Ann Adams operating a lightweight wheel hoe.

     A woman's touch...isn't the same as a man's touch. Liz Brensinger, with a master's degree in nursing, and her friend Ann Adams, whose master's is in public health, had a wealth of professional knowledge about the physiological differences between men and women. When they started to grow vegetables for Adams' son, a gourmet chef, they went looking for the best farm tools they could find that were designed for use by women and they found...none. Zip. Zero. Nada. So they designed their own. And started a business. Lancaster Farming Regional Editor Margaret Gates interviewed the partners and wrote about them for our October 30 edition. It's in the food and family features section.

 

Some of the research apparatus
at the Stroud Water Research Center.



     After more than 20 years of study into the effect of trees on streams, scientists at the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pa., can say that trees play an important role in maintaining a healthy and stable ecosystem. A riparian (fancy word for "streambank") buffer zone of 100 feet or so, whether it's covered with grass or trees, can help reduce erosion, sedimentation, and nutrient flow into streams. But trees work best, a fact staff writer Chris Torres learned on a recent tour of the Stroud Center which was sponsored by a couple of environmental groups. His report starts on page one of our current edition.



     And now for a pop quiz...Why did 18th century Felix de Azara think popcorn tasted like hair? And what kind of guy was Azara, anyway, and what's the real reason he went to Paraguay? You'l find a whole page of fascinating popcorn history, science and lore on page B10 of this week's Lancaster Farming.

  

Ron Bingaman shows his granddaughter
Avery a restored IH tractor.



     The thing about tractor people is some like red ones, some favor green, or yellow, or blue. But if a John Deere guy needed to borrow a wrench from an IH guy, the JD guy would have his wrench, with maybe a sly comment or two about why he needed a wrench in the first place. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all get along like that? Using our differences to build bridges instead of walls? That's the way the tractor community operates. You can get a look at the IH side of that community in Millville, Pa., where the local chapter of the International Harvesters Collector Club bought an IH dealership that it hopes to turn into a museum. Stay tuned to the IH collectors website (nationalihcollectors.com) for the grand opening in a year or so. And if you do make it to the museum, you might want to leave that green cap - you know the one we mean - in the truck. Lancaster Farming correspondent Lisa Z. Leighton paid a visit to the Millville IH folks when they celebrated the purchase of the dealership. Her report is on page B23 of this week's edition.







     Check out these news items and many more in our October 23 print edition, or online at lancasterfarming.com.



Bobby Prigel at his on-farm creamery.



     Here's a new item to add to your list of farming hazards - lawsuits. Bobby Prigel, a fourth-generation dairyman from Glen Arm, Maryland, tends to a herd of 180 Jerseys. He and his family decided a few years ago that they'd like to develop a creamery and ice cream business on a patch of their preserved farmland. After they secured all the required permits, the lawsuits began. Was the operation permitted on preserved land? Did state health officials properly evaluate the creamery before issuing a license? Is their roadside stand legal? Prigel figures the family's $200,00-and-still-growing legal bill has paid off in publicity. Some 400 people showed up for opening day in September. Lancaster Farming reporter Chris Torres called on the Prigels to see how they're making out.

     Chris Torres also attended a recent meeting in Lancaster, Pa., where the federal Environmental Protection Agency told an audience that included farmers and officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that their proposed steps to limit the state's flow of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay were not enough. It was, nevertheless, a quiet meeting, according to Torres.

     Pennsylvania lost 14 percent of its dairy farmers between 2006 and 2009, according to a page one report byJames Haggerty, who writes for the Scranton Times Tribune. That means that about one in every seven dairy families emptied their bulk tanks for good in just a three-year period. The flight was thanks mostly, but not entirely, to a drop in the on-farm milk price from $20.26 in November, 2008, to $12.90 in June, 2009.

     October, you probably already know, is National Pork Month. This week's Home on the Range page features a recipe for happy pork chops, and an easy pulled pork recipe that goes into the slow cooker. And eight other recipes sure to tempt the palate.

     Writing from Moneta, Virginia, Lancaster Farming correspondent Jenneifer Merritt shares her own experience with bringing farmers, parents and school administrators together for a farm-to-school program. She was eager to see her sons, both students at Moneta Elementary, and their classmates eating cafeteria food grown on local farms. The good thing about local food is that it's fresh and flavorful. And, unlike some other cafeteria fare, you can always tell what it is.

