Setting up Simple Hydroponics

We decided to raise the bar this year from our aquaponics system, which provides us with fresh herbs and salad greens year-round, to include a hydroponic garden that will grow tomatoes all winter long.

Here's our already established aquaponics setup (

freshly cleaned and replanted

!):

Hydroponic gardening works just like aquaculture; but instead of getting nutrients from fish waste, hydroponics relies on added organic fertilizers to keep plants healthy. We got our setup from a neighbor, which utilizes a

Hydrofarm fluorescent grow system

and individual planters for our tomatoes.

Water will run out of the lower chamber and up over the individual pots, filled with pea gravel, and run back into the lower tank. We ordered a new grow light today for the system, and will be fully set up next week. Perfect timing, since the tomato seeds we saved are in the process of drying out for a few more days.

Hydroponic Tomatoes

In addition to the

aquaponics

setup at Better Farm, we're installing a hydroponics system this year in order to grow tomatoes all winter long. While researching the best methods for a prolific crop, I came across a great tutorial at

Vertical Hydroponic

that walks you through the whole process. Those instructions are below.

Tomatoes are one of the most popular species of plants to grow hydroponically. Although many types of plants exhibit faster growth rates and accelerated fruit development in hydroponic systems, soft-tissue plants like tomatoes do especially well.

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Tomato Seeds or Starts

Since tomato seeds germinate relatively rapidly, most growers will begin their tomato plants from seed. Tomatoes seeds take approximately 10 to 14 days to germinate. A tomato plant will become fully mature in about two months. There are hundreds of different cultivars of tomatoes, including determinate and indeterminate varieties. Cherry, Roma, and Beefsteak are just some of the many popular tomato cultivars. Determinate varieties produce a large crop of tomatoes all at once and may also top off at a specific height. Indeterminate varieties produce multiple crops that grow in overlapping stages. Most heirloom varieties of tomatoes are indeterminate. It’s a good idea to research the different cultivars to find out which variety works best for your gardening situation. After about two weeks, your tomato plants should be ready to transplant into your hydroponic system.

After inserting the strongest plant starts into your hydroponic system, your tomato plants will begin to produce fruit within 60 days. Make sure you plan ahead and have an appropriate support system for your tomato plants. Tomatoes are a soft-tissue vining plant that requires a lot of support. Without a trellis or support stakes, the stems of your plants will most likely break under the weight of the tomato fruits.

Although spacing will depend on the particular variety that you are growing, typically tomato plants should be spaced about 18 to 24 inches apart. However, you can place the plants closer together if you train the vines appropriately to allow enough room for the fruits to develop. Vertical hydroponic systems such as the Bio-Tower are especially well suited to growing vining plants like tomatoes since the vines can easily hang off the sides of the growing containers.

Like many other fruiting plants, tomatoes require pollination in order to develop fruits. This will naturally occur in an outdoor environment from wind movement or bee activity. If you are growing indoors, you can either manually pollinate your flowers by touching different flowers with a small brush, or you can use alternating wind currents to induce cross-pollination.

Light

Tomatoes like a lot of light but can thrive with as little as seven hours of sunlight per day. However, tomatoes in too much strong direct sunlight may eventually show signs of heat stress.

Temperature

Ideally the temperature for tomatoes should remain between 65 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and between 55 to 65 degrees during the nighttime.

Nutrients

As a fruit-producing plant, most tomato varieties require relatively high levels of phosphorous and potassium. A typical hydroponic nutrient solution for tomatoes has a pH between 5.5 and 6.5. Tomatoes may also require a calcium supplement since the creation of fruit uses significant amounts of this secondary nutrient. However, make sure to follow the instructions for your particular brand of nutrients before adding any supplements to your reservoir.

Harvesting

After approximately 60 days, you should begin to have tomatoes that are large enough to harvest. Although there are many different varieties, most tomatoes turn red when they become ripe. You can pick off immature fruits and blossoms to maximize the size of the remaining fruits. You can also increase your harvest by “suckering” your tomato plants. “Suckering” is simply removing internodal branches that are not producing fruit. This encourages the plant to devote more nutrients to the branches that are producing fruit.

Pests and Diseases

Tomatoes are susceptible to a variety of plant diseases; including tobacco mosaic virus, fusarium wilt, and various other mildews and fungi. Tomato plants require significant amounts of calcium for fruit development so blossom end rot is another common problem that growers encounter. Common pests include the cutworm, aphids, and the tomato hornworm. Check with your local garden supplier to find the best pest prevention treatments for your particular environment. Remember, birds, squirrels, and deer will also eat tomatoes if they can get access.

Dirty Jobs: Aquaponics in Autumn

Yesterday I cleaned out the aquaponics setup at Better Farm to ready the grow bed for autumn, winter, and spring growing of salad greens and herbs. It's important to clean out your aquaponics setup regularly to keep it operating at top efficiency, and to ensure the health and well-being of your fish.

