Vegetarian Fall Harvest Dinner at Sugar & Olives

Benefiting CT NOFA  

Fall Vegetarian Harvest Dinner

Saturday, December 3

7 pm - 10 pm

Sugar & Olives in Norwalk

Chef/restaurateur Jennifer Balin
$100 per person ($700 for a table of 8) 

Includes event sourcebook with menu, recipes, and farm and food sources

Join us for an elevated farm to table dining experience in a charming industrial space to celebrate fall, support CT NOFA, and dine on cutting edge vegetarian cuisine showcasing the season's bounty. 

This elegant vegetarian feast features fall vegetables proudly grown by CT NOFA farmers and cocktails crafted with small batch local spirits and seasonal ingredients.  

3 Star Certified Green Restaurant Sugar & Olives has been a lunch sponsor at our Annual Winter Conference for the past five years and is a celebrated destination for enjoying and learning how to prepare local food. 

Tickets to this CT NOFA fundraiser dinner are $100 per person or $700 for a table of 8 and must be purchased online before the event. Click here to book your seat or table today! 

Enjoy live music and an opportunity to dine with the growers and producers whose food and drink is being served at the event.

It's Time to Rethink the Aluminum Can

Organic Advocate
By Bill Duesing

Each week Americans toss roughly a billion aluminum cans into the landfill and roughly another billion into the recycling bin.

Our country should be leading the way toward a more livable future, but with our profligate energy and resource use, we are leading in the opposite direction.

Americans use more energy per capita than residents of any country except Canada and several small, Middle East oil producers.  Based on 2011 numbers each American uses almost 50 percent more energy than the average Russian, almost twice as much as the French, Germans and Japanese, over twice as much as the British and Italians and three times as much as the Chinese.  We use 11 times what the average Indian uses and 34 times a Bangladeshi's daily energy use!

Yet, we all have roughly the same basic needs and live on the same planet.

Organic Farming and the Age of the "Locavore" Movement- Getting Started in Organic Farming 2015

With 2014 coming to a close, it is time to look at what educational opportunities CT NOFA is offering in the new year!

On January 24th CT NOFA will be heading to Connecticut College for the 10th annual Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference where there will be a ah-mazing line up of speakers to motivate attendees to start their careers in organic agriculture. 

Organic Farming and the Age of the "Locavore" Movement

Presented by Patrick Horan, Waldingfield Farm

A discussion about the "locavore" movement , and how organic food production was a principle reason for the local food movement's rise in the Northeast. But cost of production and the availability of locally produced conventional product has made it increasingly difficult to survive. How do we survive?

Patrick has been working at Waldingfield full time since 2006. He is responsible for all marketing, sales, and operations, as well as day to day farming duties. He and wife and son, Suzie and Griffin, divide their time between Brooklyn, NY, and Washington. CT.

Winter Conference Teaser: Improving Food Access, Raised Bed Gardens and Seed Saving!

The Winter Conference is 3 1/2 months away!

We will begin counting down to CT NOFA's largest celebration of local and organic food, farming and community with a glimpse into to line-up each week showcasing a few workshops we have recently announced.  

Improving Food Access Through Farmers Markets, CSAs, and Mobile MarketsDan Gregory & Pauline Zaldonis
"In this workshop, we will give an overview of Hartford Food System's efforts to improve food access in the City of Hartford. We will also go over various low-income inclusive CSA models and how to increase market revenue by accessing state and federal initiatives such as SNAP, WIC, and FMNP."

Dan Gregory is the farm manager for the urban farm, Grow Hartford. The farm offers subsidized low-income CSA shares and sells at local farmers markets in Hartford. Pauline Zaldonis is the program coordinator of the Hartford Mobile Market and policy analyst for Hartford Food System.

The Food Safety Modernization Act, Round 2; Your comments are critical, again!

By Bill Duesing 

Both organic and conventional foods can be a source of food poisoning outbreaks. However, in an organic system, there’s a much higher level of microbial biodiversity, so there are more naturally beneficial microbes in the system and soil.

Studies show that when you introduce pathogens into an organic system, they often don’t survive very long because the biologically rich community of organisms that’s naturally there either competes effectively with them or uses them for lunch.

 -Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources in Pullman.

