Standing in the shade of a lone California pepper tree, Michael Clark takes a rare moment to reflect on his family’s 130-acre organic vegetable and berry farm.
Chloe Nevarez emerges from Happy Hens farm store with an 18-month-old strapped to her back and a toddler by her side. They are ready to show me their egg farm located in Ramona, California. About nine...
California’s Oxnard Plain used to be a farmer’s dream. This area of Ventura County was renowned for its extremely fertile soil, a favorable climate, and an adequate supply of water. Until it wasn’t. W...
On a November morning in New York City, the pink-tipped kale was turning heads. Grown by Norwich Meadows Farm and on display at the city’s famed Union Square Greenmarket, the Brassica was one of many ...
The Hutchinson Organic Ranch embodies the best in organic ranching today by adapting their practices to the needs of their land. Dave Hutchinson, with his wife Sue, daughter Sarah Drenth, her husband ...
In 1995, Francis Thicke and his wife Susan purchased the land that currently houses Radiance Dairy in Fairfield, Iowa. Previously corn and soybean, the Thickes transformed fields into lush pastures th...
Rockside Ranch in northern California is one operation with two objectives. The newest addition to Cornucopia’s Organic Poultry Scorecard, Rockside is in part a ranch, specializing in the sale of orga...
This past year at Wheatfield Hill Organics in Durand, Wisconsin, 45 cows and their calves spent five months working on climate change. From May to October, this herd performed a simple act: They graze...
In 2013, Sarah Chase took over the day-to-day operations of Chaseholm Farm, the third-generation farm she’d worked on since childhood. The true costs of production were not reflected in grocery store ...
It’s Paradise for the Cows at Paradise Springs Farm
When Mike Reid started Paradise Springs Farm in 1999 in Teton Valley, Idaho, the land was suffering from years of neglect. Now the soil is healthy, the fields retain more water, and the vegetation is ...
If there’s a universally loved fruit, it just might be the blueberry. It’s as fun to eat as food gets—popping those purplish little orbs into your mouth by the handful is symbolic of summertime goodne...
Faith in Farming: Finding a Way of Life on Windy Acres Farm
What is the meaning and purpose of work? Is it simply a means of making a profit and accumulating wealth? Can work build community and nurture the creation? Are we simply miners of the soil, taking al...
For Kansas grain producer Oren Holle, the intention to farm was early and lasting. “When I was in high school, only one thing was clear in my mind about my future,” says Holle. “I would be a farmer.”
Healthy Farmers Beget Healthy Food at Lady Moon Farms
Anaïs Beddard grew up at Lady Moon Farms playing in farm fields, working in the old oak grove packing shed, and cultivating genuine friendships with farm employees and their families. Each employee is...
A warm spring morning finds Pennsylvania organic farmer Jim Crawford where any farmer might be this time of year…. on a bicycle trek in Germany? Over 4,000 miles from his fields, Jim is touring the hi...
As the Crow Flies: A Straight Line to Sustainable Agriculture
“Turns out,” says Teresa Kurtak, “there’s really nothing else that comes close to being as satisfying as being a farmer.” Although much of her childhood was spent on her family’s cattle ranch in easte...
A wild orchard hugs the driveway. The sleepy sugar shack awaits syrup season. And large round bales, set to sustain the herd of Guernsey cows until the growing season, stack high against the calf barn...
Bicentennial Bovine: Over Two Hundred Years of Stewardship
“It was a very sad day in the late 70s when I watched the cows leave the farm after the bottom went out of milk prices. I never anticipated that they would return,” remembers Jane Bell.
Jane moved...
Accolades from the American Cheese Society, the United States Championship Cheese Contest, and the UK’s World Jersey Cheese Awards, among others, line an entire wall of the cheese house at Thistle Hil...
For Amy Van Scoik and John Bitter, the quest for quality, affordable farmland began in 2010, as they researched properties and soil profiles throughout the forests of North Central Florida. It was a f...
In 2005, Pam Schreiber moved her three young children to Westerlo, New York and set out to build her own diversified agricultural business. A former cardiorespiratory therapist and nutritionist who wa...
Don’t be surprised if you walk out of the farm shop at Seven Stars Farm with reverse sticker shock. Cindy Dunphy, who owns and manages the biodynamic, certified organic farm along with her two sons, R...
Located 35 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Weatherbury is a highly successful, vertically integrated, 225-acre farm with a unique proclivity to adapt. It took only one season at Weatherbu...
