Mena Hautau, who spent almost 23 years helping Berks farmers, has become the first woman to receive the highest national award for an extension agent: induction into its hall of fame. The award was announced virtually this week. She will receive a plaque and her photo will be added to an online gallery of winners. J. Craig Williams, president of the National Association of County Agriculture Agents, said he has had the honor to work with Hautau for many years and said she is a true hall of fame winner and an example of the high quality county agents from the North East Region.

In Mark Lopez’s farmhouse kitchen, there’s a sketch made from an old photograph of his grandparents, Elmer and Sarah Stoltzfus. They look lovingly into one another’s eyes, smiling as if they’d just shared a joke. They seem confident and wise.The picture is a poignant reminder of where Lopez finds himself as owner of Wholesome Dairy Farm in the 21st century, and inspiration for where he wants to go. With 80 grass-fed Ayrshire cows, he is breaking even financially by selling raw milk, yogurt and k...

Penn State researchers help make the breakthrough to stop a variety invasive insects threatening farms, hardwoods and livestock A spotted lanternfly plucked from a tree near the Pagoda last year is making waves through the national bug research community. Her (it was a female insect) DNA is the first to be sequenced in a ground-breaking new process that researchers say could be a key in winning the fight against her species and many other invasive bugs. The news was reported Oct. 14 in the journal Gigascience.

Shumaila Shah knows how to cook her husband's favorite dish the way one might say the Pledge of Allegiance. "Cook onions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger crushed together," she said, articulating something so familiar it didn't need words, English or Punjabi. "Salt, pepper, garam masala. Put meat in and add water to make a gravy. Cook until the meat is soft, not tough." How long? She thinks for a moment. "A half-hour; it depends on the meat," she said. "Then add the potatoes, because they take a shorter time to cook. We eat it with naan." The recipe for her aloo gosht is more an act than a recipe. Classic Pakistani meat and potatoes, it is familiar and comforting with lamb or goat. Shumaila and her husband, Sajjad, a respiratory specialist, eat a lot of lamb, a red meat that had been fading from the American diet. After falling for decades, lamb sales started rising in 2005, boosted by a growing ethnic market - primarily Middle Eastern and Latino - that is thriving outside the mainstream channels through direct sales and small butchers, according to an American Sheep Industry Association and Lamb Council report in 2010.

Gray-tipped clouds seemed to erupt in the September sky above the hills at The Grove at Kempton in Albany Township. If a cloudy sky could feel optimistic, this one did, exposing swaths of cornflower blue to the small assembly below. A cool breeze swept Chelsea Geisinger's dark brown hair from her back to reveal a tattoo just above her strapless wedding dress. At that moment she was still Chelsea Geisinger, not yet Mrs. Isaiah Ayala. It is the verse that begins, "Love is patient, love is kind.