We have two corner filters running 24/7 to keep the tank fresh, which work in tandem with the pea gravel in our aquaponic grow bed to filter water. I find it easiest to clean out the grow bed and filters every six months (normal fish tanks require monthly cleanings; but our bottom feeder fish, living plants, and pea gravel do such an amazing job keeping everything clean, we have to do a deep cleanse very infrequently). The simplest way to do this is to rinse the pea gravel in colanders on the driveway or in one of the bathtubs in the house. The latter makes it easy to hang onto the dirty water and reuse it on your houseplants. It's like steroids for plants, which absolutely love fish poop.

Aquaponics maintenance is definitely one of the dirtier, least unpleasant farm jobs we have here. But, as they say, someone's got to do it...

The work is worth it to have a great fish tank setup and yummy greens year-round:

Enjoy the Benefits and Security Provided by the Most Advanced Padlocks

With schools comprising one of the largest segments of green buildings nowadays, high-quality

school locks

for doors and lockers is a chief concern. Most schools now use high technology-based advanced locks with security codes. Some of the locks are also equipped with electronic keys. This advanced system has facilitated the modern school administration to a great extent. Now, the students and teachers can easily and safely use their individual school lockers without any hazards. These modern locks have successfully replaced the traditional forms of locks.

With the emergence of new technology, most of the schools have adopted the installation of the most advanced type of locks. Nowadays, most of the schools are highly using

bulk padlocks

as these kinds of locks are quite protective in nature. Therefore, if you want to know more about these advanced locks, then you need to take the help of internet for making thorough research regarding the same. You can follow different online articles, blogs, links or websites on these kinds of specialized locks. Most of the green buildings of the current era are using these padlocks for enhancing the level of security and protection. These kinds of locks are mostly used for providing protection against vandalism or robbery.

These padlocks are quite flexible in nature and are highly portable as well. If you want to purchase bulk padlocks, then you need to look into your nearest lock store. If you are not interested in moving from one store to another, then you can opt for the online purchase of these locks from the online lock stores. These online stores provide you the facility of placing online order at any point of time from anywhere just with the help of internet as these stores have no fixed business or working hours like physical stores.

Autumnal Harvest

Better apples.

It's Autumn in the North Country! Colors are bolder, fruit and veggies are coming out our ears, and all the tourists have left the lakes, streams, and rivers empty for the locals' enjoyment. Look at all this beauty:

Better Farm's gardens are virtually overrun with more zucchini, cucumber, string bean, pumpkin, lettuce, kale, artichoke, onion, you-name-it than we can shake the proverbial stick at. Kristen and I picked 50-plus-pounds of veggies in about 20 minutes the other day:

Kristen shows off the string bean harvest.

String beans, zukes, tomatoes, leeks, broccoli, tomatoes, Swiss chard, and kale.

We've kept the farm stand open later than ever, and we're taken custom orders and even doing low-scale CSAs with those living locally who would like a weekly share of fresh produce. And I've been juicing like a mad woman! Here's one of the smoothies I made the other day:

Smoothie made from apples, raspberries, Swiss chard, kale, wheat grass, peaches, and cantaloupe.

No need to start buying produce from the grocery store just yet! Swing on over or give us a call at (315) 482-2536 to place an order or pick your own.

Contact Better Farm at info@betterfarm.org to schedule a pick-up, tour, or set up a CSA program until the snow starts to fly!

Network Installation of Green Buildings

The

network installation

of green building is quite a risky, hectic, and challenging work altogether which can be only undertaken by expert installers. These skilled installers are quite efficient in conducting the safest means of installing the computer networks within the green buildings. 

But before going for the network installation, these installers need to check the current condition of the electrical panels and wiring of those buildings. This is because of the fact that the installation of network in green buildings is highly dependent on the electrical condition of those buildings. They must be well-aware of all the useful techniques of installation which bring energy and cost efficiency.

Those green buildings that are consuming natural source of energy can have the advantage of saving more and more power. The installation of network in green buildings is highly inter-connected with

voice and data services

. This kind of service helps in the effective installation of the network connectivity in green buildings. In fact, the speed of the internet connectivity also depends on the concerned type of services.

The data cabling of the network installation mostly depends on few common factors which need to be essentially considered. These essential factors include need of current bandwidth, network environment, future requirements of bandwidth, and the customers’ budget. If you want to install data networking cabling in your green building, then you need to strictly follow these factors on the basis of which your internet speed will be dependent. You must hire proper and most efficient cable installers who have a very thorough knowledge and training on the installation of the network cables in green buildings.

These installers must be well-aware of all the safety rules and codes of their respective states which need to be strictly abided by at the time of network installation at clients’ places. These installers also must have proper installation license for conducting the concerned work.

