The Earthway 2750 Nylon Bag Seeder/Spreader is a handy piece of gear to have around. I’ve used mine for spreading fall rye and oats as green manure cover crops on relatively small sections, 2,500-5,000 sqf. You could probably get by with it for up to an acre or two. eventually, the walking and refilling would get a little long and a bigger solution would be…better. I haven’t used it that much, but it’s been around and held up well—solid for medium duty use at the price.

Specs from Earthway: “Corrosion, tear and weather resistant 20lb/9kg nylon bag hopper is equipped with a zippered top for easy filling and closure. This nylon construction allows for the bag to remain upright when filling yet collapse for easy storage. From the contoured base for fitting around your hip, the adjustable shoulder strap and a long crank handle, the 2750 is designed with comfortable operation in mind. The Exclusive Rocking Agitator provides smooth, even material feeding to the distribution plate. Our high speed direct drive gear box allows the operator to adjust the spread width between 8’/215cm-12’/457cm by simply changing the crank rate. Complete directional control and spring to close shut-off makes the 2750 the ultimate choice in hand operated spreaders.”

CNG Frequently Asked Questions

For building a low-cost walk-in cooler, here are two articles that take entirely different approaches. Both are well worth the read:

• Notes on How to Build Your Own Walk-In Cooler from CoolBot inventor Ron Khosla.
• Low-Cost Cold Storage Room for Market Growers from the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture

The Valley Oak wheel hoe is a fine one! I’ve owned one, a rubber wheel model, for around five seasons, haven’t broken the original blade, or anything else! From the company site: “This high-quality wheel hoe is designed and manufactured by an organic vegetable farmer who knows what it takes for a tool to provide years of service. You can also use this valuable tool for making furrows or loosening compacted soils. Built to last for decades of hard use. Tempered spring steel blade available in 7 sizes from 5″ to 18″ blade. New cam lever adjusts handle height quickly—no tools needed. 1-year money-back guarantee.” With metal or rubber wheel: $265 US.

Web: Valley Oak Tool Company
Availability: order direct

The fantastic classic Redhead water breaker has been expanded into a line, with new narrow and wide spray pattern versions available in addition to the standard in red. The Redhead line also has a new color-coded look.

From the Dramm site: “Dramm introduces our new Orange Wide Pattern 1000PL and Green Narrow Pattern 1000PL. The new 1000PLs have the same soft flow of the popular Redhead but with different pattern widths. Growers requested a variety of widths over the years as they found different uses for the standard 1000PL. The Green 1000PL-N is perfect for focused watering where more control is required. The Orange 1000PL-W throws a wider pattern than the standard Redhead, offering the ability to cover more area with a soft, gentle flow.”

Video greenhouse action: “Here is a unique use of the new Green 1000PL-N narrow waterbreaker. One customer uses them to automatically edge water, reducing the need to flood the whole bay.”

If you’re small-scale farming, having a presence on the Web is pretty well a must these days. One approach is to start a farming blog. There are two basic approaches, either by opening a (free) account on one of the blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress or TypePad, or by running your own blog software. The second way I far prefer, for flexibility and control, and it’s really no more difficult than using a blog service. Only thing is, it’ll cost you a few dollars a month (starting at $5-6), plus around $10 to register a domain name (www.yourfarmsite.com). If you opt for the DIY route, there is only one serious choices in blogging software: WordPress. WP is open source and free, friendly, easy to set up, and quite straightforward to use. It is also highly customizable (you can add anything, from contact forms to photo galleries with ease), and, well, FUN. That’s just one opinion, but an opinion shared by…literally, millions. (BTW, this site runs on WP.) If you’re about to set up a new blog, or are unhappy with your current situation, definitely give it a try!