We all want our food to be "safe."  We expect those mixed greens we buy for our salads to be free of microbes that could make us sick.  That's the case whether we pick up a plastic package of conventional mesclun which comes from the other side of the country or our organic CSA share, freshly mixed from produce of several neighboring farms. *(See #2 below.)

In September, as part of its implementation of the Food SafetyModernization Act (FSMA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the second versions of the two Rules which apply to fresh fruits and vegetables which are normally eaten raw.  The Produce Rule applies to farms.  The Preventative Controls Rule applies to facilities which process food.  In the rules there are many references to RACs.  Those are raw agricultural commodities. The extensive Table 1 in the appendix lists all the different things that are done to RACs and whether they are classified as harvest activities or processing activities.

FDA will accept comments from farmers, eaters, handlers and researchers on these new versions until December 15, 2014. Your comments are critically important.

Journeyperson Check-in: Allyson Angelini at Full Heart Farm *WinterShare*

Full Heart Farm is excited to be wrapping up our third growing season and begin planning for 2015!

The 2014 growing season produced our best harvest yet -  an abundance of vegetables, pasture-raised chicken + eggs, and pork.  We continued to provide dinner ingredients for the  50+ families that support our farm through our MemberShare Program, and are incredibly grateful for the community that surrounds the farm.  Our main harvest season is 26 weeks (six months straight!), with a smaller WinterShare program that completes the year.

Climate Change and Organic Agriculture

By Bill Duesing

Many of us participated in the inspiring People's Climate March on 9/21/2014 in New York City. Marchers represented a wide variety of religious, educational, environmental, energy, social justice, peace, health, labor, cultural and other organizations.  Though they all had their own agendas for solving problems and making the world a better place, they agreed that climate change is very serious and needs to be addressed.

From right, soil scientist, permaculturalist and CT NOFA founding Board member Cynthia Rabinowitz, CT NOFA Executive Director Eileen Hochberg and former executive director Bill Duesing at the beginning of the People's Climate March.

CT NOFA was a partner in the March. That day, I saw many CT NOFA members, including former board members and folks from many of our partner organizations. Many more NOFA colleagues were among the 400,000 participants in this resounding call for action on climate change.

Vermont Food Fight

By Bill Duesing

The month after Vermont governor Peter Shumlin signed into law the country's first genetically modified organism (GMO) labeling bill with a firm effective date, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the Snack Food Association (SFA), the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) sued in Federal Court to overturn the new law. This law is scheduled to take effect in 2016; there is no trigger clause requiring other states to pass similar legislation before it takes effect.

With foresight, the Vermont legislature established the Vermont Food Fight Fund to help defend the GMO Labeling Law.  A strong defense of Vermont's law should strengthen Connecticut's. You can contribute here. 

Why are these three multibillion dollar lobbying associations, representing the world's largest and most powerful corporations, suing to stop what the citizens want? After all, these citizens are their customers.  

Thank you for a wonderful weekend at Winvian!

Thank you everyone who attended our Special Culinary Fundraiser and Summer Gathering! 
CT NOFA had an incredible time at Winvian last weekend! Enjoy this short video and collection of photos to show our gratitude for your support!

Claire Criscuolo receiving the 2014 Organic Leadership Recognition Award    

CT NOFA Accepts 3 New Journeypersons! Spotlight on Ben Harris

CT NOFA is proud to announce the next round of Journeyperson farmers to take part in the 2 year program funded by a grant from the National Institute for Food and Agriculture through the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. The Journeyperson program strives to support farmers in the education gap between apprentice and independent farmer and to provide resources and opportunities for prospective new farmers who have completed an apprenticeship to further develop skills they need to farm independently.  

This year we have accepted 3 beginning farmers into the program: Ben Harris of Root Down Farm CSA in Coventry, Josiah Venter of Ro-Jo Farms in Bethany and Roger &  Issabelle Phillips of Sub Edge Farm in Farmington. 

Ben Harris. photo by Weston Monroe/Cara Paiuk

Today's blog spotlight will focus on beginning farmer Ben Harris.

Who will feed China? What does it mean for us?

by Bill Duesing

Lester Brown's Who Will Feed China?: Wake Up Call for a Small Planet was published nearly 20 years ago.

