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Farmer Stories
Nuts & Bolts & Dreams: Hoophouse dreams
HOOPHOUSE HOW-TO, PART 1:
Hoophouse dreams -- building a beginning
Anchoring your farming dreams in the bedrock of your own soil
Ups and downs of worm growing keep Georgia farmer on his toes
Worm farming can be lucrative, says Jack Brantley of Bear Creek Worm Farm … but it’s like any other live-animal feeding operation. It takes experience, skill and patience. He recommends starting small.
Wildcrafting: A “simple” life fraught with a host of complex ethical and practical considerations
An ethical harvester of wild plants ponders the best way to preserve and protect the wild plants he depends on.
Small-scale vertical integration at a roadside fruit stand farm in British Columbia
Over 60 fruits and vegetables on 10 acres, a remote location, a short growing season and a pernicious pest: There are plenty of challenges for organic growers Doug and Michelle Nimchuk. But business is good.
Flowers and fine olive oil in California’s Central Valley
Mike and Diane Madison sell 20,000 bunches of cut flowers a year through direct market and retail. They also grow clementines and high quality olives for oil. An innovative member arrangement—picking olives in exchange for oil—allows them to avoid the headaches and anxieties of being employers.
Ahead of the curve
Phil Coturri has been growing organic wine grapes in Sonoma for 25 years, and 10 years ago helped set the trend for organic olive oil production in California. For both crops, his management principles center on diverse cover crops, composts, careful use of irrigation and constant attention to the flavors of the final product.
