2021 BOATanical Expedition Launches September 17th!

We at CT NOFA have been thinking a lot this year about what defines us – what makes us uniquely deserving of your support.  What always rises out of our conversations is that we are farmer-led, practical, adventurous, innovative.  At our best, what makes “organic” and “regenerative” special is that it gives more than it takes, sows more than we reap. We are on a mission to leave this Earth more beautiful and abundant than we found it.  And we like to have a good time doing it.  With our current pandemic putting a hold on our ability to gather and gala or feast – we are still itching to celebrate – to show how much we, the organic farmers, gardeners, landscapers, and advocates, can do for the land, the forests, and rivers and sea that gives so much to us.

CT NOFA has again joined forces with BOATanical and its powerhouse leader Sefra Levin, to launch this years’ expedition along the Quinnehtukqut (CT) River. Connecticut is named after an Alquonian term that references the place of the long tidal river. This river corridor has been a causeway of transport for flora, fauna, wind, weather, and the ancestral caretakers of these lands.

The fate of our organic farms and gardens is inextricably tied to the health of the ecosystem that surrounds them.  With that in mind, on September 17^th, CT NOFA and BOATanical will launch an expedition of farmers and seed-keepers to paddle the length of Connecticut along the river from Enfield to the Long Island Sound.  The team will be planting native plant habitats, sowing restoration seed, and stopping to talk to groups about CT NOFA’s programs:

• The Ecotype Project – our effort to fortify the Northeast by building biodiversity with pollinator habitats and a native plant supply chain
• Farmer Circles – a refabrication of a practical and powerful regional support system among farmers.   This trip is not without its hardships and its hazards – and we are asking for your support.
• Soil Health education – on the essential work of carbon drawdown with healthy soils.
• Organic Land Care Program – extending the vision and principles of organic agriculture to the care of landscapes where people carry out their daily lives.
• Winter Conferences, Landscaper Conferences, and Seed Conferences

This year when you consider your donation to CT NOFA, consider this- when our “boatanists” plant one seed, the next year or two one can harvest thousands of seeds from that single plant. The ‘return on investment’ that you get with Nature is extraordinary.  With that as our vision for change, our goal is to make our NOFA programs/resources available to as many people as possible in the upcoming year.

The donation that you make will provide more farmers with the building blocks they need to help safeguard the biological resilience of our region, create access for beginning farmers to the education and resources and community that they will rely on as their careers progress, and support the innovative work on climate change that has defined CT NOFA over the last 40 years.

In 2020 we paddled from New Hampshire to the Massachusetts border- in 2021 we will paddle from the top of Connecticut to the Long Island Sound, planting Founder Plots on farms and spreading the seeds of resilience. We hope you will follow along on our expedition this September.

Watch a recap of last year’s expedition through Massachusetts:

Donate to NOFA here