Better Farm October Newsletter

The Awesomeness Newsletter

Better Farm News - October 2013: • Summer Recap: Festivals, Showcases, and Community Outreach • How Does Your Garden Grow? • Workshop Roundup • Summer Sustainability Education Program • Recent Visiting Artists   Hello, Friends of Better Farm! It's been another record-setting year at Better Farm. We've put on more events for the community, provided more sustainability outreach, welcomed more visitors, students and artists to Redwood, showcased more art, initiated more projects, and raised more chickens this year than any year before—and we're heading into Autumn with lots to accomplish on the horizon. The last four years have been a truly wonderful journey. The investment of our visiting artists and students, and the ongoing support of you, Better Farm's most ardent supporters, have molded this space and turned it into a premier destination for sustainability education, artist residencies, and cultural events. Stay tuned to our blog to follow all of these adventures and continued successes—and be sure to visit www.betterfarm.org regularly to stay up-to-date on all things Better. If you know of anyone interested in gaining some hands-on experience with sustainability issues or an artist in search of a creative, open space in which to work on their projects, please send them our way! BetterArts residencies and farm programming in sustainability education are year-round endeavors for us. May you enjoy a lovely autumn filled with brave new frontiers and a plethora of possibility. Until next time, better be. Nicole Caldwell Executive Director and Co-Founder Better Farm   --- Summer Series: Festivals, Community Outreach, and Showcases Better Farm was home to many Spring and Summer events; and its residents made a concerted effort to have a strong presence in the community with many service activities. Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to: Better Festival—Thanks to a wonderful crowd braving frigid late-May temperatures, a cast and crew of diligent, hard-working volunteers, dozens of intimidatingly talented performers, artists, and musicians, and loving and generous sponsors, this year's Better Festival was our largest—and most successful—yet. We broke through the ceiling on our fundraising goals, which made it possible for us to offer a very full season of programming, community outreach, workshops, and events to the public. Backyard Science Day—We were invited by Cornell Cooperative Extension to participate in Backyard Science Day June 10 at Lyme Central School in Chaumont. For our presentation, we built a solar oven to show kids how they could heat up food with the sun alone. Pay it Forward Projects—We believe it's not enough to learn and practice sustainability and art—we believe in paying what we learn forward. To that end, folks at Better Farm make it a regular mission to go out into the community to help neighbors with their own gardens and home revitalization projects, work with kids, and provide support to other organizations. In the last few months, we put two gardens in, painted a house, volunteered at several schools, beautified downtown centers, and brought our show on the road in the Redwood Field Days Parade. Open Mic Poetry Night—Through a partnership between Line Assembly Poetry Group and betterArts, Better Farm on July 2 hosted an open-mic poetry night. Individuals from Line Assembly, betterArts resident Bradley Harrison, and local residents gathered at the Art Barn to read their latest creations. Summerfest—Aug. 17 marked our second annual Summerfest. The free event, featuring local vendors selling handmade goods, a gallery filled with art to enjoy and purchase, and half a dozen musical acts (plus a late-night jam session for anyone who cared to participate) is put on every year by betterArts in order to increase access to cultural opportunities in the North Country. Click here for the full rundown, photos, and information about all the wonderful artists and musicians who participated. Exceptional Family Arts and Wellness Expo —We showcased in August the artwork and performance pieces of some amazing children. The Exceptional Family Arts and Wellness Expo, a partnered event between Fort Drum and betterArts, featured art and performance pieces by children enrolled in Fort Drum's Exceptional Family Members Program. Among the activities were dance performances from Amy Earle School of Dance, upcycling projects, a gallery of artwork by local students, arts 'n' crafts, tours of Better Farm's gardens and buildings, and locally produced food fired up on the grill along with organic, locally grown side dishes. Better Radio —Better Radio is a step closer to becoming a reality. The Senate in 2010 approved the Local Community Radio Act, a bill that expanded radio stations for Low Power FM and which mandated the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to license virtually thousands of new stations. Since then, betterArts achieved its 501(c)3 status as a non-profit educational organization. This characterization allows the arts outreach group to apply for grants and conduct fundraising efforts that fuel free and low-cost arts education, outreach, events, and much much more. The group's latest effort is "Better Radio"; a radio station and educational program based out of Better Farm that works in multiple ways to increase access to the arts for all while simultaneously providing the community's youth with New Media education. Better Radio will advance betterArts' mission of increasing access to the arts and culture in the North Country and beyond by offering the many different broadcasts; and will provide educational outreach to high school students in and around the North Country region with an interest in New Media, Journalism, Production, Editing Software, Music Mixing, and Broadcast. Farm-to-Table Dinner Party—Better Farm's first-ever Farm-to-Table Dinner Party was held Sept. 26 and featured a menu of local cheeses, breaded zucchini medallions, salads, butternut squash soup, bacon-wrapped, wild-caught goose, and much much more. Stay tuned for future farm-to-table events here and locally! --- How Does Your Garden Grow? We doubled the size of our gardens again this year, and added eight new chickens to our flock (we're up to 32 feathered friends!). The combined output of eggs, compost decomposition, production of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, and the installation of a small orchard have contributed greatly to a sustainable, closed-loop system in which nutrients pass from compost to dirt to produce to people and chickens and back again. The North Country saw a late start to gardening season this year, with a ridiculously wet spring and cool start to summer. Once things settled down, however, we were left with a food crop that's stocked the local co-op and natural market, neighborhood bar and grill, our farm stand, and kept all the bellies at Better Farm full. Here are a few highlights from the summer: Fruit Orchard—Peaches, figs, raspberries, apricots, blueberries, and kiwis now dot the Better Farm property; Baby Birds—We in July hatched eight baby birds