Farms

Featured Farm: Fruit World

By Pia Hinckle on December 3, 2021

Fruit World is famous for its extraordinary Sky Ranch Mandarins, a clementine grown on farmer Bianca Kaprielian’s grandfather’s ranch, which sits atop one of the area’s tallest foothills and is named …

Filed Under: Farms, FruitGuys News Tagged With: california citrus farmers, california family farms, citrus, family farms, Farms, Fruit World, mandarins, Sky Ranch Mandarins

Farm Grantees Make Progress Despite Pandemic

By The FruitGuys Community Fund on September 18, 2020

The FruitGuys Community Fund 2020 grantee farms have sent us their interim updates, and in spite of the pandemic, these farms and organizations have done some incredible work! These 15 small farms and …

Filed Under: Farms, GoodWorks, The FruitLife Tagged With: family farmers, Farms, microgrants, pollinators, small farms, support small farms, sustainable agriculture, The FruitGuys Community Fund, wind power

The 2020 FruitGuys Community Fund Grantees

By The FruitGuys Community Fund on May 13, 2020

During the COVID-19 crisis, small farms are showing once again just how essential they are to keeping our local communities fed, healthy, and functioning. The FruitGuys Community Fund is excited to …

Eat the Endangered Gravenstein Apple

By Pia Hinckle on August 1, 2019

“Farming is a complex math problem,” sighs Dave Hale as he looks sadly at piles of wood chips that had been Gravenstein apple trees in the lot next to his thriving Sebastopol, CA, orchard. He tended …

Filed Under: Farms, Food, GoodWorks, Recipes, The FruitLife Tagged With: dave hale, Farms, Gravenstein Apple, Gravenstein apple farmer, John Kolling, lee walker, orchards, Sebastopol farmers, slow food ark of taste, sonoma county, stan devoto

From Seed to Need

By Sheila Cassani on April 23, 2015

The FruitGuys Community Fund, a nonprofit fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives, will award small American farms and agricultural nonprofits a total of $35,643 in 2015 for sustainability …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, GoodWorks Tagged With: agricultural nonprofit, community fund, farm grants, Farms, GoodWorks, local farms, sustainable, sustainable farming

Hungry for Farmland

By Stephanie Rosenbaum on July 31, 2014

Clear Spring Farm, PA. If you live in an eco-conscious region fighting to preserve its local family farms, chances are you’ve seen bumper stickers such as “Know your farmer, know your food.” “I …

Filed Under: Farms, FruitGuys News Tagged With: crops, Farms, land value, local farmers, small farms, the future of farms

Buy a Box; Save an Apple

By Miriam Wolf on July 25, 2014

Like the snowy owl and the snail darter, foods can be endangered too. If farmers stop growing your favorite variety of tomato because it’s too hard to ship or too prone to pests, we come that much …

Filed Under: Farms, FruitGuys News Tagged With: California, endangered, Farms, GoodWorks, gravenstein apples, sebastopol, SlowFoods, special

Save The Gravenstein

By FruitGuys Staff on July 29, 2013

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” —Martin Luther (1483–1546, a German monk and church reformer) In a world awash with Red Delicious …

Filed Under: Farms, FruitGuys News Tagged With: apple cider, apple farms, apple pie, apples, artisan, cittaslow, Farms, Gravenstein, gravenstein apple fair, gravenstein farmers, heirloom fruit, lee walker, sebastapol, slow food, slow food ark of taste, sonoma county

Durst Organic Growers

By Heidi Lewis on March 23, 2013

Farming with Heart By Heidi Lewis The main ingredient in good vegetables, says farmer Jim Durst, is soil: “Feed the soil, and the soil will feed the plants." Jim and his wife, Deborah, have been …

Filed Under: Farms, FruitGuys News Tagged With: deb durst, deborah durst, durst family farm, durst organic growers, family farm, Farms, jim durst, organic farming

Subsidizing Big Ag

By Charlene Oldham on October 11, 2012

Small Farms Left Out of Farm Bill By Charlene Oldham When the first “farm bill” was created in the late 1930s to help family farms, horses and hand plows were as common on farms as Model …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, The FruitLife Tagged With: ag reform, agricultural reforms, Agriculture, big ag, corn subsidies, factory farms, family farming, farm bill, farm politics, farm subsidies, farmers, farming, farming issues, farming reforms, Farms, food, food politics, food subsidies, health, HFCS, high fructose corn syrup, junk food, organic farmers, organic farming, processed foods, rice subsidies, small farmers, snap, soy oil, soybean subsidies, sustainability, wheat subsidies

FruitGuys Donations are Backbone of Some Food Pantries

By Pia Hinckle on December 13, 2011

In a year when more people continued to struggle with less, The FruitGuys GoodWorks program responded to the realities of the continuing hard economy by making micro-loans to farmers; increasing …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, GoodWorks Tagged With: donation, farm issues, Farms, food donations, food pantries, food pantry, fresh fruit donations, fruit donations, holiday donations, sustainability, volunteering, winter donations

Irene Hits Farms

By Pia Hinckle on September 7, 2011

By Pia Hinckle While damage varied from state to state and even within the same county, Tropical Storm Irene hit many farms from North Carolina to Vermont hard. Growers reported everything from …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, The FruitLife Tagged With: east, east coast, Farms, hurricane, hurricane irene

Getting Back Up

By Chris Mittelstaedt on September 2, 2011

I’ve always been a pretty active person—something that made coming down with a random medical condition all the more humbling. About a month ago I had an acute onset of achalasia, an uncommon disorder …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, The FruitLife Tagged With: chris mittelstaedt, east coast farms, fall, farming, Farms, hurricane damage, hurricane irene, Weather