The Ashfount blog
Practical writing on regenerative agriculture, the US local food scene and farm to table: soil, grazing, markets, policy and the people doing the work.
Beef and pork left the mandatory labeling law in 2015 after a WTO fight. A new Product of USA standard arrives in January 2026, a Senate bill would bring COOL back, and last week's House bill skipped it. Where a US grass-fed producer stands.
Regenerative Organic Certified, Land to Market, Regenified, Certified Regenerative by AGW: what each seal requires, what the audit costs, practice-based versus outcome-based verification, who actually asks for the label, and when a farm is better off with its own transparency.
Five years after the 2020 plant closures: why small plants kept disappearing, what the federal expansion grants built, where inspection and mobile units fit, and how a farm with no plant of its own secures its slaughter dates.
The title intern does not change the law. What federal and state rules require, how housing counts toward pay, what the 2025 H-2A wage rates say farm work is worth, and the curriculum and registered apprenticeship route that make the word apprentice honest.
Walk-behind tractors, flail mowers, silage tarps, paper pot transplanters and no-till drills, judged by the one test that matters on a few acres: hours saved against dollars spent. Extension trial numbers, the organic rule on paper pots, and what spring 2025 tariffs mean for prices.
A spring of frozen contracts and late reimbursements is the backdrop for grant season. Which USDA grants fit a small farm, what each costs in match and reports, the Value-Added Producer Grant due April 17, SARE, FMPP, RFSI, and the programs to leave alone.
A first season with pigs outdoors: how many to put on an acre, which heritage breeds forage well, fences that hold, water and shade, what the feed bill looks like, when to farrow, the rules on food scraps, and where Proposition 12 stands.
Late February is CSA sign-up season and the time to plan the other direct channel, the roadside stand: siting and sight lines, signs and the law behind them, zoning, honor boxes versus staffed hours, pricing by weight, payment apps and products that carry the year.
Fertilizer prices eased in 2024, then a tariff order landed on the country that ships most of our potash. The nitrogen bill is the one you control. Legume credits, honest manure math, a sidedress soil test and strip trials show where cuts are safe.
A new President takes office today and USDA's top floor turns over. Here is what that changes at your county office, what the December relief law already locks in, the handful of places worth watching, and how to protect a signed conservation contract.
The Winter Fancy Food Show opens in Las Vegas later this month, and every growing farm brand faces four questions: when to hand production to a co-packer, how to vet one, what a distributor's margin does to your price, and where the cash goes.
The holiday rush is when a home kitchen runs out of room. Here is how shared-use commercial kitchens rent time by the hour, what storage and licenses involve, how to move out of the cottage food exemption, and who funded new kitchens in 2024.
