Taste! Organic Connecticut

10am - 4pm, September 9, 2007 Topmost Herb Farm Coventry CT Rain or Shine Directions to Topmost Herb Farm Menu - Pictures of Yesteryear Fall Festival - Organic Farmer's Market - Children's Activities Educational Workshops - Music - Craft Vendors Food! Food! Food! Admission: Pay at the Entrance Tent $5 for ages 12 - 80 Free Parking No Pets Please!

Sponsors:

Claire's Corner Copia

North Country Organics

Schedule:

All Day

Craft Vendors and Farmers Market: Main Street

Food! Food! Food!: Food Tent in front of Historic House

10:00am Music

Will Hare's Roaming Bagpipes
A great start to a great day!

10:30am Music

Kidsville Kuckoo Revue,
The Singasaurus, Jason the Jester and Fairy Princess Emma perform dance-along, sing-along music for the whole family to enjoy.
Call Bruce John at 860-429-4220

11:00am Workshops

Why Keep Bees? Bruce Kittredge
Tent 1
Bruce addresses today’s crisis in beekeeping and offers advice on how we may help. Learn the importance of honeybees in agriculture, the social order of the hive, products from the hive and requirements for beginning
beekeeping.
After many years as a computer professional, Bruce now pursues his passion for producing quality produce and raw local honey at Bird Song Farm in Hampton.

Planting at the Edge of the Woods, Pamela Quayle
Tent 2
Landscaping with native flora and other interesting woodland plants often alleviates the difficulties in that transitional area from shade to sun. Learn tips and techniques from a NOFA Accredited Land Care Professional as she
presents some of her favorite plants.
A practicing herbalist who formulates her own line of natural herbal products, The Herb Gatherer also grows many native perennials and manages native habitat for the Haddam Land Trust.

Weed Walk*
Entrance Tent
Discover the magic of the green world in the plants beneath your feet. Whether used as food or as medicine, all have been useful allies thru the centuries in most cultures. Learn to identify them and hear their stories.

11:30am Music

Full Gael
Music from Celtic and American traditions as well as the Canadian Maritime Provinces, performed by Will O'Hare and Gary Palmer.
www.fullgael.com or call 860-429-6396

1:00pm Workshops

Beginning to Garden, James Roby
Tent 1
Have you always wanted to have a small garden but didn’t know how to get started? Dreaming over the seed catalogs doesn’t easily translate into the reality of a productive garden. Jim will discuss the process, as well as best
organic practices and offer tips from his own experience.
A professional carpenter and vegetable grower, Jim also finds time to mentor youth groups as well as serving as CT NOFA President and Chairman of Taste! Organic.

Home Cheese Making, Jane Kerstetter
Tent 2
As goat milk becomes evermore popular and readily available, learn of the delights of the truly delicious goat milk cheese. At this workshop, Jane will discuss making the most basic and most beautiful fresh chevre from goat milk. By day, Dr. Jane Kerstetter teaches nutrition-dietetics at UCONN in the Department of Allied Health Sciences. By night, she is a self-taught artisanal goat milk cheese maker.

Weed Walk* Entrance Tent

Watch out for the Stileristas Stilt Walking Troupe, which will be taking things up a notch throughout the afternoon.

12:30pm Music

Coop Quintet
Traditional songs as well as familiar favorites, played by Jim Romanow, Robin Lake, Gary Nass, Duke YOur and Jason Altieri.
Call Alice at The Coop at 860-456-3611

1:30pm Music

Sophisticats String Band
Everything from 1930's selections to blues to original compostions, played by Lorraine Liswell, Bill Liswell, Kevin Gallagher and Tom Nielsen.
www.BandLMusic.com or call 860-429-2278

2:00pm Workshops

Local Food, Far Away Flavors, Jane Mahr
Tent 1
With an amazing bounty from your local farmer’s markets and farm stands, and a few simple additional ingredients, you can create your own exotic, flavorful, healthy and easy organic dishes. We’ll make a coconut curry dish and a stir fry with black bean sauce and garlic. Come ready to taste!
Jane is the owner and CEO of Snootyfood LLC, a manufacturer of natural and organic specialty foods in Oxford. She is a member of the CT Specialty Food Association and the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade.

Extending the Season, Bryan O’Hara
Tent 2
How exciting to be able to grow vegetables both earlier and later than our tricky New England climate normally permits! Learn the method of making use of hoop tunnels and row covers from a master of crop rotation. Bryan also discusses winter-hardy crop varieties.
More than 20 years a farmer, Bryan is well versed in the stewardship of his land at Tobacco Road Farm and reaps the benefits of good soil management. He and his family sell vegetables, maple syrup and honey at several farmers markets.

Organic Pest Management, Rob Durgy
Garage
A slide presentation and lecture provide insight into reducing the environmental impact of pest control while maintaining and managing soil fertility.
Rob is the horticultural diagnostician at the Home and Garden Education Center at UCONN, concentrating on solving problems for the homeowner and gardener, and was formerly on the Integrated Pest Management team, providing assistance to farmers. Currently the leader of the organic farming and gardening program and served for five years as certification administrator for CT NOFA.

Weed Walk* Entrance Tent

2:30pm Music

Echo Uganda
A 10-piece traditional Ugandan folk music group brings excitement to the end of the day.
www.echouganda.com or call 860-933-4656

3:00pm Workshops

Soil Sense, Dawn Pettinelli
Tent 1
“Healthy soils mean healthy plants” has always been the credo of the organic grower. Dawn will discuss managing soil quality and fertility while addressing strategies for achieving the optimum growing medium.
Dawn is an Extension Educator in the Department of Plant Science at UCONN and manages the Home and Garden Education Center and the Soil Nutrient Analysis Laboratory. A former Master Gardener Coordinator and Sturbridge Village horticulturist, she also writes gardening columns and is active involved in outreach education efforts.

How We Grow Garlic at Wayne’s Organic Garden, Wayne Hansen
Tent 2
Well known as a great garlic grower, Wayne is sure to lace his workshop with humor as he provides valuable instructions for growing this herb, which dates back to the time of the pyramid builders. Wayne's wife Marilyn joins him to demonstrate how to make a garlic braid.
Wayne has been a Certified Organic grower since 1989. Wayne often remarks that he is able to pursue his passion for farming only because Marilyn makes a living!

Seed Saving: The Basics, Bryan Connolly
Garage
Bryan’s slide presentation will be an overview of general seed saving practices and principles. He addresses the fundamentals of growing good seeds, plant selection, pollination, seed cleaning and seed storage.
Bryan Connolly is author of The Wisdom of Plant Heritage: Organic Seed Production and Saving published by the NOFA interstate council. Bryan grows seeds for FEDCO, Baker Creek, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

* Weeds walk led by members of the CT Herb Association.

CT NOFA
PO Box 164 • Stevenson, CT 06491

(203) 888-5146 • ctnofa@ctnofa.org