Previous cool sustainable ag projects here on the farm include:

    * Cheap Heat for your Greenhouse:A home designed/built underbed radiant heating system for our 1500 sq. foot commercial greenouse. Our average heating costs over the last few years have been around $125/year - a savings of over $800/season compared to our friends with the same size greenhouse. Saving the planet from more greenhouse gasses is icing on the cake because the system pays for itself early in the second year of operation.

    * Solar electric tractors.(click on www.flyingbeet.com/electricg). We designed a solar electric tractor that's almost made us forget our big diesel in the back barn! (We're still addicted to the Front End Loader for heavy lifting sometimes...). The USDA SARE program provided a grant so we put detailed instructions on the web so you can make your own and it's received lots of national publicity. Now dozens have been built and are in use around the country with more coming every month! Who needs to farm with biodiesel when you can farm with the sun!

    * Organic Strawberry propogation Surprisingly, still not old news! A technique for growing commercial quantities of organic strawberry plugs that somehow seems to be news and get a new write-up every couple years. USDA Organic Standards still allow for the use of NON-Organic strawberry plugs in organic production because (they say) it's not practical to grow commercial strawberry plugs organically! We proved 'em wrong. Now lots more people prove 'em wrong each year! (Rules haven't changed, though...)

    * The CoolBot! New (patent pending) invention that took us 5 years of development, allows small farmers/wineries/even caterers and restaraurants to run a commercial sized walk-in cooler (up to 160 sq. feet) on a home air-conditioner. Run your cooler down to 35 degrees with a $325 air conditioner from Home Depot. Better still, the gizmo lowers operating electricity costs up to 65% compared to normal walk-in cooler compressor! Hundreds sold around the US and Canada - available in the EU and NZ for 2008. Check it out at www.storeitcold.com.

    * The Certified Naturally Grown program for small farmers following USDA Organic growing practices but who don't wish to be a part of the USDA NOP program. Hundreds of farmers have joined here, and Ron now works with IFOAM on their PGS Task Force, travelling and working on encourgaing this sort of approach to Certification on 6 continents!

    * Working with the United Nations! In 2006 Ron was hired by the UN-FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) as "International Organic Certification Consultant." He designed a PGS program for India, which is now operating successfully with tens of thousands of farmers signed up. The PGS is a model for other small farmer oriented programs around the world.

    * Hoophouse Dreams: Tested in 2004... Improved in 2005... perfected in 2006 and 2007. We'll write more soon! An undercover system of farming that small farmers can build themselves, saving money. We now have thousands of feet of hoophouses growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and we beginning in 2008 CHERRIES!

    * Cover Crops on Steroids: More on this soon. Testing started in 2006. Results still to come. This is a system for "grow-in-place" sheet composting that is initiated and completed in 8 weeks to add nutrients and organic matter to soil without having to haul in compost or manure, saving money, fossil fuel and (most important to farmers) TIME! Prelminary results looked promising but... far from conclusive. This is going to be a long term project.

Ron and Kathryn were proud to recieve national recognition for our contributions to sustainable agriculture through the Glynwood award in 2005.

       With your support, there's much more to come!