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The Modern Farmer 2016 Favorites: How-To Guides

There are few things we like more than a good how-to that guide that can help everyone—from 5,000-acre commodity farmers to a Brooklynite with tomatoes growing on a fire escape—get more from the wonderful world of farming.

Our how-to guides this year have spanned the full breadth of the agricultural industry, from basic primers (how to raise chickens!) to the advanced (how to grow California-style produce outside California!) to the unexpected (how to make your own dog food!). Here are some of our favorite, most helpful, most popular, and most interesting of the year.

How to Raise Chickens for Farm-Fresh Eggs: From choosing breeds and caring for chicks to tricking out a coop—here’s what you need to get crackin’.

Social Media for Farmers 101: It’s no longer enough to just have great products. Farmers have to have a solid social media presence. Here’s how.

How to Keep Honeybees: Join the backyard beekeeping revolution and keep pollinators buzzing. The payback’s pretty sweet.

Cropped: How to Grow Microgreens: Microgreens aren’t just a fancypants culinary trend. You can grow them basically anywhere, and their seed-to-harvest cycle is under a month.

How to Grow California Crops Outside Ag’s Golden State: Figs, almonds, and citrus can, with some expertise, be grown even in places with actual weather.

How to Get Your Garden Ready for Spring: We’re still a little ways away from starting the 2017 planting cycle, but it’s never too early to learn.

How to Shop for Veggies: Our Seed-Selection Guide: Not all seeds are created equal. We combed through seed catalogs to create this guide.

Sheet Mulching: How to Smother Weeds, Build Soil & Conserve Water the Easy Way: You may not know about sheet mulching, but it’ll change the way you garden.

Cropped: How to Grow Ramps: Ramps are wildly expensive and increasingly rare in the wild. But, little known fact: you can grow them yourself.

The Modern Farmer Guide to Grocery Store Eggs: Farm fresh? Organic? Omega-3 added? Free Range? Cage free? How to sort out the real labels from the meaningless ones. (A bunch of them are meaningless.)

Farm to Fido’s Bowl: How to Make Homemade Dog Food: Store-bought dog food is often much more gross (and less nutritious) than you’d think. Luckily, it’s easy to make your own.

How to Choose a Good Fertilizer: One of the most important choices you can make is in your fertilizer. Here’s how to choose one.

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  • United States
  • Dan Nosowitz