Community Supported Ag still an American mainstay

Interest in Community Supported Agriculture program remains strong.

Yup, fact is stranger than fiction

Herman Melville was a pretty good fiction writer, but his 1851 whale of a tale — something about a big fish and a peg-legged man named Ahab — was, in fact, based on the true story of the American whaling ship Essex that, in 1820, was attacked and sunk by a huge whale in the South Pacific.

Could Congress learn a lesson from its history?

Some things never change: In 1981, the White House and Congress were locked in a farm bill fight the likes of which no one had seen before. On one side was an overwhelmingly Democratic House and Senate that wanted more active federal policies on export embargoes, target prices and dairy support prices. They easily had

It’s time to hang spring nest boxes, and here’s how

Last week, a day after the morning low temperature plunged to nine degrees, the sky cleared and the thermometer rebounded to 45 degrees. That balmy afternoon, bluebirds, chickadees, titmice and Carolina wrens sang with spring-like enthusiasm. It reminded me to get my nest boxes ready because all four species use boxes within 100 yards of

Some hot numbers in cold times

As the world stumbles toward a summer of financial winter, one part of the American economy continues its merry, five-year waltz: U.S. ag exports are forecast to reach $134.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2012. Estimate That estimate, released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture May 31, is $3.5 billion higher than USDA’s February guess and

Fast food? No such thing in 1930s

In historical terms, I had never really thought about how young our country was in the 1930s. The United States Regional Cook Book, edited by Ruth Berolzheimer, copyright 1939, made me realize this simply by the index of the book. Broken down in sections for the Scandinavian part of the country, the Wisconsin Dutch and

Farmers use Sudangrass to subdue Canada thistle for Univeristy of Illinois study

URBANA, Ill. — Farmers who don’t rely on or want to minimize the use of chemical herbicides need creative solutions to win the battle against aggressive perennial weeds. In ongoing research at the University of Illinois on Canada thistle, Sudangrass is proving to be a worthy contender as a summer smother crop. “Sudangrass get very

A good sign: Old ag collection sparks interest

MILLERSBURG, Ohio — Farmers have a tendency to hang onto things. You never know when something might come in handy.

Collector Rob Pennell appreciated such frugality because it helped supply his interest in vintage agriculture related signs, tools and salesman samples.

Itching for spring, new baseball season

“We weren’t really alone, of course. Each square mile of farmland, bordered on all sides by those perfectly straight Iowa roads, was called a section. In those days, most sections held four family-owned farms….there were 17 children in our section, so we had our own baseball game. Even if only four kids showed up, we