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Comfortable Cows

Comfortable livestock will be happier, healthier and more productive. English photo. By Diane Schivera, M.A.T. Robert Graves of Penn State University, the featured speaker at the Maine Dairy Improvement 2011 meeting, talked about cow comfort. His information applies to other livestock as well. Comfortable livestock are likely to be healthier and less stressed than uncomfortable

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Potassium

Potassium deficiency on tomato leaves appears as mottled chlorosis (yellowing) and tip burn. Sideman photo. Yellow shoulder on tomatoes has no single cause but is related to a lack of foliage, varietal susceptibility and potassium deficiency. Sideman photo. By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. In the past two issues of The MOF&G, I discussed the plant mineral

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Polycultures in Orchards

Comfrey growing under an apple tree at John Bunker’s Super Chilly Farm in Palermo and at Judy Berk and David Foley’s Ocean Glimpse Farm in Northport. Comfrey is a dynamic accumulator – a taprooted plant that draws nutrients up from deep in the soil and cycles them to orchard plants. English photos. By C.J. Walke

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American Chestnuts

Glen Rea, president of the Maine chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, studies the growth rings of an American chestnut while Joe Dupere, MOFGA’s landscape coordinator, looks on. English photo. By Jean English On May 20, 2011, a small group of dedicated chestnut enthusiasts met at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center to plant two blight

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Tree Leaves

Leaves from deciduous trees, once shredded, make excellent mulch for most vegetable crops, and they enrich the soil. English photo. By Will Bonsall Trees and their leaves are probably the greatest natural soil builders on earth, greater even than grasses. (I mean “on earth” literally, as I am not including the oceans.) The incredible proliferation

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Spring Growth

Adam Montri of Michigan State University and two Maine growers spoke about hoophouses at MOFGA’s 2011 Spring Growth Conference. Videos of the talks are posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMf_Og8xWXE, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIpsP3SvyQI&feature=relmfu and www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItQL0ca3IfU&feature=relmfu; more information is available at www.hoophouse.msu.edu. Adam Montri of Michigan State University spoke about hoophouses at MOFGA’s Spring Growth Conference. English photo. Montri, associated with

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Mainer in Korea

MOFGA member Cory Whitney is in Korea helping the Korea Organic Farming Association (KOFA) plan for a conference of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. By Cory Whitney Hello fellow Mainers, from the “Slow City” of Namyangju in the Gyeonggi Province of South Korea, about 20 km from the capital city of Seoul. Namyangju

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High Tunnels

The 2010 Farmer to Farmer Conference at Point Lookout in Northport, Maine, featured a session on managing soils in high tunnels. Speakers were Vern Grubinger, University of Vermont vegetable and berry specialist; Bruce Hoskins of the University of Maine Diagnostic Lab; and Paul Volckhausen, who, with his wife Karen, grows organic tomatoes and other crops

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Maines Hoophouses

Hoophouses at Peacemeal Farm in Dixmont, Maine, and at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center in Unity. English photos. A Tribute to Farmers’ Innovative Instincts Tentative deadline for final year of NRCS funding: July 1, 2011 By Jo Anne Bander As crocuses and wild spring greens emerged in Maine, so did crops in an increasing number

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Local Eating

By Marina Schauffler Recent media attention on local foods has raised public awareness about the health benefits and community returns from thriving local agriculture. Often, though, stories portray local “foodies” as purists fixated on 100-mile diets that banish even imported condiments. Eating from local sources comes off looking like an extremist food fad, rather than

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