HUGE WELCOME to the new crew

This is a big transition time on the farm; the apprentices from the previous year are leaving and the next year of apprentices are joining us.  I am excited to say that we have some incredibly focused, hard working wonderful folks joining us at Cricket Creek this year.  They each have fascinating and unique stories, incredibly diverse …

Visiting East Mountain Farm

When I’m not working at Cricket Creek, one of the things I like to do best is visit other farms.  I believe it is important to be constantly exposing myself to other systems, infrastructure, equipment, marketing strategies, etc.  Not only is it important, but it is fun and incredibly interesting.  Last week I went for the …

Our Dwindling Food Variety

Thanks to National Geographic for this for this graphic showing the decrease in vegetable varieties over the past century.  The text from the image online reads, “a study conducted in 1983 by the Rural Advancement Foundation International gave a clue to the scope of the problem. It compared USDA listings of seed varieties sold by commercial U.S. …

Lots of Learning at the PASA Conference

Last week I was lucky enough to accompany Paul Lawler to the winter conference of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.  Before this weekend I hadn’t realized what a fantastic group this is.  The conference was extremely well organized, just teeming with educators, leaders, and experienced farmers wanting to share their knowledge.  There was so much …