Hello. A few of your favorite orgs: Ever since New Farm was launched, we've been planning a resource directory listing organizations, agencies, web sites and publications devoted to organic, sustainable and local agriculture. Other projects intervened, but finally, it's here--a directory that's searchable by keyword, topic, type of organization, state or region. We've started with around 200 listings, but will be adding new organizations on a weekly basis. To check out the Resource Directory, click here. Got a suggestion for an organization we should add to the directory? Email senior editor Dan Sullivan.

Classified information ... Another thing we've been wanting to do is offer a classified page, allowing you to list farm-related products and services you're seeking ... or offering. The impetus? Over the past year, dozens of readers have written us looking for a source of organic hay, or for someone who can process their organic oilseed. We've also had numerous people looking for farmers who can manage their organic acres. We didn't have the ability to manage these requests in a technologically sophisticated way, so we let them pass.

But at a recent New Farm staff meeting it occurred to us ... Why not take the simple approach. So that's what we're doing. We're inviting you to send us information on products and services you'd like to buy or sell, using a simple pop-up form. We'll post these classifieds on a simple web page every two weeks. The more entries we get, the more useful it will be. So click here to take advantage of this free opportunity.

See you at Pike Place Market: New Farm staffers will be out in front of Pike Place Market in Seattle this Thursday and Friday talking to folks about the web site, and distributing brochures detailing the true cost of conventional production and the tangible benefits of local and organic. It's part of a collaborative effort sponsored by Farm Aid, which is holding its concert in Seattle this year. If you're in the area, come by and say hi. For an online version of the brochure, which you can print out and give to your customers, click here.

Help us improve New Farm, Part 2: Several hundred of you have already filled out our annual New Farm reader survey. Thanks to all of you for the dozens of pages of comments and observations you sent our way. In a few weeks we'll share the results of the survey with you. For those of you who haven't filled out the survey, we hope you'll consider doing it now. It only takes about 5 minutes of your time, and will give us much needed information on what you like and dislike about the web site so we can channel our energies into improvements that matter to you. We'd also like your feedback on new features we're thinking about adding in the next half-year. To take the survey, click here.

Farm politics is messing with valuable programs, again. Time to take ACTION. Consider sending a note to decision makers about the following three critical ag issues:

Act before Sept. 20! Want real farm conservation? Speak now or forever hold your peace We now have one week to build the Conservation Security Progam back into the real conservation contender it was meant to be ... before Congress mangled it.
Act before October 1! Support Farm-to-School Serious about connecting our children with their food--and how it gets to the supermarket shelf? Then make sure Congress funds this program.
Free the meat markets! End packer ownership and stop closed-door deals Four companies control more than half of all U.S. hog slaughter, and more than 80 percent of U.S.-fed cattle slaughter. The market manipulations of these large companies cost family farmers more than 1 billion dollars a year.

Farm Locator update. We've added over 100 new farms from Washington State to our Farm Locator listing, and are continuing to add farms with help from farmer organizations around the country. We hope you'll add your own farm, if you haven't yet ... and if you work for an organization that serves farmers, we'd like to partner with you to get the farmers you represent on the Farm Locator. To check out the Farm Locator, click here. If you're interested in working with us to get farmers on the Locator, email me at info@newfarm.org.

Enjoy!
Chris Hill, Executive Editor

Don't forget to check out our latest Organic Price Index. All new today, September 14: Prices for the Grassroots OPX from 20 markets in 14 states.

Too hot to handle!
Padron peppers are 20 bucks a pound if you pick 'em just right ... which is easier said than done. More details below.

How an ill-fated cross-country motorcycle trip yielded an award-winning organic orchard.
See below for more details.

The house that built Hentry Wallace: A birthplace museum pays living tribute to legendary ag secretary Henry A. Wallace.
See below for more.

Cultivating long-term relationships ...

In the dry lands of western Washington, WSU plant breeder Steve Jones is working with—and for—farmers to develop a commercially-viable perennial wheat.

Perennial wheat

Closing the loop

It started 10 years ago with "a rototiller and an idea." Today, Full Circle Farm grows organic produce for 500 CSA members, 50 restaurants, 15 grocery stores, 12 farmers' markets, and 4 wholesalers.

Full Circle

What can towns and counties do to
support small and mid-sized farms?

Judith LaBelle of the Glynwood Center talks about what her organization has learned about effective farmland protection from years of working with municipal and county governments—where most of the real decisions are made.

Farmland protection

NEWS FROM MARIQUITA: A CSA Journal

Pardon my Padróns …

Andy is still working out the details of how to harvest his Spanish Padrón peppers before they get too hot. When he succeeds, the $20 per pound he fetches may finance a second honeymoon back in Spain … speaking of hot.

Soil legacy

Jerzy Boys Farm grows award-winning
fruit in North Central Washington

How an ill-fated cross-country motorcycle trip turned Wynne Weinreb and Scott Beaton into icons of sustainable fruit production ... and earned them a farmer-of-the-year award from Eco-Farm.

Jerzy Boys

In praise of country life
In rural Adair County, Iowa, a birthplace museum, meeting center and organic farm pay tribute to legendary ag secretary Henry A. Wallace by keeping his rich legacy alive, not just as a memory but as a vital living tradition.

Henry A. Wallace's mixed legacy
The life and career of Henry A. Wallace embodies the key paradoxes of agricultural history—the ways in which labor-saving devices or production gains usually lead to surpluses, lower prices, and, ultimately, fewer farmers.

Henry Wallace Center

Henry Wallace Bio

INTERN JOURNAL:
Insights and experiences from organic farms

JOURNAL ENTRY 6
Apprentice in the Rye

Our interns from near and far (and farming near and far) glad-handle grain and coffee beans, learn the language of plants and humans, and accommodate work schedules to the shifting seasons.

At right: Welcome Diana Chavez, a visiting intern from Ecuador, working this summer at Dripping Springs Gardens, 60 miles east of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Intern Journal

Susanna’s Costa Rican Sojourn

Home Farm fills a niche

Growing at 4200 feet, Home Farm specializes in mixed salad greens and specialty breads for the bustling San Isidro Farmers' Market.

READER MAIL

DEAR NEW FARM: How warm do the high tunnels stay on that Michigan State University farm you wrote about when they get the 10 below and 30-mile-an-hour winds in January and February?

DEAR NEW FARM: How do I become a member of WWOOF so I can travel through Costa Rica like Susanna Meyer did?

ASK JEFF:

Dear Jeff: How can I get my weedy fields into shape for grazing horses without using herbicides?

Bookstore Updates and Reviews