This year, at Broadfork Farm, we decided to give duck-raising a try. We’ve kept laying hens in the past and thought it would be fun to try out ducks. Plus we were inspired by the nutritional profile of duck eggs (higher in nutrients than chicken eggs, likely due to their foraging style). We were also […]
Why Not to Use Biodegradable Plastic Mulch in your Garden…and What to Use Instead
Biofilms offer benefits in weed control and soil warming. And they biodegrade within 2 seasons, eliminating the need to be picked up. Every ecologically-minded farmer who was using or wanted the benefits of regular plastic mulch, was happy to avoid adding more waste to the landfill. So, what happened? Well, it turns out that none […]
DIY Germination Chamber
Many vegetable seeds don’t require light to germinate, just moisture and heat. What to do when you don’t have enough room for all your seedling trays and can’t always be around to water them before they sprout? Build a germination chamber (or sweat box)! Here’s how we did it on our small farm.
How to make an inexpensive caterpillar tunnel to extend your growing season
We hosted a caterpillar tunnel workshop on our farm. What’s a caterpillar tunnel? It’s an inexpensive, easy-to-build hoophouse that you can use to grow greens in the winter or extend your season for warm-loving crops (like tomatoes and peppers). We include a summary of materials used and our costs.
Build a Seed Cleaner to Improve your Seed-Saving
Saving seed is one thing…but then cleaning it is a whole other thing. You know when you buy seed and you open up that seed package and all you see are seeds? That’s because those seeds have been cleaned (or separated) from all the other bits of the plant. If half the package was made […]
Winter Vegetable Storage
How do you store vegetables throughout the winter? Here are some of the tips we give our farmers’ market customers for how to keep things at home.
