Last Minute Winter Recipes for Thanksgiving!

You know you support your farmers around Thanksgiving when....

• You get a thrill hunting for the perfect butternut squash at the farmers market
• You visited your local farm MONTHS ago to reserve your holiday turkey
• You take a trip to High Hill Orchard to pick delicious apples for your homemade pies
• You are counting down the days to crack open the hard cider you have been fermenting for what seems like forever
• You have mapped out the days cooking schedule down to the minute

nom nom nom nom 

Show your family members who's boss when it comes to holiday cooking with a few of CT NOFA's favorite recipes for these cold months ahead.

My thanksgiving line-up wouldn't be complete without the Kale and Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes made fresh with the recipe from Wild Carrot Farm. 

Click "read more" for the full recipe!

Food Sovereignty and Our Work

Food sovereignty is a very important, emerging concept and movement these days.

According to Wikipedia,
"Food sovereignty", a term coined by members of Via Campesina in 1996, asserts the right of people to define their own food systems. Advocates of food sovereignty put the individuals who produce, distribute and consume food at the center of decisions on food systems and policies, rather than the corporations and market institutions they believe have come to dominate the global food system.

Sometimes food sovereignty is spoken of by name.  More often, however, it is lingering just below the surface in the great work so many people are doing in the local, fair, organic, sustainable and good food movement.

Mark T. Rutkowski presenting at the 2014 Getting Started In Organic Farming Conference

As the days are getting shorter and the nights colder, the time to start planning for the next growing season is now! A great place to start is at the 9th Annual Getting Started In Organic Farming Conference on January 18, 2014 at Goodwin College, East Hartford. This must attend event is perfect for perspective farmers or conventional farmers who are looking to transition to organic. 

CT NOFA is happy to announce that Mark T. Rutkowski of Urban Oaks Farm will be presenting at this years conference. Mark is currently a staff farmer and greens manager at Urban Oaks Organic Farm in New Britain, CT and farm consultant for the New Britain public school system. Mark's season extension experience includes growing in heated greenhouses, high tunnels and under row covers. Previously Mark was an incubator farmer at the Community Farm of Simsbury and an assistant at Grow Hartford. Mark is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University. Mark will be presenting on Season Extension for the spring and fall. 

For more information and online registration for the Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference visit:
http://ctnofa.org/events/Getting%20Started/2014_getting_started_conference_page.html

Massaro Farm Gives Back to the Community Through Food Donations

Massaro Community Farm

Here at CT NOFA we believe that having access to healthy, organic food grown locally should not just be a privilege reserved to a small population of citizens. That's why we LOVE hearing when local farms work to provide local food to as many people as they can; Massaro Community Farm has done so through their inspiring food donation program.  

Organic Agriculture and Thinking in three parts

Organic Agriculture and Thinking in three parts

By Bill Duesing

Organic Advocate

1. Use Nature’s methods/ work with Nature.
2. Pay attention to:
     where things come from
     where things go, and
     what the effects are at both ends and along the way.
3. Think holistically.

For years I’ve used these three points to illustrate what organic agriculture is and by extension what an organic attitude for living on this beautiful planet should be.

They have held up very well over time.

See Part one, Use Nature’s Methods here.

For Part two, Paying attention and making connections, click here. 

Part three: Think holistically

“The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people."