EDGE Miami

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.

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.

A Louisiana researcher looking into ways to produce more and bigger crawfish in the same space said she’s had success with lighting the ponds at night and believes her work could pave the way for expanding crawfish farming in cooler areas.

hreatened with a series of state laws cracking down on cramped cages, the egg industry on Thursday said it would agree to seek federal regulation to improve conditions for egg-laying hens.

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.

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."