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Category Archives: Horticulture

Brassica cover crops as biofumigants

  Last month, I attended a workshop on cover crops for fruit and vegetable farms, hosted by Iowa State University [...]

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This PFI beginner appreciates Annie’s focus on female farmers

Morgan Hoenig is a beginning vegetable farmer from Mount Pleasant in PFI’s Savings Incentive Program. She wrote this summary of [...]

Also posted in Next Generation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Drought-Proofing Your Farm, part 2

Dec 1 2012 Fairfield, IA   After a Friday evening “teaser” lecture by Darren Doherty of HeenanDoherty land planning and [...]

Also posted in Field Crops, Field Day, General, Grazing | Leave a comment

Drought-Proofing Your Farm, part 1

Nov 30 2012 Fairfield, IA   No one in agriculture has been immune to this summer’s drought.  Crop yields have [...]

Also posted in Field Crops, Field Day, General, Grazing | Leave a comment

Intercropping Exploration with Genuine Faux Farm: Can Row Spacing Make Companion Planting More Efficient?

A couple weekends ago, I had the chance to attend the Small Farms Conference and Tradeshow in Columbia, MO. It [...]

Also posted in Companion Planting, Row Spacing, SARE Research, Small Farms Conference | Leave a comment

Moving Stuff Around On The Market Farm: Rock Spring Farm’s Labor Saving And Profit Maximizing Devices With Chris Blanchard – PFI Field Day Report (Part 3 of 3)

Hand weeding with a wire weeder, push hoe, diamond hoe, wheel hoe, shovel/stirrup hoe, and a hoe “You can never spend too much money on [...]

Also posted in Field Crops | Leave a comment

A Novel Remodel for Season Extension

On Friday, July 20, twenty people gathered at Rainbow Ridge Farm in Waverly for a tour of farmer Jason Gomes’ [...]

Also posted in Field Day, On-Farm Energy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Moving stuff around on the Market Farm: Rock Spring Farm’s labor saving and profit maximizing devices with Chris Blanchard – PFI Field Day Report (Part 1 of 3)

Over 100 people attended a recent PFI Field Day at Rock Spring Farm near Decorah, IA on July 15 to [...]

Also posted in Field Day | Leave a comment

Planning for production of a 9-month Community Supported Agriculture Farm: Jutz Field Day Report

80 people participated in the recent Practical Farmers of Iowa Field Day Planning production for a 9-month CSA at ZJ [...]

Also posted in Field Day, Grazing, Local Foods, Next Generation, On-Farm Energy | 1 Comment

High Tunnel Construction Workshop Summary

Practical Farmers of Iowa hosted a two-day high tunnel construction workshop at TableTop Farm in rural Nevada, IA April 23-34. Thirty [...]

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Denise O’Brien on Iowa Public Radio

PFI member, Iowa organic farmer and WFAN co-founder Denise O’Brien recently returned from a year-long assignment in Afghanistan working on [...]

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Tomato Grafting Workshop at The Homestead

About 20 enthusiastic farmers/gardeners gathered together last Friday to learn how to successfully graft tomatoes. At the beginning of the [...]

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Learn to Grow Better in High Tunnels

On Dec-27, 2011 77 folks from across the midwest tuned into the PFI Farminar led by Adam Montri and Ann [...]

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Mechanics of a Diversified Farm Field Day

Eric and Ann Franzenburg opened their farm up to 60 friends Sunday, September 18. They discussed how they have diversified [...]

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Field Day Report: Juan O’Sullivan’s Secrets to Successful Salsa

On August 3 approximately 80 people visited Sean and Becki Sullivan’s business near Cumming to learn their secrets to expanding [...]

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