News
Posted on January 1, 2026
Bob Rimol discussed high tunnel construction and other recommendations at the 2025 Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association ’s annual conference. Rimol is the owner and founder of Rimol Greenhouse Systems based in Hooksett, NH. Rimol manufactures and distributes greenhouses across the U.S. Framing Ma...
News
by Andy Haman 
Posted on January 1, 2026
Great Lakes Expo returned to Grand Rapids in early December with its usual fanfare and the chilly weather of a Michigan winter. Over 350 exhibitors filled the main hall and the Farmers Market area, representing a large cross section of commercial horticulture: fruit and vegetable growers, nursery an...
News
by Edith Tucker 
Posted on January 1, 2026
University of Vermont Extension Professor Vern Grubinger summarized the results of research to address the economics of high tunnel production that he and his research colleague, UVM Assistant Professor Becky Maden, initiated in 2024, at the 2025 High Tunnel Production Conference in West Lebanon, NH...
News
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on January 1, 2026
“More than 70% of cyber attacks are aimed at businesses with less than 100 employees. They’re not going for the big guys because the big guys can afford the big cybersecurity firms,” said IRS employee Sheba Gonzalez. At an event hosted by USDA, Gonzalez and her colleagues, all IRS specialists in tax...
News
by Sally Colby 
Posted on January 1, 2026
Look at a penny and zero in closely at Lincoln’s nose. That’s the size of the redbay ambrosia beetle (RAB), a tiny insect and key player in laurel wilt, an aggressive fungal disease of trees in the Lauraceae family transmitted by the RAB. Although important landscape and forest trees are in this fam...
News
by Enrico Villamaino 
Posted on January 1, 2026
At the American Society for Horticultural Science ’s sizzling summer summit in New Orleans, an unexpected underdog dazzled the data-driven crowd: the snow pea. Crisp and colorful, this cool-season crop took the spotlight in a seminar by Jacob Schwab, a graduate research assistant at the University o...
News
by Courtney Llewellyn 
Posted on January 1, 2026
Our sun has some incredible powers, not least of which is feeding the plants which feed us. But we can also harness its energy to help eliminate the plants we don’t want to grow – aka weeds. Soil solarization uses the passive solar heating of moist soil under transparent plastic tarping to reach hig...
News
by Courtney Llewellyn 
Posted on January 1, 2026
First, federal news: On Dec. 18, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to amend marijuana’s longstanding classification as a Schedule I federally controlled substance without accepted medical value. The order seeks to finalize a 2023 recommendation by the Department of Health & Human Serv...
Farmers First, News
How much time do we have?
Posted on January 1, 2026
Happy New Year, farm family! As I type these words, I find myself straddling the space-time continuum in a way that I don’t often do. The change from one year to another has heightened my awareness of both the nature and passage of time. What is the nature of time? In my writing present, it is still...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
January 21, 2026
Calf illness often starts out invisible. By the time it’s noticed, the calf is significantly ill – requiring more man hours and medication – and it of...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
January 21, 2026
What do you do when a federal or state inspector comes to your farm regarding labor laws? At the recent Labor Roadshow hosted by Cornell Agricultural ...
Country Folks
Horse Tales A4 
January 21, 2026
‘Tis the season for winter’s cold and chill! Indoors, we’re able to throw another log on the fire, cozy up with some hot cocoa or tea and wear warm la...
Country Folks
Hershey A5 
January 21, 2026
Jim Hershey of Elizabethtown has been selected as the Pennsylvania Leopold Conservation Award recipient. The $10,000 award honors farmers and forestla...
