For the Love of Farming: A 70th Anniversary Special
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re honoring the voices of farmers as we celebrate our 70th anniversary. This special podcast episode will feature a variety of voices from farmers and ag industry members who stopped by our pop-up recording studio at this year’s . You’ll hear voices of all ages — from a recent college graduate working her first job in the ag industry to a 92-year-old retired farmer who recalls exactly how his farm community came to his aid when he lost a leg in a farm accident. You’ll even hear from Pennsylvania Ag Secretary Russell...
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Dare to Return to the Haunted FarmHouse
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re returning to the haunted farmhouse for some seasonal fun and spine-tingling tales from the farm. In this episode, we’ll be sharing four spooky stories that take place on farms or in rural communities because, let’s face it, scary stories from the city just don’t have quite the same chilling effect as those set out in the country. For our first tale, we’ll travel to Robertson County, Tennessee, where the Bell family came to farm in the early 1800s. Unfortunately for the Bells, a spirit that would become known as the...
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Blending Herbs and Making Tea With Katelyn Melvin
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Katelyn Melvin, owner of . Melvin grows herbs and makes her own herbal tea blends in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania. Her journey into herb farming started by growing herbs in high school. She later worked on a few vegetable farms and decided to take on farming full time. The farm grows multiple acres of herbs including chamomile, peppermint, lemon balm, anise hyssop and more. The teas are made only with herbs grown on the farm. “All the tea blends come from my love of the fresh herbs,” Melvin said. She has three...
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Empowering People, Empowering Ag With Tonya Van Slyke
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with Tonya Van Slyke, the longtime executive director of the . Van Slyke grew up on her family’s 250-cow dairy farm in New York. “I think my quest to be a leader in the industry came from my involvement in both 4-H and FFA,” she said. “That’s really where my desire to utilize my voice and be an advocate for the industry came from.” After working at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine as a project manager, Van Slyke joined the Northeast Dairy Producers Association as its first...
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The Many Uses of Native Plants With Cathryn Pugh
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, we’re talking to Cathryn Pugh, a forestry educator with Penn State Extension. Pugh specializes in agroforestry, nontimber forest products and native plants. She is also the president of the Pennsylvania Native Plant Society. There are five main aspects of agroforestry: silvopasture, alley cropping, windbreaks, riparian buffers and forest farming. “Agroforestry can fit into a lot of different places,” Pugh said. “It’s essentially thinking about how to incorporate trees into agricultural spaces.” While Pugh works with farmers to help them learn how to best...
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Turning Food Waste Into Compost With 'Fly Lady' Aubrey Fornwalt
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with Aubrey Fornwalt, the founder and owner of in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Full Circle uses black soldier flies to convert food waste from the surrounding community into manure and compost. Fornwalt also sells the black soldier fly larvae as feed to poultry operations. It’s the first bioconversion operation of its kind in the state. Fornwalt didn’t always want to be in the decomposition business. She began her career as a graphic designer, and although she was composting her own food waste, she felt...
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Merging Science and People With Heidi Reed
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Heidi Reed, an agronomy educator with Penn State Extension. Reed was recently part of a crop conditions tour across the state, and this year’s corn and soybean yields are looking average to below average, mainly due the dry conditions. “Unless somebody has an irrigated field, I don’t think any yield records are going to be broken this year,” Reed said. The dry summer came on the heels of a very wet spring, making it a tough weather year for Pennsylvania farmers. Prolonged stretches of weather are becoming...
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Woodlands Don't Manage Themselves: Foresty Planning With Kathy Smith
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with Kathy Smith, the program director for the Ohio Woodland Stewards Program at Ohio State University. Smith knew early on that she wanted to work outside and was interested in natural resource management. Forestry felt like a natural fit. “I appreciate being able to understand the trees and how we can utilize trees to solve problems, make things better, and also help landowners to deal with the issues that they have,” Smith said. Smith spent the first 11 years of her career working as a watershed forester with...
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Helping Students Find Their Ag Paths With Wendy Powers
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with Wendy Powers, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland. Powers is the first woman to serve in the role, effective July 1. She didn’t grow up in agriculture, but her undergrad experience at Cornell University made her interested in the field. Since then, Powers has studied and worked in agriculture at land grant universities, coming to Maryland from Washington State University. “I am tremendously loyal to the land grant mission,” Powers said. “When I look at the...
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Aquaponics and Giving Back to the Community With Yemi Amu
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with Yemi Amu, the founder and director of , an outdoor aquaponics farm and education center in Brooklyn, New York. Amu is originally from Nigeria and belongs to the Yoruba ethnic group. Her Yoruba roots have influenced much of her work in the U.S., from the name of her operation to the style of farming. Oko is a Yoruba word that loosely translates to farm, but in fact has a deeper tie to agriculture. “The true meaning is a place where agriculture is the center of life and activity,” Amu said. “And that’s...
info_outlineThis week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Jennie Schmidt, a grain and grape farmer on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Prior to farming at Schmidt Farms full time, Schmidt worked as a registered dietitian.
“I was able to kind of meld my training,” she said. “I always tell people that farming is the front end of nutrition. They’re the same continuum.”
Thanks to her knowledge in both fields, Schmidt was offered speaking engagements, at first with dietitian and nutrition groups. This then led to her speaking nationally at conferences held by groups such as the U.S. Grains Council and the U.S. Ag Export Development Council.
While she said she enjoys the opportunities of speaking engagements, Schmidt spends most of her time farming.
Schmidt Farms uses a lot of conservation practices and was doing so long before Schmidt joined the operation.
“My father-in-law was always very progressive in adopting new practices and very cognizant of leaving the farm in better condition than you received it,” Schmidt said. “That’s kind of our philosophy to be able to do what we need to do to make sure the land stays intact and the nutrients stay in our soils and not in the waterways.”
Initially, the farm was a hog and beef cattle operation but transitioned out of livestock and into grain.
In the early 2000s, Schmidt contacted local wineries to see if they’d be interested in purchasing grapes in the next few years.
Ever since, Schmidt Farms has grown hybrid grape varieties and is now also growing some vinifera varieties.
“We probably have 12 different varieties now,” she said, and the diversity in the crop allows for different types of wine.
While Schmidt never planned on being a farmer, she said it was the best decision she ever made, and she hopes to inspire others in the industry.
“I’m trying to be a mentor to either girls that are in FFA or 4-H or younger women who are starting out in farming, because I’ve had several female mentors who have helped me grow in what I do and in my leadership roles,” she said. “I think that’s just sort of the path of women helping other women — empower them to do whatever they want to do.”