     A hearing room packed with raw milk producers and a few of their customers listened to Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture officials propose an overhaul of the state’s milk regulations on Thursday, Oct. 7.
Five PDA officials presented their case to the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission, a five-member group charged with ensuring that new regulations are both legal and effective. In the end, after nearly 4-and-a-half hours of testimony and questions, the IRRC commissioners voted 3-2 to disapprove the PDA’s proposed rule change.
     Commission Chairman Arthur Coccodrilli, a businessman from Peckville, asked the department to try again. The proposed regulations are designed to bring the commonwealth’s rules in sync with those of the majority of other states, a move that one PDA official said was 25 years overdue. Read more at http://www.lancasterfarming.com/1016-Milk-hearing




     The director of the only tractor test lab in the Western Hemisphere will be talking tractor testing at Binkley and Hurst’s annual Customer Classic next 
month. Roger Hoy, director of the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory, will be making two one-hour presentations each day of the Customer Classic, 
which is being held Nov. 17 and 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the dealership in Lititz, Pa.
     The test lab is the country’s only officially designated tractor testing station. Tractors are tested according to the codes of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Twenty-nine other countries adhere to these codes. 
     The lab was started in 1920 after a disgruntled Nebraska farmer found that three tractors he bought did not perform as advertised. According to Hoy, the farmer’s efforts led to the enactment of a state law requiring all tractors be tested on their performance before being sold. Early testing focused on the tractor competing against horse-drawn implements. Things have changed since then. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres prepared a report on the upcoming event for our print edition or the website at http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Tractor-Test-Lab-to-be-Featured-at-Dealer-Event


     Members of the Berks County Livestock Clubs exhibited and sold their 4-H projects at the 2010 Annual Roundup at the Reading Fairgrounds the end 
of September. The sale featured 104 project animals grossed $77,225. For more details and photos check out our print edition or online at 
lancasterfarming.com.  http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Livestock-Sale-Grosses-More-Than--77-000-for-Berks-4-H-Youth


     When Russell Shaw started a small apple orchard 10 feet north of the Mason-Dixon Line in 1909, he had no idea it would still be there 100 years in 
the future. The story of how that initial enterprise grew into a century-old agricultural enterprise is recounted in our current edition by Lancaster Farming correspondent Linda Sarubin. To read the story and see the photos, click here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Family-Roots-Run-Deep-at-Shaw-Orchards



     Two Pennsylvania cows were named grand champions of their breed recently at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. Tex-Star Othello Peri, exhibited by Springville Farm and Fisher of New Enterprise, Pa., took grand champion and best uddered at the International Milking Shorthorn Show and also won the aged cow class. Hard Core Farms of New Enterprise was named premier breeder and premier exhibitor at the Milking Shorthorn show. For the story and photos, see http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Pa--Cows-Take-Honors-at-World-Dairy-Expo

     Would you like to supersize that? These young french-fry cutters sliced their way through a ton of poataoes during a recent fund-raising auction for the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pa. The non-profit insitution focuses on children with metabolic disorders, and gets a funding boost from its annual auction. This year 1,700 registered bidders competed for, among many other items, 79 donated quilts. Lancaster Farming reporter Michelle Kunjapu attended the auction, ate a few fries and took this photo, which appears in our current edition.


     All dried up...that's a good thing. Food and Family Features Editor Anne Harnish spent a few hours recently in the kitchen of Janice Bowermaster, who has been putting up dried fruits and vegetables for more than 40 years. She's done everything from apples to zucchinis (although she's not quite happy with her zucchini efforts) until, has won blue ribbons at local fairs and state competitions, and plans to keep her dehydrators running for the foreseeable future. Anne's story on the master dehydrator is in this week's Section B.
     

     A gourd-ious time of year. Do our headline writers have a sense of humor? What do you think. Check out the photo of gourds and men on page one, then go to the Home on the Range feature for wealth of seasonally appropriate squash and pumpkin recipes.
     
     Also worth reading: Chris Torres' story on the impact of funding cuts on Pennsylvania's animal lab system; Andrew Jenner's take on an EPA TMDL hearing at James Madison University; and Charlene Shupp's story on the poultry industry's search for alternatives to antibiotics. See our print edition, or go to http://lancasterfarming.com.