Death of a Farm By Verlyn Klinkenborg New York Times, July 31, 2010 Farms go out of business for many reasons, but few farms do merely because the soil has failed. That is the miracle of farming. If you care for the soil, it will last — and yield — nearly forever. America is such a young country that we have barely tested that. For most of our history, there has been new land to farm, and we still farm as though there always will be.

Still, there are some very old farms out there. The oldest is the Tuttle farm, near Dover, N.H., which is also one of the oldest business enterprises in America. It made the news last week because its owner — a lineal descendant of John Tuttle, the original settler — has decided to go out of business. It was founded in 1632. I hear its sweet corn is legendary.

Work is going well on revamping this website and everything should be finished by the end of July.

Quinte Conservation’s offices are bursting at the seams this summer, with the addition of 23 summer student employees. Employment grants from Job Connect, Federal Summer Job Program and the provincial Experience program allowed Quinte Conservation to offer student work terms from seven to sixteen weeks this summer.

Conservation Day Camp in Picton and Belleville offers kids ages 7 - 13 a chance to interact with nature in a very hands-on way. Conservation Education Coordinator Maya Navrot says, “We have a great line-up of special guests this year - each week has a different guest. Campers will get a chance to handle snakes, meet some flying squirrels and get to know a hawk - and that’s just the beginning!”

There is a new guide sign at Londsdale describing the Salmon River Watershed, the history and the ecology. There is another sign at Roblin.

Trillium are flowering in the woods and along the field rows in the Oak Hills by late April. The spring flowers usually come out before the leaves come out on the trees, but this year is strange as the leaves are out early. These Red Trillium are less common than the White Trillium.

Roy Bonisteel takes you on a tour of the Hastings County Museum of Agricultural Heritage in Stirling, Ontario.

In the spring, soon after the maple season is finished, Trout Lilies come out in the maple woods in Hastings County. Look for for the spotted leaves. The yellow flowers come out soon after. The flowers open in the sun light and close up in the evening.

by Adrian Higgins The Washington Post, Monday, March 15, 2010

In normal times, David Hackenberg would begin trucking his 20 million honeybees from the almond orchards of California to the orange groves of Florida this week.

Instead, after a month working the almond blossoms on the West Coast, his exhausted pollinators will get some rest and relaxation in the Georgia woods before the East Coast apple blossoms summon them to work once more next month.

These are not normal times for bees, or for commercial beekeepers, so Hackenberg’s pollinators will skip the citrus gig to reduce their exposure to pesticides and get some rest. “Everybody is seeing [bee] losses this winter,” said Hackenberg, of Lewisburg, Pa. “This was probably the worst year ever.”

Sharon Oostoek Saturday’s Globe and Mail Monday, Mar. 15,

Like a fickle god, phosphorus gives life and takes it away. If too much leaches into lakes and streams, algal blooms suck oxygen from the water and choke off life. But if too little exists, we are all in trouble: Phosphorus is a dwindling, and non-renewable, component of agricultural fertilizers, essential to growing food for Earth’s burgeoning population, says the International Institute for Sustainable Development, a Winnipeg-based environmental think tank, which recently released a report on phosphorus spills in Manitoba’s waterways.