I don’t know about everyone else, but I am hoping the heat breaks soon.  Take care of yourself, drinks lots of water, and find some shade every now and again if you are outside.  And if you are inside, avoiding the heat, check out some reading material below:

Give some consideration to your cash rental rates as the 2013 and 2014 corn and soybean price projections are lower than the past few years.

Researchers at Virginia State University are piloting a program to gross $1/square foot on a one acre vegetable farm.

The University of Illinois Extension has a new website for local food systems and small farms.  Check it out here.

On a related note, the Leopold Center at Iowa State University has released new research on sustainable vegetable production.

Nebraska NRCS is accepting applications to restore windbreaks.

Finally, while there is typically only one recipe, the USDA released the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge cookbook.  It contains the recipes of all the kid chefs from the Challenge.  There are some amazing lunch (and dinner) recipes.  Congratulations to all the contestants!