Market Farming

[Art Petrzelka <art AT complum.com>]

On Thu, 2003-08-21 at 08:07, Paul A. Bock wrote:
> Hello,
>   Has anybody ever tried growing sweet potatoes in the northeast?  Western
> New York Specifically (10-15 miles inland from lake Erie)
> 
>   How about Cane Sorghum for sorghum syrup?

I used to think that sweet potatoes were a southern crop, but then I
found http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/ here in Iowa. Then I read
Heirloom Vegetable Gardening by William Woys Weaver and found out that
sweet potatoes used to be common in the North.

I'm trying to locate larger quantities of sweet sorghum, and can provide
these Web links for you:

The National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association
http://www.ca.uky.edu/nssppa/

U of Wisconsin Alternative Field Crops manual
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/syrup.html

Old Time Sorghum making
http://www.HerculesEngines.com/sorghum/default.html

Albert Lea Seed House
http://www.alseed.com/

Some harvesting research with no practical results (except what not to
do)
http://btgs1.ct.utwente.nl/eeci/archive/biobase/B10603.html

I'd like to find an old corn binder to fix up so I could harvest it
easier. It's very labor intensive otherwise.

Albert Lea Seed House carries quantities of Orange Rox Cane. This is
sometimes called Waconia. It's being sold for forage, and I'm just not
sure how it's been bred recently.

There used to be a Waconia mill in our area and lots of people grew for
them, but now it's gone and so is the sorghum.

-- 
-----
Art Petrzelka
Amana, Iowa, USA