Read the text and check out what VT organic farmers are saying about H.R. 875, the proposed "Food Safety and Modernization Act of 2009"
Hand Energy Services Thomas and Jamie Hand are energy efficiency pros. Learn more about how they can help you evaluate your home or business energy usage profile at www.handenergyservices.com
 ATTRA - the Appropriate Transfer of Technology for Rural Areas, which is also the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, provides comprehensive, clear, and user-friendly resources for organic growers on a variety of scales. The ultimate extension service, they bridge the gap between peer-reviewed, Ag-Tech school experiments and small farmers trying to meet their bottom lines. They also provide a comprehensive, free, searchable database service for Apprentice and Intern positions available across the US here.
Green Peak Farm is a proud NOFA-VT member. The Northeast Organic Farming Association, Vermont chapter, hosts a bevy of good workshops and offers support to Vermont small farmers. "Working for local farms, healthy food, and strong communities, since 1971."
Rural Vermont "activates, advocates, and educates for living soils, thriving farms, and healthy communties." Rural Vermont takes on the statehouse, giving voice to the often under-represented (read: busy!) rural backbone of the state. All in a day's work: cheese, butter, and icecream workshops, screenings, mass deliveries of Thank-You notes to politicians, and reader-friendly bill factsheets. Green Peak Farm is happy to support the efforts of Rural Vermont.
Fedco Seeds of Waterville, Maine takes special care to source their seeds from small farms, holds the Slow Foods' "Ark of Taste" in high regard, and puts out one of the most wonderfully amusing catalogs around.
High Mowing Seeds of Wolcott, Vermont is family-owned and sells only top-notch, certified organic seeds well-suited to our short Vermont season.
Johnny's Selected Seeds of Winslow, Maine offers a wide range of vegetable, flower, and herb seeds, including many All-America Selections; their catalogs are an excellent reference for detailed germination and growing information for crops.
of Barre, Vermont sells some of the finest compost-based potting soils available, and offer a wealth of relevant resources for growers on their newly revamped website.
Deep Roots  As spring rolls around with 50+ degree days and nighttime temperatures in the 'teens, I can't help but revel in the cyclical nature of farm life. From daily temperature and moisture sways to seasonal growth and passage, multi-year crop rotation schematics, generational cycles, and legacies of land and farming families, it's all a good reminder of our long-standing relationships with the land and each other. Just as the sustainable farmer takes a comprehensive view of field productivity and aims to feed the soil, not just the plant, so does this resonate with the great resources that we have in each other. The sustainable farmer doesn't just hire bodies to pick up his harvest, but helps to cultivate knowledge, habits, a love of, and respect for the ancient art and necessity of food production. I've been really fortunate to have apprenticed with some incredible, ingenious, inspiring and uncontrollable Farmers who sing hymns amidst the bean trellises, teach eighth-graders how to castrate and dock tails of three day old lambs, weave packbaskets out of wild-harvested willows, round down at the market register, squish-test peonies like a lover, drop a tree on wedge, and grow some of the most beautiful vegetables I've ever seen. They're pretty cool folks: Tim, Jason, Paige, Ahkong, Bill, Brian, Nick, Maya, and Gentiana, thank you. Check them out at: Dancing Moon Farm - Hood River, OR www.dancingmoonfarm.com Gardenripe - Silverton, OR www.gardenripe.com North Country School and Camp Treetops - Lake Placid, NY http://www.nct.org/page.cfm?p=118 |
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Friends and Resources |