By Diane Schivera, M.A.T. On the first Friday of every month, MOFGA hosts its “Common Ground” radio show on WERU (89.9 Blue Hill, 99.9 Bangor, weru.org). I was on that show in April discussing backyard chickens. The information below follows up on a couple of interesting questions that callers asked. Lighting for Pullets One caller
Artichokes. Photo from wiki.com/healthyrecipes. Growing Artichokes in Maine By Cheryl A. Wixson The impressive and mighty artichoke is actually the flower bud of a large thistle-family plant. This delectable but formidable-looking vegetable dates backs for centuries and was prized by Romans as food of the nobility. Widely grown France, Italy and Spain, and California, Maine
One symptom of brown rot is an oozing canker, as shown on this ‘La Crescent’ plum tree. Photo by C.J. Walke. By C.J. Walke Over the past few years, interest in cultivating organic tree fruit has steadily increased, as has the general desire to integrate these perennial crops into backyard garden and farm ecosystems. This
By Eric Sideman, Ph.D., MOFGA’S Director of Technical Services How quickly an apparently unknown disease can arise and cause widespread fear. The disease is called Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) but is more commonly referred to as “mad cow disease.” The fear spread worldwide as we watched Great Britain, the only country with a major outbreak,
By Rick Kersbergen Waldo County Cooperative Extension Note: Much of this information is taken from UMCE bulletin #2163 of the same title, written by Matt Williams, Ed Plissey and Greg Porter. Maine’s cool climate and uniform rainfall favor barley production. Barley rapidly develops an extensive root system and needs a moderately deep, well-drained soil. Timing
Agroforestry Benefits Studied By Mitch Lansky Members of MOFGA are familiar with the concept of certification. It involves the use of third-party audits to verify a given claim such as: Has this food been organically grown? Certification, however, is being used to verify other claims such as: Does this product have x% recycled content? Is
John Bagnulo. Photo by Joanna Bagnulo. By Polly Shyka John Bagnulo is a naturalist and nutritionist. With a master’s in public health and a doctorate in food and nutrition sciences, he has a nutrition practice in Belfast and has taught nutrition for the past 12 years. He lectures widely on nutrition and health and has
By Mitch Lansky This year, 2012, is the 20th anniversary of the publication of Beyond the Beauty Strip: Saving What’s Left of Our Forests (BTBS). In it I pointed out such trends as the sale of big land parcels, heavy cutting and short rotations on industry-owned lands, and increasing mechanization. These trends in the forest
In March and April, new wood was top-worked by bark grafting onto plum tree limbs at the MOFGA orchard. My mid-July all grafts were growing well. C.J. Walke photo. By C.J. Walke Spring Freeze In my last article, I wrote about shifting weather patterns and their effects on our fruit trees. I wrote that the
By Adam Tomash 1. Materials. Brown materials are high in carbon, green materials are high in nitrogen. Mix the two in rough proportions of 2 volumes of brown to 1 volume of green to achieve a C:N ratio of 25:1 to 40:1. Remember that different sources of nitrogen have differing amounts of nitrogen; e.g., alfalfa
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