Dan Sullivan

2 weeks ago | lancasterfarming.com | Dan Sullivan

FLEETWOOD, Pa. — Tim Stark is a rock star farmer, scoring his first big hit popularizing heirloom tomatoes. Over the past three decades, the colorful and often weirdly shaped open-pollinated tomatoes have become ubiquitous at farmers markets across the country. Stark has mentored a parade of young people at Eckerton Hill Farm who have gone on to grow and produce everything from artisan cheeses to chicory.

3 weeks ago | lancasterfarming.com | Dan Sullivan

Parasite resistance drew Constance Katzenbach to a special breed of heritage sheep. As recording secretary for the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep Association International, she’s playing a pivotal role in improving this rare breed’s genetics. The group has received a grant from The Livestock Conservancy to study Barbados Blackbelly sheep DNA. Katzenbach raises the Barbados variety at Sweet Sourland Farms in Hopewell, New Jersey, where she used to raise goats but had trouble with parasites.

3 weeks ago | lancasterfarming.com | Dan Sullivan

Robert Dunning was banking on a USDA grant to fund new fencing for his farm in Bangor, Pennsylvania. Now he is one of thousands of farmers who are trying to find a way forward after having federal funding frozen or canceled. “It’s a struggle,” Dunning said.

4 weeks ago | lancasterfarming.com | Dan Sullivan

Crazy chicken ladies. That is a moniker two 17-year-old 4-H’ers, besties and second-place National Avian Bowl winners wear proudly. Adelaide (Addy) Miller and Emily Bechdel, both from Clinton County, Pennsylvania, have been competing against each other off and on since they were 8 years old. In November 2024, they teamed up to take second place at the National 4-H Poultry and Egg Conference’s Avian Bowl held each year in Louisville, Kentucky.

1 month ago | lancasterfarming.com | Dan Sullivan

Cookies and Cream. It’s not just a popular ice cream flavor, it’s a dazzlingly beautiful breed of hybrid chicken. The full name is “Lisa Steele’s Cookies and Cream,” and it’s the result of a collaboration between Meyer Hatchery out of Polk, Ohio, and Steele, a fifth-generation chicken keeper dubbed the “Queen of the Coop” by the media.