EDGE on the Net

Hundreds of small blueberry farms have opened in the Sunshine State in the past three decades, and blueberry production has increased more than tenfold in the past decade.

Dozens of farmers in California and other states have started replacing some of their crops with flowers and shrubs that are enticing to bees, hoping to lower their pollination costs and restore a bee population devastated in the past few years.

As Christmas approaches, thoughts turn to Christmas markets. And, nowhere are they more beautiful than in SouthWest Germany. From the Black Forest region to Heidelberg, Mannheim and Stuttgart, SouthWest Germany’s Christmas markets are magical.

Among the thousands of colorful potatoes - from yellow German Butterballs to Magic Mollys with flesh so purple it’s nearly black - is a half-row of red potatoes with yellow flesh that University of Alaska researchers believe could become popular.

Braden Janowski has never planted seeds or brought in a harvest. He doesn’t even own overalls. Yet when 430 acres of Michigan cornfields was auctioned last summer, it was Janowski, a brash, 33-year-old software executive, who made the winning bid.

The popularity of farm-to-school programs that put locally grown food on cafeteria trays has exploded in recent years - so much so that the federal agency in charge of school lunches is giving them a new stamp of approval.

It started with an ad on Craigslist: Free holiday on an organic farm on Long Island, work for your keep and enjoy wineries and great beaches nearby. The farm would even supply transportation from New York City and bicycles to get around once you arrive.

A steady stream of customers filled baskets and shopping bags with vegetables, cranberries, cheese, fresh-baked breads and pies while chatting with the dozen or so farmers selling goods in the visitor’s center of a local museum.

A steady stream of customers filled baskets and shopping bags with vegetables, cranberries, cheese, fresh-baked breads and pies while chatting with the dozen or so farmers selling goods in the visitor’s center of a local museum.

This time of year, the owners of On The Edge Farm hope to draw in holiday shoppers to buy gifts from the farm rather than the mall. A roadside sign even offers suggestions: "A cooler full of meat and a partridge in a pear tree."