How Two No-Till Farms Cultivate Soil Health By Holli Cederholm Farmers Yoko Takemura and Alex Carpenter of Assawaga Farm in Putnam, Connecticut, have built their entire farm system with the goal of minimizing soil disturbance. “When we pull root crops, those are coming out of the soil,” said Carpenter. “That’s probably the most destructive act.”
by Sue Smith-Heavenrich If you garden, you’ve seen flower flies, though you may not recognize them. They’re the ones that look like bees and wasps and hang out on many of the same flowers that bees visit. Flower flies are also called hoverflies because of their ability to hang in midair by rapidly vibrating their
Absorbing rain water back into the earth with native vegetation By Anna Fialkoff In a changing climate with extreme storms and floods in our present and future, forests, meadows and wetlands are increasingly vital as densely vegetated areas that act like sponges in our landscapes. They soak up massive amounts of rainfall, slow and clean
By Will Bonsall Probably no single food has entrenched itself in the many cuisines of the world as much as the tomato. Before Europeans discovered the New World (that is, it was a first for THEM), this vegetable-fruit was restricted to the frost-free regions of Central America, where it can still be found growing wild. It was slow
By Caleb Goossen, MOFGA’s Crop and Conservation Specialist A foundational principle in agricultural sciences is “the law of the minimum,” which states that plant growth is not limited by the sum total of resources available, but instead is primarily limited by the scarcest resource, also known as the limiting factor. Seemingly all great foundational principles
By Jack Kertesz Within a few weeks, the threat of our most frigid temperatures should abate and pruning work can begin with the assurance of less damage to trees. This is a good time to take the opportunity to review the condition of all tools used to make these cuts and apply the appropriate response.
A Testimony on Linking Soil Health to Plant Nutrient Quality By Dr. Gladis Zinati, Director of the Vegetable Systems Trial at Rodale Institute Beginning in the early 1900s and coinciding with the Industrial Revolution, industrial farming was characterized by intensive farming of crops and animals where large-scale monoculture and high levels of chemical pesticides and
By Jacob Mentlik There is a lot more than just apples growing at the Maine Heritage Orchard. While most commercial orchards lean toward monoculture, featuring long even rows of one particular species of fruit tree, the goal at MHO is to create a polyculture orchard, with many species growing together in harmony, mimicking the diversity
by Brie Weisman, Maine AgrAbility Aches and pains seem just as much a part of farming as seeds and soil, whether we work with hand tools, or spend long hours sitting on a tractor. Farming can be demanding work, with tasks and hours that simply do not respect the traditional 9-to-5 work model. Many farmers
By Roberta Bailey I remember a Christmas dinner where the relative who kept all her food from touching any other food on her plate sat next to one of my nieces, who proceeded to stir all her food together in a gravied whirlpool of mashed potatoes, peas, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and yams. The isolationist
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