Friends of Boulder KnollThe event scheduled for today will be postponed until tomorrow, Sunday September 28th, from 1:00pm. We will contact you by 9:00am if further cancellation is necessary.
Thanks so much for expressing an interest in our group.
Think sun for tomorrow.
Agenda for Meeting: 9-26-08
Introduction of guests/visitors Review of Fall Festival booth and thanks to everyone who helped Planning for educational event: If we decide to move to the rain date (Sunday) – how do we notify people? (And will the weather be any better on Sunday?) Signage, e-mail, maybe a phone tree?
Other planning: safety, signage, parking, tents, tables, water, literature for distribution Work day? (The last forecast I saw said 100% chance of rain on Friday afternoon, so we had better plan around that.) Other work on-site: Harvesting, Planting to fill in spaces Next work day?
Distribution of produce: What to sell, what to give away for a donation, what to give to Food Pantry? Discouraging the deer Annual meeting Location? Recruiting new board members
Making decisions about our goals for the coming year – we keep trying to be everything to everyone. Need to go back to our holistic goal and decide what our priorities are. Planning for fall/winter projects: composting, fundraising, getting 501c3 status, building relationships with community groups
It has been just over one month since Friends of Boulder Knoll signed their first ten-month lease with the Town of Cheshire to use two acres of land on Boulder Knoll Farm. In that time, Friends of Boulder Knoll have plowed the field, amended the soil with lime and compost, harrowed the land, planted tomato, pepper and basil plants, and seeded numerous crops for an intended fall harvest.
Friends of Boulder Knoll are growing fall crops now for local sale and donation to the Cheshire Food Pantry, and also preparing the soil for a bountiful harvest of local food next year.
Now that they are established on the land, the Friends of Boulder Knoll will hold an on-site, hands-on educational program on Saturday, September 27, from 1pm to 4 pm at the Boulder Knoll Farm (just east of the barn on Boulder Road). The rain date will be Sunday, September 28 at the same time. The program will feature Dr. Robert Giddings, a veterinarian specializing in the care of birds and avid bird watcher, who will talk about the diversity of birds he has seen in many years of living at Boulder Knoll. Rose Hiskes of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station will lead a tour of invasive plants on the site and discuss how and why to manage invasive plant species. Additional speakers will discuss how to set up a compost pile, how to start an organic garden, food crops for the fall garden, and cover crops for building soil. Members of the Friends of Boulder Knoll will lead tours of the farm.
Friends of Boulder Knoll will also be reaching out to the people of Cheshire at other local events:
At the Fall Festival on September 13, the Friends of Boulder Knoll will have a booth to present their activities and offer opportunities to sign up for Community Supported Agriculture, a way for a household to buy a share of a local farm.
On September 17th, Jill Casertano, secretary of Friends of Boulder Knoll, will be speaking to the Suburban Garden Club of Cheshire at their monthly meeting.
On October 6th, Dr. Robert Giddings will be speaking to the Cheshire Garden Club at their monthly meeting.
These two educational talks will present the mission of Friends of Boulder Knoll, and answer the questions of garden club members about the work at Boulder Knoll Farm.
Friends of Boulder Knoll are currently looking for new members and sponsors for their growing community farm. Interested individuals and businesses can explore the website www.friendsofboulderknoll.com to download a membership form, or contact the organization via email atinfo@friendsofboulderknoll.com.
Link to an article in Saturday’s R-J about eating locally.
After the Harvest, Claiming the Bounty
Rather than sift through bins at a supermarket, where all vegetables are available all the time, they had chosen to eat locally and seasonally by joining a movement known as community-supported agriculture.
These suburbanites are part of a small but growing band of eaters who know exactly where, and how, their vegetables are grown. They also eat no food before its time. Strawberries are eaten in June; arugula is enjoyed in the fall.
Hi Friends of Boulder Knoll:
Here’s an agenda for Thursday. Let me know if there is anything we need to add.
Board meetings are open to the public. Would you like to attend? Email info@friendsofboulderknoll.com for more details.
The Friends returned to the farm for another work party Saturday morning where they planted rows of green beans, corn, peas, and lettuce.
Check out the pictures on our new photo page at http://www.friendsofboulderknoll.com/FOBK/Photos/Photos.html
Want to help us grow Boulder Knoll Community Farm?
Email info@friendsofboulderknoll.com for details.
