Articles by Farmer Paul Betz

Paul Betz checking on lettuces at High Ledge Farm No matter where you grow, our high quality lettuce varieties mean a consistent supply all season long. I really like that we offer all the classic market standards, as well as a number of specialty varieties that are exciting visually or offer a unique eating experience. Together they make up an...

Paul Betz, Farmer and Commercial Grower Sales Rep It's that time again - I’m planning for this year’s potato crop and wanted to share some of my excitement for the season ahead. High Mowing has built a comprehensive collection of seed potatoes that brings value to the commercial grower (or gardener) over the whole harvest season. We offer varieties for...

Paul preparing to cut up candy bars for seed. One of the things I liked the most about farming was access to some amazing food. Even if I didn't grow a particular crop, my network of producer friends allowed me to trade around and cover most of my food needs. The wrinkle was that producing food can be exhausting...

Pelleted lettuce seed (L), Raw lettuce seed (R) Plants have been doing a pretty good job developing strategies to move seeds around for a few hundred million years. The ranges of sizes, shapes, and packaging have clearly suited them well. There are some, particularly the round ones, that are pretty easily adapted to modern agriculture. But what about the really...

  Listen… do you hear that? It's your kale talking. It has really been loving the extra attention that you’ve been giving it, and as a result, it's inviting you into the garden to take a few leaves. It's OK, it’s happy to give them up. Just be sure to share some love with your broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels...

I love what I do. I am the one who makes the decisions of what, when, and how to make my farm work. I am the one who gets to struggle with the gazillion variables over which I have no control. I am the one who works to be open to the gifts, even when the gifts are not what...

Beets and carrots are a weekly selection at most farm stands for good reason. There are varieties to meet the needs of almost any seasonal slot, and they taste amazing regardless of whether they're fresh out of the ground or have spent months in storage. I really love the point in the season when they are around to stay, and...

Spring is getting off to a late start here in Vermont, and in many other parts of the country as well. As a result our customers have been asking us what they should do with their potatoes while they wait for the snow to melt and the ground to thaw. One method you can try is called greensprouting, or “chitting”...

When I was a little baby, I have been told, I loved winter squash so much that it was fed to me so often that I got sick of it, and then I refused it for the next 25 years - "The Lost Years". Then when we moved to Vermont and started working on farms, it was winter squash this...

Backpack sprayers being discussed by John Grande, Ph.D., from the Rutgers Synder Research and Extension Farm. Most farms have at least one backpack sprayer. They are cheap to buy, easy to run and are an efficient way to get the sprays on the crop. My farm is small enough that I will probably never use a tractor-mounted spray rig but...