from eggs (click here for the amazing video!). They were transferred in August to a coop outside, and are now running with the big birds all over Better Farm's property; Incoming Bounty—Click here for a photo tour of our crop! --- Summer Workshop Series Review Whether making wine or constructing an insect hotel, here's our short list of workshops offered in recent months: Beneficial Bugs and Insect Hotels — Tidy gardens, chemically fertilized lawns, and a lack of dead wood in suburban/urban areas mean less and less habitat for wild bees, spiders, and ladybugs. You can combat this issue by creating an "insect hotel" to attract beneficial insects (read: pollinators and pest controllers) to your yard and garden. At this workshop, people were taught how to construct an insect hotel out of scraps found around work rooms, forests, and trash. The Art of Beer and Wine: Intro to Brewing and Fermentation — This summer, Master Brewer Paul Jennings taught a a three-part brewing series that educated the public about making beer and wine. Groups created oatmeal stout and two varieties of blueberry wine. Sauna Construction — We broke ground this summer on a sauna constructed entirely out of recycled materials like pallets and old tree stumps. The hands-on class examined materials, ways to refurbish discarded materials, and basic tool tutorials; culminating in the construction of a sauna on-site at Better Farm. Expected completion date for this project is November 2013. Stay tuned for updates! The Humanure Compost System — Whether you 're hosting an event and need a few extra porta-potties, in need of a toilet out by your work room or garage, re-doing your camp on the lake and lack a bathroom, or if you're ready to transition from a water-based septic or sewer system, the "humanure" compost toilet is a simple, cheap, ecologically responsible way to deal with human waste. This workshop explored the basic concepts of compost toilets and the ways our culture deals with waste, and culminated in a step-by-step project to create a simple compost toilet. Creative Upcycling and the Art of Transforming Junk—In this owrkshop, each student brought an old, tired piece of furniture or clothing to transform into something functional. From sketches to the final product, wonderful instructor Stephanie DeJoseph of La Mia Designs helped students visualize, create, transform, and finalize an upcycled piece. --- Summer Sustainability Education Program This year brought with it an amazing group of students eager to learn all they could about sustainability issues, green living, and organic farming. Whether out in the garden cooking up organic pest deterrents, building structures with alternative or upcycled materials, or foraging for edible wild plants, this group's enthusiasm was contagious and their willingness to utilize creative problem solving and non-traditional methods was downright inspiring. Here's the crew we were lucky enough to work with for the last several months: Kara Colarusso, a graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., who majored in environmental studies and is pursuing a career as a yoga instructor. Her interests in sustainability and local farming—paired with a passion for working with local communities to help educate them about local agriculture—inspired her to pursue an education at Better Farm; Jesse Coyle, a student at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry working on a bachelors of science in conservation. She hails from Syracuse, and was raised on a small cattle farm in Central New York. She chose Better Farm because she wanted to broaden her knowledge of alternative building, green gardening, and wilderness survival; Jacob Firman, an environmental studies major at Oberlin College in Ohio, who was passionate about food justice, addressing climate change, and working to create a more sustainable and just world; Rebekah Kosier, a student at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., grew up in a rural area in Alabama. She had the opportunity to witness the process of farming and to know many farmers; but she came to Better Farm in order to connect sustainable farming practices to her interest in food sovereignty; Kathryn Mollica, a student at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J., whose employment at Whole Foods opened her eyes to the benefits of organic farming and changed her world. For more information about Better Farm's Sustainability Education Program, click here. --- Recent Visiting Artists We had an amazing group of visiting artists who provided much inspiration and beauty to all the goings-on at the Better Farm campus. These artists immersed themselves in the local community; helping to construct our float in the Redwood Field Days Parade, providing workshops to the public, and lending a hand in ongoing projects in and around Better Farm. Here are all the wonderful artists who have come to Better Farm since May: Kareema Bee is a New York City-based poet and filmmaker who came to Better Farm to work on her poetry and learn about farming and gardening. Click here for a rundown of her betterArts residency. Bradley Harrison graduated in May with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas. The Colfax, Iowa, native recently completed his first full-length poetry collection, which is pending publication, and has published a chapbook of poems called "Diorama of a People, Burning" through Ricochet Editions at the University of Southern California. He worked during his residency on new poems he seeks to develop into a second, full-length collection. Vivian Hyelim Kim is a visual artist from Elmhurst, N.Y., who makes installations, paintings, photographs and art books. She has her MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., and her BFA from Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. While at Better Farm, Vivian is keeping a visual diary that took its form of a wall installation. She took walks in outdoor surroundings, picked one element of nature every day, and brought it into the studio. To see samples of Vivian's work, visit www.vivianhyelimkim.com Ashley Jones is a visual artist with a BFA in printmaking from California College of the Arts. She attended Clayworks on Columbia in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Diablo Valley College in Pleasonton, Calif. Her work has been shown extensively at galleries from coast to coast and she has been the recipient of several scholarships and awards for her art. Ashley lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. See more of her work here. Natalie Collette Wood is an artist living in New York City who  joined us to experiment with sculpture and collage using found objects, spray paint, foam, and metal to create abstract pieces that hang from the ceiling or wall. Click here for images of her work. For more information about the betterArts Residency Program, click here. Connect with us: Website Facebook Blog Merch Share this email: Contact Us: Better Farm 31060 Cottage Hill Road Redwood, NY 13679 315-482-2536 info@betterfarm.org view email in browser | unsubscribe | update your profile | forward to a friend

