LEP Admin, Author at Hudson Valley Farm Hub

Q&A with soil expert Kris Nichols

Kris Nichols is veteran soil microbiologist with over 25 years of research experience studying arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. She is the founder and principal scientist of KRIS Systems Education & Consultation and consults for Soil Health Consulting, Inc, Pachaterrae Inc, and MyLand Company. Nichols was previously the Chief Scientist at Rodale Institute for over three years, and a soil microbiologist with the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) for over 11 years. Here Nichols shares her insight on soil health with the Hudson Valley Farm Hub.

Learning Agriculture

Sharing a passion for farming with Kingston High School students The Hudson Valley Farm Hub recently hosted a group of special visitors – students from Kingston High School. Primarily juniors and seniors, the teens come from a diversity of backgrounds. What they all share, however, is an interest in agriculture and food. Roxanne Smith, a sophomore, was transfixed as she […]

Curing garlic

The Farm Hub grows an acre of garlic annually with the hope of yielding an estimated 5,000 pounds. The farm also has a specific way of curing the garlic.

Growing mushrooms: young farmer discovers a new passion / Cultivo de setas: una agricultora joven descubre una nueva pasión

Greenhouses make way for mushrooms. Nailah Marie Ellis, a farmer and member of the ProFarmer training program, launched her latest project where she is cultivating oyster mushrooms.

Finding connection / Encontrando la conexión

Food builds friendships, connects communities, and transcends age, race, ethnicity, gender and geographies. In this personal essay, Amy Wu shares her experience farming and reflects upon the intersection of food and Chinese culture.

Humans as Beneficials: The delicate balance of farming and ecology

The balance between agriculture and ecology is constant, complex and delicate. How, for example, does the Red-winged Blackbird co-exist with a field of growing sweet corn, with corn playing the dual role of food for bird and also a crop? Anne Bloomfield, farmscape ecology coordinator, examines the role humans play in the coexistence of farming and ecology. “It really is up to us to determine what we would like this relationship with the land to be,” she writes.

Photo Gallery: Harvesting asparagus

Asparagus – Best known as garden asparagus, Folk name is sparrow grass, scientific name Asparagus officinalis. Young shoots are used as a vegetable. Asparagus harvesting season is underway and mini-skyscrapers of green and maroon colored asparagus punch through a blanket of straw. At the Farm Hub, it is one of the ones harvested earliest – typically in May and June – […]

‘Growing With the Grain’ and ‘Seeds of Hope’ Screenings

The Hudson Valley Farm Hub’s initiatives are spotlighted in two short documentaries that will continue screening through the summer. Growing with the Grain, a short documentary film on the small grains research trials, screens as part of Oceans 8 Films `Hope on the Hudson 2’ series. The trials are a collaboration between the Farm Hub and Cornell University and Cornell Cooperative Extension […]

Farm Hub ProFarmer teaches cooking to youth at Kingston YMCA

Farm Hub’s ProFarmer teaches youth at the Kingston YMCA Farm Project how to cook

agriculture education food Ulster County youth

Bilingual stories: Farm Hub offers content in Spanish and English

Farm Hub offers select content in Spanish and English Starting with the Spring 2019 newsletter, the Farm Hub is offering a selection of articles in Spanish and English. The articles reflect a variety of topics from research trials, strategies and techniques in farming, to what is growing this season and programs. This quarter’s newsletter includes the following bilingual articles: What’s […]

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