all the rage! It is rocking the health studies with its cancer fighting properties and the nutritional scene with its high levels of beta-carotene and other carotenoids, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein and calcium. The red kales have invited the popular buzzword “anthocyanin” to their

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Food Safety Will It Affect Your Farm

By Dave Colson MOFGA Agricultural Services Director Food safety issues came back into the spotlight for many farmers and agricultural groups this year. In January 2013, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its proposed rules for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act passed by Congress in 2011. A year in the writing, these proposed

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Focus on Marketing

Broadturn Farm posts photos on Instagram, Facebook and on its website for maximum exposure to social media. Photos courtesy of Broadturn Farm. How can you connect with customers through social media? Farmers highlighted their storytelling strategies at a marketing session at MOFGA’s 2013 Farmer to Farmer Conference. Stacy Brenner and John Bliss of Broadturn Farm

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Kneading Conference

Barak Olins of Zu Bakery, making bread at the Kneading Conference. Photo by Amy Halloran. By Amy Halloran The Kneading Conference (https://kneadingconference.com/) began in 2007 with a few tents and mobile ovens in a church parking lot. Now those tents and ovens congregate at the Skowhegan fairgrounds each July, drawing people from all over the

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Medlars

Medlars. Photos by Will Bonsall. By Will Bonsall When I speak of medlars, people are apt to assume that I’m referring to folks who stick their noses into other folks’ business, but in this case I’m talking about a little-known and less-grown fruit. Despite its botanical name, Mespilus germanica, and its long cultivation in northern

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