Better Farm is an education center and artists' retreat founded in 1970 on the principles of the Better Theory—a belief that every experience brings with it an opportunity for exponential personal growth. Through educational workshops, artist residencies, work-shares, and an ongoing commitment to sustainable living and community outreach, we strive to apply the Better Theory to all our endeavors while offering the curious an opportunity to expand, grow, and flourish. Copyright (C) 2013 Better Farm All rights reserved.

Relational Database: DIY Culture's Greatest Achievement

The concept of relational database has successfully emerged as a result of the advanced technology of the DIY culture. This kind of database is highly useful in storing different sets of data in a categorized manner. This kind of stored data is later on processed to provide valuable information to the information seekers.

The relational database design is quite simple and it is mostly found as two-dimensional in nature. This kind of database design mostly helps in the effective organizing of all the data in an organized manner under specific tables or categories. It also helps in minimizing duplication, reduction of data anomalies, and reinforcement of data integration. This particular method of organizing data is popularly known as normalization.

The stored data of relational database is highly manipulated by a particular programming language which is known as structured Query Language or SQL. In fact, the data-storing performance of this kind of database mostly depends on the

SQL performance tuning.

This kind of tuning adjusts the storing of different kinds of categorized data into the recreational database. The SQL server is getting used in almost every database centers for the effective storage of huge volume of data. Therefore, before selecting the performance of the SQL server, you must consider few essential tips. Some of these essential tips include configuration, CPU, development, indexing, IO, locking, memory, perfmon, processes, shrinks, troubleshooting and lots more.

The database development is highly dependent on the SQL performance tuning as without the SQL server it is not at all possible to store data in the relational database. This server helps in the streamlining and simplifying change management encourages automatic repetitive tasks, accelerating issue resolution, ensuring high level code quality, maintainability and performance. Therefore, if you want to learn more about the concerned thing, then you need to conduct a thorough online research regarding the same with the help of internet.

October Small Farms Update

The Small Farms Update is intended as a resource for farmers and agricultural service providers in New York and the Northeast, and is provided to you by Cornell Small Farms Program. The update's mission is to foster the sustainability of diverse, thriving small farms that contribute to food security, healthy rural communities, and the environment.  The Cornell Small Farm Program is a joint effort of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Cornell Cooperative Extension.

 

This update summarizes announcements, information resources, opportunities and upcoming events relevant to small farms.  Please feel free to share this information in newsletters, email lists, etc. If you have announcements or resources you would like to include, please email smallfarmsprogram@cornell.edu.

Announcements

Don't Miss the Upcoming Farm Energy Field Days! The last two field days in this series of farmer-led tours will give you a first-hand look at what it takes to integrate renewable energy technologies into your farm or homestead. You'll learn how to assess your own energy use, explore your renewable energy options, seek financing and grants, and work with technical experts. This is your opportunity to get "how-to" information, view customized equipment on the farm, and network with other energy enthusiasts. Field days are free and open to the public and refreshments will be provided. Sponsored by Northeast SARE and the Cornell Small Farms Program. October 4, 2013. 10:00 AM- 12:00 PM. Using Residual Biomass to Fuel the Farm. Dedrick Farms, 389 Buck Rd off of Rt. 34, Lansing, NY 14882. Matt Dedrick will give a demonstration of converting non-saleable farm residues from his 400 acre field crop and vegetable farm into fuel for heating and transportation. This farm tour will interest anyone thinking about how farm biomass can become an energy supply! Map. October 11, 2013. 10:00 AM- 12:00 PM. Sourcing Solar: On-Farm Production to Retail. Schoharie Valley Farms, 5605 State Route 30, Schoharie, NY 1215. Join proprietor/producer Richard Ball for a tour of one of the premier diversified vegetable farms and retail outlets in the region. Learn how the energy derived from a large solar array installation benefits farm production, processing, cold storage, food service, and retail. Map. For more information: http://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2013/09/09/the-power-of-on-farm-sustainable-energy/