Plus, you can always check back here at our blog to find out the latest opportunities to volunteer.
Nonprofit leases bit of Boulder Knoll for $1
By Luther Turmell
New Haven Register
CHESHIRE — A nonprofit group has signed a lease with the town to use 2 acres of the townowned Boulder Knoll property.
Friends of Boulder Knoll will pay the town $1 for the one-year lease to use the piece of land located at the southeast corner of the 189-acre property, said Jill Casertano, secretary of the group’s board of directors. Casertano said members of the group have already planted some peppers and basil and will add green beans, corn, peas and lettuce during a work party scheduled for Saturday morning. Individuals interested in participating in Saturday’s work party should contact Casertano by e-mail at inf o@friendsofboulderknoll.com.
But the bulk of the 2 acres the group has leased will be filled with cover crops, which are designed to suppress weeds, fend off pests and add nitrogen to the soil for use by future food crops. Certain types of clover and vetch are considered cover crops.
“We did a soil test and found that the PH level of the soil was very low, too low for us to grow some of the organic crops we wanted,” Casertano said. “By growing clover crops on the majority of the land we’re leasing, we’re hoping to add hydrogen and organic matter to the soil for next year.”
Friends of Boulder Knoll had originally approached the town about taking control of the entire property, which would be used for a mix of farming and walking trails, Casertano said. But town officials rebuffed the plan, choosing instead to lease a smaller portion to the group and another small portion to Cheshire Police Officer Kerry Deegan, who grows sunflowers on his piece of land.
“The town wasn’t ready to hand over all that land to one group,” Casertano said. “Over time, we’re hoping to gain the trust of town officials so that we can increase the amount of property we’re able to lease.”
TownManagerMichaelMilone said that the lease agreement with Friends of Boulder Knoll is part of a multi-phased effort “to bring that property back to life.”
Some of the food crops that Friends of Boulder Knoll grow this season will given to area groups that combat hunger, she said. The bulk of the produce raised on the property will be sold to the public, Casertano said, with the group’s ultimate goal of rasing enough money to get a farmer to oversee the property on a daily basis.
Hey Friends,
After years of planning and dreaming, work has finally commenced on the Boulder Knoll property.
With help from the Town of Cheshire, a plot has been cleared of invasive species and mowed.
A group of Friends set out in the rain on Friday and the first seeds are in the ground.
There were two long rows of vegetables planted: peppers and herbs, plus a middle strip of tomatoes. And, they had erected a set of metal hoops covered with a white cloth netting over part of the garden – to keep varmints from eating the budding plants (& educate up & coming farmers…!)
Click here for some great photos from Fellis.
Plenty more work to come!
We need your help now more than ever. Donate your time.
Email info@friendsofboulderknoll.com to find out how you can help.
Our recent Letter to the Editor thanking the Town of Cheshire and others for their help in getting work started at Boulder Knoll:
Editor, The Cheshire Herald,
The Friends of Boulder Knoll, a non-profit community organization, has just signed a lease with the Town of Cheshire to start farming two acres of land, a small corner of the 150 acres the town owns at Boulder Knoll.
This is a very exciting oppurtunity for us. Because it is late summer already, we will begin now with a small gardening operation with much of the produce to be donated to the Cheshire Food Pantry. This fall we will focus on growing cover crops and setting up composting, so that we can build up the soil for a larger farming operation next year.
We would like to thank the Cheshire Town Council. and particularly the Planning Committee — Laura DeCaprio, Matt Altieri, and Jimmy Sima — for giving us the oppurtunity to put our ideas to work on the land.
We would also like to thank the former chair of the Planning Committeee, Diane Visconti, for continuing to encourage us during the long period when we were trying to clarify an appropriate role for our organization in working with the town. And, we appreciate the work of Michael Milone and Suzanne Simone is working out the details.Bill Bonominio, of Ives Farm, has offered to plow the field for us, and Dr. Bob Giddings, vice president of the Friends of Boulder Knoll, and next-door neightbor to the Farm, has already mowed the area and has generously offered his time and equipment to help us apply lime and harrow.
We hope to have our fall garden area ready for planting by Aug. 8, and invite anyone interested to come and help from 2 p.m. until we are done. More announcements will be forthcoming about volunteering at the farm and about an educational event in late September.
Kim Stoner
President,
Friends of Boulder Knoll