Darby Weaver

The beauty of flowers is something that growers look forward to during the off season, sometimes even more than the flavors of summer vegetables. The first blooms in the garden or in the high tunnel are incredibly cheerful and hopeful and provide a unique form of nourishment that is powerful for boosting morale. While the season of sowing and growing flowers...

While we busily harvest the great bounty of fruiting crops, nutritious leaves, roots, flowers and herbs erupting from the garden in mid July, the sneaking thought that winter is coming plays like creepy horror film music in the back of my mind. We're all doing our best to can our tomatoes and make our cabbage into sauerkraut for use in...

There’s a new pest entering the scene and it is wreaking havoc on brassicas crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli and kale. It’s called the swede midge and it's larvae feed off of and destroy the growth point of plants.  As a new and invasive pest that currently has no organic approved pesticides that work to eradicate it, early detection and...

There's no labor of love on the farm quite as time consuming and stressful as attempting to raise a healthy tomato crop. After years of honing in on a system, we find what methods work best for our spaces and what varieties outperform others. This cumulative experience of growing tomatoes, season after season, serves as the wisdom that ultimately leads...

The gardening season is here! It's an exciting time and has been made even more so by all of the new gardeners getting growing as a means of supplying their families and communities with fresh food. Below we've put together some friendly first-timer tips and, as always, we encourage you seasoned gardeners out there to share your wisdom widely and...

As we've each dealt with the difficulties and uncertainties of life amid a global health crisis individually, we've also been forced to carry the burden collectively with disruptions to foodways, resource distribution, healthcare and our local and national economies. It has affected everyone, though not equally, and each community has had to make tough choices about how to move forward...

While challenges and pressures will continue to exist for those who hope to stand up to the problems inherent in our modern food system, there are always those who have gone before and those who are finding solutions to these issues today. Connecting to elders, collaborating with community members, reaching out to other farmers, and tapping into the local and...

While there has never been more access to information for young farmers seeking to learn, it seems as though acquiring the land and capital to start an agricultural enterprise has never been more difficult. As this newest generation of agrarians face the mounting pressures of student debt, finding land with good access to markets, systemic racism in land ownership, and...

When it comes to market gardening, it can be difficult to find a balance between diversity and efficiency. Whether you're hoping to put together a beautiful table at a farmers market, attract restaurant sales, coops or local shops, or satiate the culinary curiosities of a big CSA, having a wide selection of different crops, varieties, and options keeps your operation...

No Till Farming When it comes to farming, there are endless examples of people who have turned their craft into a livelihood through innovations and techniques honed over time to create a system that is truly unique.  Often when someone in the farming community really taps into something special, the practices seep into the collective mind of farmers all over...