A grant award and award-winning tomatoes at Dirty Girl Produce

Offered by USDA Rural Development, the Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program helps ag producers enter into value-added activities related to the processing and marketing of new products. The program’s goals are to generate new products, create and expand marketing opportunities and increase producer income. Applications are requested each fiscal year through Grants.gov. Grants are

Country Folks

Grazing enjoyment at Snug Valley Farm

by Laura Rodley

May 13, 2026

Ben Nottermann of Snug Valley Farm in East Hardwick, VT, raises and sells grass-fed beef, meat from Duroc pigs and lamb, supplying local restaurants, ...

Country Folks

New and improved manure

by Sally Colby

May 13, 2026

If a liquid manure system eliminated agitation, saved fuel, increased manure value and created safer working conditions by eliminating deadly gases, w...

Country Folks

Dairy cropping for soil health & farm success

by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

May 13, 2026

Is your farm just surviving or thriving? Chris Wilson, business manager at Wilson Family Organic Farms , pondered that question when he began working ...

Country Folks

What the organic grain inspector wants to see

by Sonja Heyck-Merlin

May 13, 2026

Benjamin Clark, a former employee on a large Montana organic grain farm, now an organic farm inspector, provided perspective on organic grain certific...