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Hügelkultur Gardening
Hügelkultur (pronounced “hoogle-culture”) is German for “hill culture.” Hügelkultur entails growing crops on a raised, earthen mound that consists of a foundation of fresh or rotting logs and branches...
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Farmer Health: Preventing Pain
The animals that should be treated with the greatest care on most farms aren’t getting the attention they need, and farmer health should be a priority. Farmers start out young and strong, but as they...
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The Best Worm-Friendly Worm Bin for Composting
Composting with worms produces a consistently superior product called vermicompost, which contains high counts of beneficial soil micro-organisms. Harvesting the finished vermicompost from most worm...
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Taking on Food Justice with Soul Fire Farm’s Leah Penniman
As a creative educator, regenerative farmer, writer and activist, Leah Penniman is an exceptional leader for food justice. She is best known for her work at Soul Fire Farm, which she and husband Jonah...
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Grow Native Plants for Bees
The moment you get your first honeybees, you start noticing all the flowers around you and begin to ponder the potential plants you could grow to support pollinator health. You become acutely aware of...
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Windbreak Benefits on the Farm
Windbreak benefits extend beyond reducing wind erosion. Research reveals windbreaks can also be customized to meet your farm management goals, whether it’s increasing wildlife habitat or benefiting...
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Farm Smarter: Time Management Tips
Even if we don’t expect to get paid for all the hours we work on the farm, tracking how we spend our time, in order to employ smart time management strategies, provides incredibly valuable information...
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Compost & The Promise of Microbes
Scientist David C. Johnson Explores Microbial Communities, Carbon Sequestration and Compost David C. Johnson’s experimental findings and openness to new insights have turned him into a champion of...
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Book of the Week: Dung Beetles by Charles Walters
Editor’s Note: This is the prologue from Charles Walters’ book, Dung Beetles, which was published by Acres U.S.A. Copyright 2008. By Charles Walters “A camel is a smoother ride than a horse.” I made up...
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Preventing Pasture Bloat in Cattle
Cattle bloating can be prevented with a good diet. With grazing season starting again, please keep in mind that legume pastures (clover and alfalfa) tend to cause bloating problems at any time of the...
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The Growing Potential of Growing Hemp
It’s Time to Consider the Growing Potential of Hemp Hemp, once a legal and thriving crop in the United States, was dealt a heavy blow with the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. The Act put heavy tax and...
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Natural Lawn Care
In terms of acreage devoted to production, grass in the United States covers more than 40 million acres — as much as corn, wheat, soybeans and the next five top irrigated crops combined. Although in...
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Weathering Drought
With the arrival of spring, farmers and gardeners look forward to the start of the growing season. As temperatures warm, spring planting can begin. Fruit trees will break winter dormancy. Pastures will...
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Book of the Week: Food Power from the Sea by Lee Fryer and Dick Simmons
Tobacco growers of Connecticut learned to use seaweed to fertilize tobacco well over 100 years ago. Seaweed is high in potash (about 3 percent) and potassium is a favored nutrient for growing fine...
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Growing Microgreens for Profit
Growing microgreens for profit is feasible, as one Washington state-based couple proves. On less than half an acre, Michael Douglas and his wife, Astrid Raffinpeyloz, operate Itsy Bitsy Greens, an...
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When Less is More: Understanding Fertilizer and Solubility
Make the gesture “just a little bit” by squeezing your thumb and index fingers as tight as you can; tighter, tighter — the amount of fertilizer you could hold between your fingers is about the amount...
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A Retrospective: A Journey of Seed Saving and Beyond
Conceived in unity and born for the common good, as part of the Back-to-the-Land movement inspired by the consciousness revolution of the 1960s, two Als and a Linda founded Stonebroke Hippie Seeds in a...
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Book of the Week: Beyond the Chicken by Kelly Klober
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from pages 12-15 of the book, Beyond the Chicken, which was published by Acres U.S.A. Copyright 2014. #7309. Softcover. 216 pages. $24.00 regularly priced. By Kelly...
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In Support of Small Cows
By now most people know that more revenue and more pounds do not automatically equal more profit, which is why I am going to show you that small cows can be profitable. I believe that you can...
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The Huge Impact of Mycorrhizal Colonization on Plant and Soil Health
Leonardo da Vinci remarked, “in order to be a successful farmer one must know the nature of the soil.” Even today in the age of hydroponics, most of our food, over 98 percent by some estimates, is...
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