 

Bill Duesing

He noted that in an integrated world economy, China's rising food prices become the world's rising food prices.  China's land and water scarcity become the whole world's problems.

It looks like he got it right.

As the New York Times reported this morning, "A large, growing and increasingly affluent population, worsening soil and water pollution and rising urbanization rates have combined to reduce China’s arable land and put immense pressure on the country’s ability to meet its food needs domestically."

Inspiring Farmers in the Northeast at our 32nd Annual Winter Conference!

Swift Farms sold their amazing bees wax products

I don’t know about you, but the staff at CT NOFA is still bathing in the afterglow of an inspiring and successful Winter Conference!

The 32nd annual Winter Conference was held at Western Connecticut State University this past Saturday, March 1st and had over 900 people in attendance, a new record! The day started with attendees gathering in our vendor area where they were able to fill their free CT NOFA tote bags with literature and goodies from educational exhibitors, local farmers, and crafters! (A full list of vendors and exhibitors from the day can be found at HERE)

Fight those winter blues by learning how to make your own wine!

Do you fancy yourself a DYI master? Take your love of home made goods to the next level and learn how to make your own fermented beverages! John Kriz will be teaching a workshop at the Winter Conference on March 1st all about home fermentation! 

Getting a Chef's Perspective on Local Agriculture with Executive Chef Chris Eddy

Residents of CT are continuing to embrace buying locally from their farmers and now we are really seeing a demand for more local, organic foods to be used in restaurants. CT NOFA farmers and supporters are well versed in the cycle of food from planting to harvesting, but what about after your customers in the restaurant industry walk away with your fresh products? Chris Eddy, the Executive Chef of Winvian, will be sharing his unique perspective at the 2014 Winter Conference during his workshop titled "The Relationship Between the Garden, Kitchen, Restaurant and Everything in Between"

Legal Nuts and Bolts for Beginning Farmers on January 18th!

Has the complicated web of permits, taxes and zoning laws kept from pursuing your passion for organic farming? Not to Worry, CT NOFA is here to help! Marjorie Glover, organic farmer, attorney and CT NOFA board member, will be teaching the "Legal Nuts and Bolts for Beginning Farmers"  session at this years 2014 Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference held on January 18th at Goodwin College. 


The course will offer the legal nuts and bolts for beginning farmers, including the nuts and bolts of setting up a farm business entity, paying federal, state and local farm taxes and filing related forms, complying with local regulations such as zoning and health and safety, employing employees and interns and qualifying for farm tax status.  This course will also briefly cover the many laws related to processing, handling, cooking and packaging farm products, such as crops, livestock and poultry as well as provide an overview on how to obtain organic certification status.

Announcing the 2014 Winter Conference on March 1!

 CT NOFA welcomes gardeners, food lovers, farmers, families, environmentalists, and chefs to our annual celebration of local food and organic farms, the Winter Conference on March 1, 2014.  The Winter Conference attracted 800 of the state’s local food enthusiasts in 2013, and the 32^nd Winter Conference in 2014 is expected to be the best yet! This year the conference will be held at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT. 

 Fred Kirschenmann

Our keynote speaker for the 2014 conference  will be Fred Kirschenmann, a distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center and President of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. Mr. Kirschenmann will be speaking on the future of agriculture through the next generation of young farmers entitled "Tomorrow's Farmer & You" . You can view his presentation on "The Future of Agriculture" .

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!

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."

Good Local Food and the Food Safety Modernization Act by Bill Duesing

The growth of the good, local food movement has been a real bright spot in Connecticut for at least a decade. Vibrant farmers markets have been growing in number and lengthening their seasons.  More Community Supported Agriculture farms (CSAs) connect consumers directly with farms and seasonal food.  College and school farms and gardens are expanding and new farmers, young and old, are looking for a meaningful life producing our fundamental need.  

We have a common interest in feeding ourselves and our communities with fresh, healthy, beautiful and safe produce. There is very little that has so many positive effects- economic, social, health, environmental, aesthetic- as the blossoming and vital local food movement.

But watch out:  Here comes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) to slow all that down, maybe even stop it, if the proposed rules are allowed to stand.  We all have an interest in commenting on these rules.