Local Foods and Small Farms Blogs

Our 30th Annual Stateline Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference was held on Monday, February 16, in Rockford. Nearly 120 growers and community college students attended this event, which focuses on timely updates for fruit and vegetable growers in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. We were...

On the night of March 4, a severe storm system came through southern Illinois which consisted of high winds, hail, and very heavy rain. That system dropped over 5 inches of rain across the region, but specifically at the location of the Dixon Springs Ag Center, multiple large trees were downed and...

After the success of solarizing cover crops last year in our high tunnel, we will be covering all the beds with clear plastic mulch to achieve termination ahead of our April 1 target plant date for tomatoes and peppers. Plastic is stapled into the wooden side boards of the raised beds, spanning two...

When I studied red knight bell peppers (X3R from Johnny’s Seeds) in South Dakota for graduate school, they loved the 90-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, possibly because of how dry and arid it was. Last summer, I really struggled with bell peppers as it was hot and humid with fluctuating...

Our outdoor growing season has come to an end with a few subfreezing mornings, with the coldest I have seen so far being December 5, registering 16 degrees Fahrenheit.  We got our first measurable snowfall on November 29, with about 3 inches of snow followed by 0.45 inches of very cold rain....

Yield data is collected every year from crops grown within the high tunnels at the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center in southern Illinois. Plots are assigned within each of the tunnels based on the type of research that is being conducted, and replicated data collection allows for statistical...

Whoever thought up harvesting the entire stalk of Brussels sprouts may be on to something.  Not only does it show consumers how brussels sprouts grow on the stem, it adds an interesting stacking texture to a display that draws interest.Locally, the St Louis Metro East has experienced a hard...

Two of the three high tunnels are completely cleaned out and have been winterized. The other tunnel has been seeded and is overwintering cover crops for the fourth winter in a row. Due to late-season tomato and pepper harvests, cover crops were seeded during the first week of November, about a...

October started as a continuation of the above normal temperatures and dry conditions. Temperatures have started to get closer to average in the last half of the month and finally we broke our dry spell. We had 2.71 inches of rain as of October 19 which was the first rainfall in almost a...

This October has brought excellent apple harvests across many Northern Illinois orchards, with a mix of traditional, PRI, and MAIA varieties showing strong performance. I visited several orchards this past month and saw healthy crops and steady visitor turnout. Post-harvest fruit quality has varied...