Category Archives: Farm Profiles
Farm Profiles
Against Tide of Antiquated City Ag Laws, Sustainable Urban Flower Farm Flourishes In Los Angeles
Valentine’s Day finds most romantics dashing to the neighborhood florist for a fresh bouquet of flowers for their sweetheart. But roses that have been doused with toxic pesticides and shipped half way across the globe, hardly inspire romance, especially for the environmentally conscious consumer. Thankfully, Tara Kolla of Silver Lake Farms in Los Angeles, dedicates herself to growing and selling Continue reading
Wisconsin’s Future Farm Packs Sustainable Punch with Cow Powered Aquaponics Operation
The owners of aquaponics-focused Future Farm Food and Fuel, LLC know how to maximize their resources. The company’s operations take place out of a 27,000-square-foot greenhouse in Baldwin, Wisc., which houses fish tanks and growing bays that contain herbs and vegetables. Tubes run back and forth between the tanks and growing bays, recirculating water, otherwise known as effluent.
Trailblazing Organic Farm in Maryland, One Straw Farm, Puts Soil and Overall Health of Farm Ahead of Organic Certification
In 1985, the word “organic” had yet to penetrate consumer consciousness. Joan Norman of One Straw Farm remembers fighting misconceptions of the word’s meaning when using it to classify the produce she and her husband, Drew, were growing on their 82-acre farm in Maryland. “In the beginning, if we said ‘organic’ people thought we were growing marijuana, or they thought Continue reading
Cardo’s Farm Project: Planting Seeds of Sustainability Deep in the Heart of Texas
Farms across Texas suffered widespread drought and wildfires during 2011, the Lone Star state’s driest year on record. Thanks to sustainable practices, however, two young farmers in northeast Texas are helping to set a smart agricultural example for a state and a country facing a rapidly changing climate. Cardo’s Farm Project, located in Ponder, TX, is a working vegetable farm Continue reading
San Diego Farm Seeks to Go Beyond Organic and Build Sustainable Connections with Customers
Suzie’s Farm is all about rekindling the connection between farmer and consumer while also helping people become better stewards of their bodies, its owners say. The 70-acre USDA-certified organic farm in San Diego, with more than 100 varieties of crops, has about 400 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program members, or community members who sign up to receive boxes of its Continue reading
Frog Hollow Farm Strives to Fulfill Promise of Brentwood, CA Terroir and Raise New Crop of Organic Farmers
When Al Courchesne started farming on 13 acres in Brentwood, CA, he didn’t have a business plan; he had a shovel. So he dug holes and planted trees on the land he’d purchased with business partner Sarah Coddington. “I was young and optimistic and strong,” said Courchesne. “I could work long hours. I was willing to do whatever I had Continue reading
Inventiveness and Business Savvy along with some Help from the Livestock Sustain Farm in Dover, PA
If you looked into one of the rain barrels at Sunnyside Farm, you’d notice three goldfish swimming in the collected rainwater. The fish help prevent algae growth and control mosquito eggs in the stored water, which is captured from the hoop house roof and used to irrigate the farm’s acre of heirloom vegetables. The setup is just one small example Continue reading
Startup Profile: Central NY Aquaponic Farm, a Business and Testing Ground for Future of Agriculture
What began as a business plan drawn up for fun has spawned Aqua Vita Farms, central New York’s first aquaponic farm. Aqua Vita Farms was founded by Mark Doherty and seeks to provide wholesale food distributors with safe, high value, aquaponically grown seafood and produce. Retrofitting and construction on the company’s indoor farming facility, a 13,000 square foot building in Continue reading
Full Belly Farm Blazes Organic Trail
While organic is becoming more and more of a household term, it hasn’t always been that way. Back in 1985, when Guinda, CA-based Full Belly Farm started, very few people were even talking about organic. But times have changed, and with a combination of passion and innovation, Full Belly Farm has not only kept up with them, but continued to lead Continue reading
Farmer Takes Cover Cropping to the Next Level
For the 21st century farmer, crop choices are much more than a simple sum of projected annual yields: farmers have to think about how to get the most out of their acres, and how to prevent precious topsoil from washing away. Steve Groff of Cedar Meadow Farms is involved in efforts to find sustainable alternatives that will help to conserve Continue reading
Once a Gas Station, Now a Thriving Sustainable Urban Farm
On the borderline between the affluent Gold Coast section of Chicago, IL and the neighborhood that was once home to Cabrini-Green, one of America’s most infamous housing projects sits a sustainable urban vegetable farm called City Farm. The farm occupies one acre of land surrounded by a fence latticed with six-foot tall sunflowers. City Farm is run by the Resource Continue reading
Farmer John Embraces Biodynamics to Heal the Farm and Build Community
In the documentary, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, John Peterson says that he “began to see the farm as a living organism.” Upon further reflection Peterson, the founder of Rockford, Illinois-based biodynamic farm, Angelic Organics, says that he’s always seen the farm that way. He says that the works of Austrian scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner helped to crystallize his Continue reading
Gunthorp Farms Survives and Thrives on Creativity
In 1998, the bottom fell out of the hog market. There was a surplus in supply. Pork was selling as low as 14 cents per pound. It was also only the fourth year that Greg and Lei Gunthorp had been managing their hog operation in LaGrange, Indiana. The pressure was on. While 90% of hog farmers have gone out of Continue reading
Profiting from Organic One Plant at a Time
At first, Mark Elzinga, President of Southwest Michigan-based Elzinga & Hoeksema Greenhouses, doesn’t sound like your typical organic farmer. “Why did we go into organics? For the money,” he says right off the bat. While his attitude toward organic has changed over the years, his conviction that organic farming needs to be profitable to truly become mainstream has not.
A Shelter for Permaculture
What began for Darrell Frey as a desire to homestead and learn basic self-reliance skills evolved into a passion for applying environmental science to design ecologically based farms and gardens. Drawing inspiration from the writings of Bill Mollison, the so called ‘father of permaculture,’ and the innovative farming techniques and bioshelter building strategies developed by the New Alchemy Institute in Continue reading
Fingerling Potatoes, Rainbow Carrots, Romanesco and Persian Mulberries! Oh My!
From red, white, orange, yellow and purple rainbow carrots to Persian mulberries, some of the most unusual and tasty produce varieties found in Southern California’s famed farmers markets are sustainably grown by Weiser Family Farms. Alex Weiser, President at California-based Wieser Family Farms, said the very success of the farm depends in large part on the sustainable practices that it Continue reading
