CT NOFA > Blog > CT NOFA Announces 2024 Slate of Soil Health Field Days
CT NOFA Announces 2024 Slate of Soil Health Field Days
July 25, 2024
Beginning in late summer, CT NOFA will host three field days centered on soil health practices. Learn more about how tree and shrub establishment, cover cropping, and no-till farming practices and improve the long term health and wellbeing of your soil!
Tree and Shrub Establishment
September 14
The Hickories | Ridgefield, CT
Join CT NOFA for a hands-on workshop on establishing native trees and shrubs on farmland and properties throughout Connecticut. We’ll take a look at planning, planting, and maintenance of trees and shrubs at The Hickories farm over the years. Demonstrations will include site selection, soil preparation, and sourcing of appropriate plant material for specific locations.
The workshop includes support from experienced growers with a focus on native woody trees and shrubs; hazelnut, inkberry, winterberry, witch hazel, viburnums, pussy willow, and black willow, as well as ecotypic pollinators. LEARN MORE.
Cover Cropping
September 29
Assawaga Farm | Putnam, CT
Join CT NOFA for an overview of how to adopt/improve practices that involve planting a cover crop in between crops for harvesting. Yoko Takemura and Alex Carpenter, farmers and founders of Assawaga Farm, will show several methods of working with cover crops on a small farm. They will share their trials and tribulations as well as planting plans, which have proven successful in improving the health of their soil. Various types of cover crops, timing, duration and termination methods will be discussed, along with a demonstration of preparing a cover crop bed. LEARN MORE.
No-Till Farming Practices
October 12
Sub Edge Farm | Farmington, CT
Join CT NOFA for a field day that will provide participants with resources and support in implementing no-till practices, or in transitioning to no-till and reduced tillage farming. This field day will include examples of no-till equipment, how they work, and how/when to use them. We’ll discuss how this climate smart practice helps reduce erosion, improve water retention, and increase soil organic matter, to be demonstrated by a microscopic comparison of soil samples taken from no-till vs. tilled fields, contrasting the bacteria/fungi ratio and microbial life differences between the two. LEARN MORE.
The Farm Bill will get a vote in the House of Representatives this week. It is a terrible bill, and we need to put on all the pressure we can to stop it.
Seven years into what is supposed to be a five year process, the House Farm, Food, and National Security Act favors Big Ag, and not family farms in countless ways. Of specific interest to CT NOFA are pesticide industry provisions that would strip states and cities of their power to regulate certain pesticides and would shield the manufacturers from liability.
Thanks to support through the USDA’s Transition to Organic Partnership Program, CT NOFA has made available a number of organic record keeping checklists for specific farming sectors. These checklists are intended to provide a framework for management of records that are required when a farm operation is preparing to certify organic, or a current organic farm is preparing for recertification.
