Category: Uncategorized

Boulder Knoll Farm in the Rep-Am

This story appeared on the front page of yesterday’s Waterbury Republican-American! 

Community farms explode in popularity
Shareholders pay fee and agree to work land; get produce in return

Quannah Leonard
Waterbury Republican-American
April 20, 2010 

CHESHIRE — On about three acres off Boulder Road, people in gloves, hats and boots gathered Wednesday morning to prepare beds for tiny bunches of onions. 

Bees crawled over dandelions, and birds chirped as the workers — called shareholders — dug deep into the soil. They have paid a fee up front, and agree to work the land. In exchange, they receive a gamut of fresh produce at Boulder Knoll Community Farm CSA.

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Making it Easier to Eat Local Food

A few weeks ago, I shared with you an article about how the lack of meat processors is making it hard for farms to provide local meat to keep up with growing demand from restaurants and consumers.

Now, the Times has an enlightening debate about what role the federal government should play in fostering local food processing and delivery systems. 

Click here to read the article. 

USDA Brings Gardens to National Mall

The Washington Post writes about USDA efforts to grow food for soup kitchens and food pantries on the National Mall and at USDA facilities across the country and around the world. 

Agriculture Department seeds the way for ‘people’s gardens’
Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post
April 13, 2010 

Vilsack carved out the garden last year from an asphalt parking lot. He grabbed a jackhammer and challenged USDA facilities across the country to follow suit and create what he calls a People’s Garden.

As of last week, 255 gardens have been established by Agriculture Department workers worldwide, including an indoor lettuce garden in North Carolina and a vegetable garden on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy in South Korea. All of the food grown at these gardens — 29,656 pounds last year — is donated to food pantries and soup kitchens. The garden at USDA headquarters last year yielded more than 300 pounds of peas, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and other produce, which was given to D.C. Central Kitchen.

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Great Article about CSAs

In case you missed it, here’s a great article about Community Supported Agriculture (like our own Boulder Knoll Community Farm!) from today’s Hartford Courant. 

In Connecticut, Community-Supported Agriculture Gaining In Popularity

Shawn R. Beals, Hartford Courant
April 13, 2010

Once a week, people drive out to the farm to pick up their prepaid share — a bag or a box of fresh produce grown right there. They chat with the farmer who has planted the seeds and turned the soil that produced their tomatoes or peppers or squash.

These customers are partaking in community-supported agriculture, known as CSA. Ten years ago, there were fewer than 10 CSA farms in Connecticut. Today, there are more than 40.

Click here to keep reading… 

Here is a complete list of Cheshire’s Earth Week programs:

April 20, Tuesday  

7 pm Maintaining Healthy Perennials.  Library.  Register at 203-272-2245

April 21, Wednesday 

10 am Vernal Pool Walk at Ten Mile Lowlands. Register at 203-271-6670

7 pm Organic Land Care for Homeowners (presented by the CT NOFA Organic Land Care program!) Library.  Register at 203-272-2245

April 22, Thursday 

10 am. Woodland Hike at DeDominicis Property.  www.cheshirect.org for more info.

6 pm Open Space Open House, hosted by Cheshire Environment Commission. Library.  No registration.

7 pm History of Connecticut Forests.  Library. Register 201-272-2245

Some of you might be interested in this upcoming workshop! 

Hello Friends,

Hope that you can joing us at the Cheshire homeowner’s organic lawn care workshop.

Green Up Your Yard with Organic Land and Lawn Care:  Save Money and the Environment, a workshops for the homeowner will be offered on Wednesday, April 21st, at the Cheshire Public Library, Cheshire, 7:00pm-8:30pm.

The workshop is being offered by the Organic Land Care Program, a project of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut, (CT NOFA).  The free 1.5 hour workshops include a half an hour for question and answers.

The informative workshop will provide the tools and informational  resources needed to practice organic lawn and landscape care, as  well as information on the benefits of organic land care.   Participants will receive a handout of resources they can use to  find more information, and on finding a landscaper who has the  knowledge to maintain lawns and landscapes organically.

CT NOFA promotes methods of farming, gardening, and land care that respect
biodiversity, soil, water, air and the needs of future generations through education, support, and advocacy.

For more information on the Organic Land Care program please visit us at
www.organiclandcare.net, or you can contact Clara at  203-888-5146.

FOBK President in the Record-Journal

Friends of Boulder Knoll President Kim Stoner was featured on the front page of this morning’s Record-Journal for her work with Friends of Boulder Knoll and with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. 

Entomologist earns award for work at Boulder Knoll

Jesse  Buchanan, Meriden Record-Journal
April 5, 2010 

CHESHIRE – Kim Stoner is fascinated by diversity – insect diversity, that is.

“I was a soybean insect sorter for a year, and that’s the sort of thing where you either love it or you hate it,” she said.

Stoner loved it, and has worked for the past 22 years as an entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven after earning her Ph.D. in entomology from Cornell University.

Preserving diversity among insects and natural habitats is a primary concern of the Cheshire resident, who was named an Outstanding Partner in Support of Natural Resource Conservation by the Southwest Conservation District, which covers Fairfield and New Haven counties. That award was given in part for Stoner’s work at the experiment station, but also for her involvement with the Boulder Knoll Farm on Boulder Road.

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Push to Eat Local Meat Is Hampered by Shortage

The New York Times reports on a growing problem for small farmers across the nation: too few slaughterhouses to meet the growing demand for locally raised meat.

In what could be a major setback for America’s local-food movement, championed by so-called locavores, independent farmers around the country say they are forced to make slaughter appointments before animals are born and to drive hundreds of miles to facilities, adding to their costs and causing stress to livestock.

As a result, they are scaling back on plans to expand their farms because local processors cannot handle any more animals.

“It’s pretty clear there needs to be attention paid to this,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an interview. “Particularly in the Northeast, where there is indeed a backlog and lengthy wait for slaughter facilities.”

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Local, Organic Groceries at Wal-Mart?

We still think nothing compares with our Community Supported Agriculture arrangement, but it certainly is interested to read about the efforts of other companies to “promote” “local” and “organic” foods. 

What is CSA? 

By entering into this relationship you are preserving working farmland, supporting sustainable agriculture, reducing trucking and packing costs and carbon output, and keeping farmers on the land.  CSA works for you, local agriculture, and the environment!

Find out more about our CSA 

What Wal-Mart is Doing?

The program, which Walmart calls Heritage Agriculture, will encourage farms within a day’s drive of one of its warehouses to grow crops that now take days to arrive in trucks from states like Florida and California. In many cases the crops once flourished in the places where Walmart is encouraging their revival, but vanished because of Big Agriculture competition.

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