Atina's Blog
What is a Farm? A Synthesis of the Land, People, and Business.
Reflections, tips, and decision making tools from organic farmer-author Atina Diffley
Seed Beds: Bare-Root, Field-Grown Brassica Transplant Production
Martin and I recently visited Nash’s Organic Produce Farm in Sequim-Dungeness Valley and had a conversation with organic farmer Nash Huber about the use of Seed Beds to grow bare-root transplants for brassica crops. Both our farms produced high quality bare-root transplants at a fraction of the cost and labor of greenhouse grown transplants. Pre-1970s it…
Read MoreTurn Here Sweet Corn . . . the corn dance
The CORN DANCE and the ORGANIC PHEROMONES For those of you who have already read Turn Here Sweet Corn, here’s a wild video to supplement your mental image of the Corn Dance. For those of you who haven’t yet read . . . after watching this video of the Pipeline Energizer and The Organic Pheromones,…
Read MoreDear Valerie: Cigars and Tobacco Mosaic Virus
On Dec 4, 2012, at 6:02 PM, Valerie . . . wrote to Atina Diffley: Hi Atina, Firstly I LOVE your book! My husband and a group of his friends get together about once a month and smoke cigars. Last summer one evening it was at our house and they smoked on the back deck…
Read MoreThe Atina Diffley Kitchen and Give To CURE!
Guess! Where in the world is the Atina Diffley Kitchen! What could be better than having a kitchen named after oneself! Today is GIVE TO THE MAX DAY in Minnesota! On Thursday, November 15, every donation you make gives your favorite organizations the chance to win even more money. Here’s my pick for 2012. I…
Read MoreGMO Sweet Corn Varieties and Genetic-Contamination – Just Label It!
In Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works, I wrote about cross-pollination and the threat of genetically modified organisms. If our sweet corn is cross-pollinated by neighboring field corn, it is not sweet nor is it marketable. Martin manages this threat by recording the dates of all the developmental stages for our crop, as well…
Read MoreMinnesota Supreme Court Reverses Pesticide Trespass Ruling
Sad News. I wrote in a post on Monday . . . 1. Chemical Trespass: Minnesota organic farmers Oluf and Debra Johnson had success in 2011 when the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that an organic farm surrounded by chemical-laden conventional farms can seek damages for lost crops, as well as lost profits, caused by…
Read MoreDeleted Scene — Turn Here Sweet Corn — Maize’s Cucumber Pick
Chapter: What To Hold Onto Maize is racing barefoot up the old horse path from Louise’s field. Something tiny and green is flinging from an ice cream bucket swinging wildly at his side. He sings up to me stocking corn at the roadside stand, “I picked the cucumbers.” He must be pretending with new growth…
Read MoreTurn Here Sweet Corn Book Trailer
Enjoy and Share with your friends. Happy reading!
Read MoreGoodreads Quiz
Time for a little reader fun! Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works Quiz 10 FUN questions take quiz
Read MoreRealistic Optimism and Climate Change
Roger Blobaum once told me there would only be twenty-nine questions that book talk audiences would ask and once I’d been asked them all book promotion would be a cinch. Apparently I haven’t reached the magic number yet, as each time there is one question that surprises me and catches me without a thought out…
Read MoreA Right or A Duty? A Privilege?
Imagine. If you had a relationship with a something that was absolutely ancient, and so precious that life—including yours—couldn’t survive without it, what would you do to care for and protect it? If it needed food and water and air, would you ensure that it had plenty and the best possible? If it were vulnerable…
Read MoreThe Impermanence of Eden – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Scott Carlson, senior reporter of the Chronicle of Higher Education, has written a very personal and powerful book review of Turn Here Sweet Corn that frames the way each of us is connected to the story. Scott grew up living adjacent to the original Diffley farm He roamed and played on the land and worked for…
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