Farmer Authors

This article is part of Growing Partners, our new series of articles focusing on the farmers, gardeners, seed growers, breeders, vendors, donation recipients and non-profits we work with who are making waves in sustainable agriculture. Together they form a revolution of environmental stewardship and positive change working its way over the global landscape. We're so invigorated by their trail-blazing work...

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...

Katie Spring and her son Waylon For beginning farmers, finding the support to start your own farm or to improve your existing farm can seem like a challenge. This challenge doesn’t necessarily let up for the first few years—for perspective, a beginning farmer is defined as someone who has farmed for 10 years or less on their current operation. In...

This year we are excited to launch Growing Partners, a series of articles focusing on the farmers, gardeners, seed growers, breeders, vendors, donation recipients and non-profits we work with who are making waves in sustainable agriculture. Together they form a revolution of environmental stewardship and positive change working its way over the global landscape. We're so invigorated by their trail-blazing...

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...

Kids taking advantage of the Pick-Your-Own area at ICF At the Intervale Community Farm (ICF, a 550-member CSA in Burlington, VT), we work hard to grow a bounty of high-quality, certified organic produce for our CSA members. Most of the resources, personnel, and energy on our farm go towards this purpose. But at the end of the season, when we...

I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in Vermont everybody makes "dilly beans", vinegar-pickled string beans with garlic and dill.  When I first heard about dilly beans after moving to VT in 1999, in order to immerse myself in the culture of my new home, I immediately began canning this old time tradition, lining my pantry shelves...

Twenty-five years ago, the land that would become Sandiwood Farm in Wolcott, VT wasn’t much more than a barren field. But that didn’t stop Sara and Bob Schlosser from putting down roots and starting a life there. The two married in that field, and in the years that followed, they built a house, a family, and a farm, all the...

“All knowledge is rooted in wonder, and what better place to cultivate wonder than in our own gardens?” ~Sharon Lovejoy I gave birth at the end of July, bringing our baby boy into the world the same summer that we started the farm.  Some folks thought it bad timing—a baby in the middle of our first season—but we knew otherwise and...

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...