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Hazelnuts for the Maine Homestead

American hazel (C. americana) grows well in Industry, Maine. Yaicha Cowell photo. By Will Bonsall I’ve always loved filberts, those roundish nuts found in boxes of holiday mixes. They always tasted more substantial than the pecans and Brazil nuts, more evocative of northern forests. In fact, those European types (Corylus avellana) aren’t very hardy here.

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Currants

Ribes Species and White Pine Blister Rust – An Update, June 9, 2015 Over the past several years, interest has increased throughout the Northeast in growing and cultivating currants, gooseberries and other species in the genus Ribes for backyard and commercial fruit production. Stimulated by development of varieties that were either resistant or immune to

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Drosophila

Figure 1 – The female spotted wing Drosophila (fruit fly), a new pest in New England, uses her serrated ovipositor to make a hole in sound fruit and lay her eggs, which develop into larvae in the fruit. Photo courtesy of Alan Eaton of the University of N.H. By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. I am usually

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Root Cellar Daze

Toki Oshima Drawing By Roberta Bailey My jumbled box of seed has been sorted and organized. My seed orders have been placed and most have arrived. Little packets of promise. The seasons ahead hold such bright potential: ‘Drama Queen’ poppies, ‘Variegated’ blue collards that promise to overwinter, enough Phacelia to plant multiple rows in all

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Highlights

Toki Oshima drawing By Diane Schivera, M.A.T. Conferences and workshops are rich sources of tips for livestock care, pasture management, marketing and more. Here are some ideas gleaned from 2011 events that I attended. At the Maine Grass Farmers Conference, Jim Gerrish of American GrazingLands Services LLC in May, Idaho, said that to raise meat,

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Distributor

By Melissa White Pillsbury At the Maine Agricultural Trades Show in January, Leah and Marada Cook of Crown O’ Maine Organic Coop (COMOC) discussed what farmers need to know about selling to a distributor. They shared insights into the worlds of produce distributors in general and of COMOC in particular. Is Your Product Legal? First

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CSA in Taiwan and China

A home garden in Taiwan. Elizabeth Henderson photo. By Elizabeth Henderson Taiwan Today’s citizens of China, Korea and Japan, whose agriculture of a century ago F.H. King described so vividly in Farmers of Forty Centuries, have almost forgotten the traditions that inspired so many of us in organic farming in the West. But old timers

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IFOAM in South Korea

By Elizabeth Henderson On behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), I attended the Organic World Congress and the General Assembly of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) in October 2011 in Namyangju, near Seoul, South Korea. The new Organic Museum on the banks of the Han River made a luxurious venue

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Seed Saving

Peppers are among the easiest of crops from which to save seed. Just be sure the fruit is mature, as is this ‘Klari Baby Cheese’ pepper. English photo. By Roberta Bailey When people first visit my farm, many are surprised by how little space it takes to grow seed crops. On the home scale it

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Growing Melons in Maine An Overview

‘Hannah’s Choice’ melons. Adam Tomash photo. Half-gallon milk cartons with their tops and bottoms removed make good containers for starting melons, tomatoes and other transplants. A flap at the top of the carton can be cut, folded down and used as a label. Adam Tomash photo. When plants are ready to be transplanted to the

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