UVM Extension New Farmer Project Needs Your Input: Survey due Oct 8! The UVM Extension New Farmer Project is working to develop education and training to help managers of Northeast small-scale and diversified farms develop skills and strategies for matching farm labor decisions to production, profit, & quality of life goals. This survey is designed to gauge your interest in participating in educational programs related to farm labor and also to gather some baseline data on the challenges and needs related to farm labor management. The survey should take 5-8 minutes to complete. Access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FarmLaborEducation. Questions about this or other initiatives of the UVM Extension New Farmer Project, please call or email Jessie Schmidt, newfarmer@uvm.edu, 802-223-2389x203.

Coming Soon: OSHA Training for Small Dairy Producers OSHA's Syracuse Area Office is planning a Local Emphasis Program focusing on Dairy Farm Operations in New York beginning as early as February 2014. Farms have not typically been an area of OSHA inspection unless prompted by an accident, so it is important that farmers understand what operations are subject to OSHA and what OSHA expectations are. While most small dairy operations will not be affected by OSHA inspections, they want to emphasize that farm safety education and training is useful to all operators and their employees. Learn more about this local emphasis program within OSHA: https://www.osha.gov/dep/leps/leps.html.

Events

Featured Events October 5, 2013. 10:00 AM- 4:00 PM. Berlin-Berkshire Fall Foliage Grazing Tour. First stop on the tour will be with Morgan Hartman of Black Queen Angus Farm in Berlin, NY.  Black Queen Angus Farm is a grass-fed operation owned by Morgan Hartman and his family. The next stop on the tour is the Berlin Fire Hall at 12 PM to enjoy a delicious local foods lunch catered by Wild Oats Market of Williamstown, MA. The last stop will be at 1:30 PM at Cricket Creek Farm, a small grass-based enterprise located in Williamstown, MA. Nestled on the slopes of the Taconic hills, the farm consists of over 500 acres of rolling fields and woodlots, old apple orchards and sugarbush. The grazing tour is a drive yourself tour. The cost for tour and lunch is $20/person.  Please contact Donna Murray at 518-270-2668 or visit http://ccecapitalregion.org/news/13-09-24/Berlin-Berkshire_Fall_Foliage_Grazing_Tour.aspx for more information.   October 12, 2013. 9:00 AM- 3:00 PM. Maple Workshop.  Cornell Cooperative Extension Broome County, Binghamton, NY. Steve Childs, from the Cornell Maple Program, will cover maple suckers & hard candy, maple coating nuts, maple soft drinks, maple straws, maple cotton, and much more at this maple workshop. The cost is $65 per farm and includes either a NY Maple Confections Notebook or digital thermometer, lunch, snacks and all materials. Each farm will need to bring one quart of syrup (any color or grade) for testing for invert sugar and to be used in the program. To register and pay online visit: https://reg.cce.cornell.edu/mapleconfections_203 or contact Carol at (607) 584-9966. October 17, 2013. 9:30 AM- 4:00 PM. Organic Cover Crop Workshop and Tour. USDA-NRCS Big Flats Plant Materials Center, 3266 RT 352, Big Flats, NY 14814 . Presentations during this workshop will focus on nitrogen cycling and soil ecology, small scale reduced tillage implementation, crop rotation practices, and cover crop utilization, among other topics. For registration information, click here. [MANY MORE EVENTS!] Visit our comprehensive statewide events calendar online.

Career Opportunities

UVM Farmer Training Program Applications- Due Oct. 31 The UVM Farmer Training Program is a 6-month intensive program (May 5 -October 31, 2014) for aspiring farmers and food systems advocates that provides a hands-on, skills-based education in sustainable agriculture. This full-time program offers participants the unique opportunity to manage their own growing site, take classes from professors and expert farmers, and rotate as workers and learners on successful, diverse farms in the Burlington area. Participants will leave with a Certificate in Sustainable Farming, a deeper understanding of agricultural management and small-scale farming, and the entrepreneurial skills to start their own operation. The UVM Farmer Training Program is now accepting applications until October 31 for early admission to the 2014 cohort! To learn more, visit their Farmer Training Website or contact them at farmer@uvm.edu or (802) 656-8657.

