Archive

Broccoli and cauliflower are fall staples on diversified produce operations like ours. Historically, they thrive in our northeastern region and provide heft, visual interest, and diversity to our direct market and CSA boxes.

But in recent years, growing heading fall brassicas feels like gambling. Hot summers stress seedlings. Autumn rolls in with waves of endless rain. Surges of Alternaria and black rot, with sporadic mildews and secondary head rots trash the plants. These wet fall conditions raise disease pressure while reducing spraying opportunities and efficacy. 

Americans have always been inclined to like big things, often the bigger the better. A lot of marketing has been based on supersizing. This attitude has been applied at farmers markets as well — big red tomatoes, big ears of sweet corn, big heads of cauliflower. But it would be a mistake to assume that great size is always an asset. More and more, bigger is not better.

It is the heat of late summer, and we are all in the throes of a hectic harvesting and marketing season. But in the midst of it all, I bet you are thinking about next year already. More of this, less of that, none of that ever again. It is in our nature to plan ahead, looking forward, trying new things, improving our farms and ourselves.

What is your long-term plan? Nut trees are a long-term crop, though not as long as you might think.  They can be planted in a traditional orchard set up, but also put into any odd corner that can be maintained for harvest.

As I was preparing one of many beds this week on the farm for seeding and transplanting our fall and winter crops, I once again was appreciating how good the DeWit Seed Bed rake is. Compared to the ubiquitous 12-inch bow rakes sold in most garden centers and hardware stores, the Seed Bed rake has a handle that’s about a foot longer and a head that’s about 6 inches wider, with longer, heavier duty teeth that are more widely spaced. At this point we don’t even use a bow rake anymore, and although I have numerous types of rakes in my collection with different strengths, the DeWit is the one that gets the most use.

After three years of running our flower farm, Moonshot Farm in East Windsor, New Jersey, and simultaneously working a full-time, off-farm job, I finally made the big decision: I quit my off-farm job and now farm full-time with my husband. It has been about eight months since going all in. Our farm has never been more successful, while our stress levels have never been higher. 

There seems to be a consensus among experienced flower farmers: never start lisianthus from seed. Most growers buy lisianthus plugs (tiny plants) and for good reason. They take around 12 to 16 weeks to grow, and plenty can go wrong in that time. 

We grow food for ourselves, food for our customers, food for our animals, food for the native pollinators, heirlooms and novelties, old favorites and something new and different. But it’s always important to identify the specific crops that pay the bills.

The 10 crops that follow are ones which, on our farm, are very much worth the growing and selling. This is usually because of a combination of reasons. It could simply be that they fetch a good price. Or maybe they are comparatively little work. Or that in a single crop they offer a variety of sellable items, which is especially attractive if some of them are more shelf-stable than what farm marketers usually deal with.

Thatchmore Farm in Leicester, North Carolina, hosts forest farm tours for the Organic Growers School in Asheville and regularly teaches other farmers and would-be farmers how to integrate woodland crops. The hilly farm embedded in the forest grows unusual fruits, ornamentals, mushrooms, and perennial crops in addition to typical field and greenhouse crops. 

Many farmers market shoppers are food enthusiasts of one kind or another. Some really want to talk, discover and learn; they certainly want to know how to prepare unique and unfamiliar produce. Others are mostly interested in traditional produce but want to know your favorite recipes. Being able to give them one will help increase your credibility and connection with your customers. 

“Oh, I remember when I was young and I wanted to start a farm co-op with my friends, too!” This was the common refrain my friends and I heard back in 2004 when we’d tell established farmers about the farm co-op we were starting. Our group met studying agriculture at McGill University’s MacDonald campus. 

We had gone our own ways for a few years to work on and manage other farms. Now, we were to run our own farm. We decided to do this together as a worker co-op. A lot of what we were talking about excited established farmers, but then they followed up with, “But then I started a real farm on my own.” 

To hoop or not to hoop? This is a question I’ve gone back and forth on with floating row cover and insect netting for decades now. There are obvious advantages and disadvantages both ways and as with most things in farming over time I’ve come to believe there’s not one right answer in all situations. In the past few years, I’ve come back to using hoops and they’ve been showing their value.

Many of our readers already support and encourage biodiversity on their farms. They notice insects and other wildlife as they move around tackling farm work. Many already have adopted biodiversity enhancing practices that we’ve written about in GFM: no (or reduced) tillage, hedgerows, alley cropping, cover crops, along with other agroforestry and conservation approaches.