A profile of Ken Rider By Patrick Lillard We’ve all probably played with modeling clay at some point in our lives, making pottery or a sculpture in school. Well, imagine trying to grow a plant in it. That analogy came … Continued
Dig Deeper
weed management
Final year of field research on alternatives to black plastic
By Lindsey Brielle The SARE Vegetable Trial is a field study designed to identify the impacts of black plastic and cover crop mulches on weeds, soil quality, yields and season length for a variety of crops at Rodale Institute (RI) … Continued
Free weed-control service: Mice
By Darcy Maulsby Originally posted on March 9, 2006 You might not think much about the mice in your fields, but these pint-sized seed predators are proving to be powerful “little hammers” in the war against weeds, according to new … Continued
Early Season Weed Control: Part 3
By Klaas and Mary-Howell Martens (with help from Peter Martens), Lakeview Organic Grain Originally posted on March 17, 2005 Successful organic weed control is the sum of all operations and cultural management. The purpose of the cultural methods (crop rotation, … Continued
Early season weed control: Part 2
By Klaas and Mary-Howell Martens, Lakeview Organic Grain Originally posted on February 10, 2005 The goal of blind cultivation is to remove the initial flushes of weeds when they are very small and most sensitive to disturbance. Blind cultivation takes … Continued
Early season weed control: Part 1
By Klaas and Mary-Howell Martens, Lakeview Orangic Grain Originally posted on January 27, 2005 Welcome to the first installment in this three-part series–a basic primmer about weeds, tools, and techniques–which will be followed by a more in-depth look at equipment … Continued
A truly regenerative agriculture
By Kyle Holzhueter Originally posted on January 7, 2005 Editor’s Note: A shorter version of this article appears in the Jan./Feb. 2005 issue of PASA Passages, the newsletter of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (www.pasafarming.org) Imagine assembling a self-contained, … Continued
Smoothing the path to a profitable harvest home
By Mary-Howell Martens (with Klaas’ help), Lakeview Organic Grain Originally posted on September 28, 2004 Standing out in your field, surrounded by those amber waves of grain or rustling corn stalks, it is hard to imagine that the value of … Continued
Farming is definitely shades of gray
By Mary-Howell Martens (with Klaas’ help!), Lakeview Organic Grain Originally posted on August 31, 2004 The sun is brilliantly sparkling on the water, the waves a gentle and steady rhythm, and the ocean breeze is warm on my arms. The … Continued
A future for organic apple growing in the Northeast
By Laura Sayre Originally posted on May 11, 2004 The USDA Economic Research Service tells us that in 2001 (the most recent year for which totals are available) there were 12,189 acres of certified organic apple orchards nationwide, up from … Continued