Stonewall Farm School Applications- Due Nov. 15 Stonewall Farm in Keene, New Hampshire offers future farmers the opportunity to spend a full year learning by working shoulder to shoulder with our experienced staff and administration. Hard work, critical thinking, problem solving, and the use of appropriate technologies for small farms will be emphasized. Two tracks are offered: garden and dairy. Both include the study of farm operations and management. The farm operates a certified organic dairy, a three acre garden, three greenhouses, a yearlong CSA, a micro-pasteurizing plant, a farm store, sugar house, hydroponic barely fodder system and an educational learning center. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis through November 15th for the 2013-2014 year-long session.  For more information or to request an application contact Josh Cline - Executive Director at (603) 357-7278 ext. 107 or email: jcline@stonewallfarm.org.

Funding Opportunities

Northeast Farm Credit AgEnhancement Grant Program - Due Dec. 1 Interested in hosting a field day or other educational program on your farm? The AgEnhancement Grant Program is a grant program that supports projects, events, and activities that promote awareness of agriculture and the food and fiber industries in the Northeast. AgEnhancement also supports programs designed to assist young farmers and youth considering a career in agriculture. Awards range from $1,000 to $5,000. Next application deadline is December 1. For more information and access to the application form, visit https://www.farmcreditmaine.com/.

Northeast SARE Now Accepting Applications for Farmer Grants - Due Dec. 2 NE SARE Farmer Grants are for commercial producers who have an innovative idea they want to test using a field trial, on-farm demonstration, marketing initiative, or other technique. A technical advisor--often an extension agent, crop consultant, or other service professional--must also be involved. Projects should seek results other farmers can use, and all projects must have the potential to add to our knowledge about effective sustainable practices. The proposal deadline for the next round of NE SARE farmer grants is December 2, 2013 with awards announced in March. More information is available here.

Latest Resources

Online Tool Can Help You Build a Farm Budget The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri has developed The Farm Cost and Return Tool, which allows farmers to determine the long-term financial feasibility of their farm operations. The tool can provide budgets based on a selected location but can also be customized to a specific operation. You can access this tool at www.fapri.missouri.edu/projects. For more information, contact any of MU Extension's agriculture business specialists located in southwest Missouri: Wesley Tucker in Polk County, 417-326-4916; Dr. Gordon Carriker in Christian County, 417-581-3558; or Stacy Hambelton in Ozark County, 417-679-3525.

New Online Magazine for Graziers On Pasture translates the latest research and experience into grazing practices readers can use now. Since their first issue on March 21, they've published 5 articles per week on grazing management, pasture health, livestock, money matters and more. This online resource is available at http://onpasture.com.

Get Connected!

Need personal help? Sometimes local questions are best answered by your neighborhood Cornell Cooperative Extension agent. Check out our county-by-county listing of small farm agents here. You can also get to know our Cornell Small Farms Program staff, or contact us.   Just starting to farm?  We have an extensive directory of beginning farmer service providers across the Northeast in the "Who Can Help?" section of our Northeast Beginning Farmers Project website.

 
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Save Your Own Tomato Seeds

Saving seeds is a great way to ensure a steady supply of heirloom fruits and vegetables in your home garden. All you have to do is collect seeds from your best plant, dry them out, and store them until you're ready for growing season.

One of our favorite heirloom produce items is the tomato; and each year, we have a bunch of different fruits to choose from that we'd love to duplicate. This autumn, we're selecting some of the best-looking tomatoes and extricating the seeds so that we can grow the plants indoors in a new hydroponics setup (more about that to come!).


Here are some very easy-to-follow instructions for harvesting your own tomato seeds, gleaned from Garden Web:

You may have brought home a particularly delicious tomato from the supermarket, or gotten an heirloom tomato from a Farmer's Market, or grown one in your own garden that is so wonderful you want to save the seeds from it and grow them next year. Nothing ever tastes quite as good as a home-grown tomato!

So, how do you save the seeds? The method is easy to do....it's a little gloppy, and it's a little funky, but you'll be able to save seeds in a manner that will lesson the occurence of tomato disease while giving you plenty of seeds to germinate, and with left-overs to share or trade. This seed saving process is a process of fermentation.


Select to save seeds from a tomato that has a flavor that you love....if you're a home gardener and saving seeds from tomatoes that are growing in your garden choose tomatoes from the very healthiest-looking plants.

Take your chosen tomato and slice it in half across the middle (its "equator"). With a spoon or your well-washed fingers scoop out the seeds and their gelatinous "goo" into a clean cup or container. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the seeds.

Cover the container with a piece of plastic-wrap and then poke the plastic-wrap with a paring knife or pen point to put a small hole in it...this is to allow for air-transpiration. (A little fresh air needs to get in and out of the cup to help foster fermentation.)

Place the container of seeds in a warm location; a sunny windowsill or the top of the refrigerator are both excellent sites to place the container of seeds. Now Mother Nature will take over and begin to ferment the seed and water mixture. This takes about two or three days. Each night remove the plastic-wrap, stir the seed and water mixture, and then replace the plastic-wrap, if you use a new sheet of plastic-wrap then don't forget to put a small hole in it for air-transpiration. The top of the liquid will look "scummy" when the fermentation process has seperated the "goo" from the seeds. It also helps destroy many of the possible tomato diseases that can be harbored by seeds.

Take the container of fermented seeds to the sink and with a spoon carefully remove the scummy surface. Then pour the container's contents into a fine kitchen sieve and rinse the seeds with water several times...stir them while they're in the sieve to assure that all surfaces are thoroughly rinsed. Give a few sharp taps to the sieve to help remove as much loose water as possible from the seeds.
Line an open plate with a piece of waxed paper or a large automatic-drip coffee filter. Place the rinsed seeds onto the wax paper or coffee filter and spread them about so they are in a single layer. Place the plate in a safe location where the seeds can dry for a few days. Stir the seeds a few times during the drying process to assure that all their surfaces are evenly dry. Spread them out again into a single layer after each time you've stirred them. Tomato seeds are thick and can take up to a week to dry thoroughly. If you're having a rainy week that drying time may lengthen by a few days.


How do I know when the seeds are dry?
Dried seeds move quickly and easily across a plate, they do not stick to each other.


How do I store them?
I like paper packets or some folks like plastic. Whichever envelope style you choose is a matter of personal preferance. If you choose to store your seeds in plastic the seeds must be BONE DRY....otherwise any moisture in the seeds will be transferred to all seeds inside the plastic packet, it will foster mildew and rotting and the seeds will be ruined.


How do I label them?
Tomatoes are generally self-pollinated so there is rarely a chance of cross-breeding. If you save and trade your seeds you might wish to describe your trade offering as "open-pollinated" tomato seeds. That way the trader knows that Mother Nature was solely involved in the fertilization of the flower which produced the tomato that you have saved seeds from.


Onto the packet write the tomato variety name (if you know it) or a very good description if you don't, add the term "open-pollinated" if you're sharing or trading your tomato seeds, and also add the current year to the packet description.


And that's that! Do enjoy saving tomato seeds and growing your own tomatoes at home from them. Home-saved tomato seeds are a wonderful gift to tuck into a holiday card for when you want to add a "little something extra", or to share with friends and neighbors.

—Trudi Davidoff

Will Farm Bill Turn Control of Organic Industry Over to USDA?

By

Nicole Caldwell for JuJu Good News

A new debate springing up in the organic community

has some concerned

that the commodification of the “organic” label could turn the entire industry over to the USDA—and a small number of big-money companies.

Advertising campaigns funded by “

checkoff programs

” (commodity research and promotion programs) are overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture and run by organizations established to promote certain foods (i.e. beef, soybeans, pork, milk, and eggs); and commission research to produce and market said food. Classic marketing campaigns with checkoff programs include: “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner.” “Pork. The Other White Meat.” and of course, “Got Milk?” For every sale, the checkoff program makes money. Each head of cattle sold, for example, represents $1 is collected for the beef checkoff program.

So does organic food need its own checkoff program?

The controversial

farm bill

being debated by Congress includes language that would allow USDA to create a checkoff program for organic products. For other commodities, farmers pay into the fund but large food companies are largely in control of decisions on how to spend the money. Many organic farmers are therefore leery of an arrangement in which their dollars are controlled by giant food-processing companies.

Necessary Details: Thorough Inspection of Fraud and Damaged Assets

Asset investigation is one of the greatest parts of the modern, DIY culture that has been normally introduced for the safety of residential houses and commercial offices. This kind of specialized investigation will help you to determine easily the exact cause of the damaged assets of houses or corporate offices. Only proper investigation can help you to get back your lost asset or proper compensation for your damaged assets. This kind of investigation is also conducted by insurance companies at the time of occurrence of nay any big fire incidents which have led to the destruction of large number of assets.

The compensation amount is mainly released by the insurance companies on the basis of the proper damage calculation which can be only determined by means of effective and thoroughly asset inspection. In case of nay kinds of frauds, the

fraud investigator

conducts thorough professional investigation in order to determine the actual culprits. This kind of investigation is also similar to that of the asset investigation but only the compensation method is quite different from each other. These investigators are highly efficient and skilled for conducting effective fraud detecting investigation, so that their clients’ objectives can be served.

Asset and fraud investigation both are sometimes conducted by the same investigating professionals in case both the incidents are related with each other. Asset investigation involves the definite compensation of the loss or damaged assets but the fraud investigation might or might not involve compensation. Therefore, asset investigation is quite safe but the fraud investigation is not. There are some business concerns who separately maintain a separate department for the thorough inspection of the company assets. Therefore, in order to know more about this concept, you need to take the help of internet and have to make necessary online research. You can refer to different kinds or websites for collecting valuable information.