NOFA-Vermont 2011 Conference

by Stowell P. Watters

Climate change author, activist, speaker, 350.org creator, Captain-Planet, wunderkind Bill McKibben took to the podium proceeded by 20-foot mother-moon and father-earth puppets; a fitting way to start the second day of Vermont-NOFA's (Northeast Organic Farming Association) 29th Annual Winter Conference as more than 1,000 organic farmers, do-it-your-selfers, homesteaders, worm enthusiasts, soil gurus, political activists, herders, shepherds, permaculturists, etc. poured across the University of Vermont campus.

"This situation is ugly, and I don't mean 10 years down the line ugly," was McKibben's central message concerning global climate change. A big league advocate for global policy change and the organic movement, McKibben was in his stride, lighting up the room with applause and cheer, striking a chord with all of us as he passionately clamored against the abuses of modern toxic agriculture. Electricity in the air grew palpable with each turn of his speech and as we shuffled out into the crackling cold (Burlington is farther north than Standish and gets chilled by icy winds flying over massive Lake Champlain) I saw only smiles and looks of eager excitement. I am fairly certain that I heard the words "I am so psyched" every hour.

Rippling Waters sent myself and fellow farm journeyperson Marina Steller, as well as Education Coordinator Marielle Mathews and Director Richard Rudolf to the conference to attend daily workshop style classes and network with other northeast farm-ilk. Although I learned enough to fill 10 notebook pages and explode a cardboard folder, the main thing I gained at the conference was a tremendous blast of energy, enthusiasm, and curiosity. To sit among the people there, to see the work being done in the northeast and around the globe, to hear from people who make it their business to work for food security, to see the booming organic community in flesh and feel their excitement moving about the room was empowering, as was the realization that this whole back-to-nature movement is really the zeitgeist of my generation.

The first class I took was titled "Using Cover Crops to Enhance Ecological Functions in Gardens" and was taught by NOFA-Vermont's crop advisor (no small position) Susie Harper. For nearly two hours I sat rapt as she spoke about the cover cropping strategies being studied and employed by NOFA. My mind was immediately blown by the sheer amount of information these people process, the sheer amount of work that goes into their studies. This class set the pace for the weekend; full throttle subject emersion taught by authorities on topics ranging from dairy goat health to food fermentation to using excel to streamline your growing season.

I ate lunch with Ben Gleason- presenter and owner of Gleason's Grains - and cookbook author Andrea Chesman and they wanted to know how I had gotten involved in the organic farming movement. Imagine that! I took a class on energy innovations on the farm and homestead by a bearded Adirondackian by the name of Bill MacKentley who was so off-grid he could barely keep his feet on the floor as he bounced around the room, extolling the virtues of "doing-it-yourself" and powering your home through a variety of solar and wind power systems.

I learned about Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic lectures/system from Mac Mead, director of the famed Pfeiffer Center for Biodynamics in New York (which lead me to the purchase of an immensely dense book on the subject that I am determined to conquer). I took a class on the art of scrounging for building materials with the director of the Yestermorrow Design Build School in Vermont. My brain felt as though it were flowering or perhaps fruiting.

Just outside of the main convention building a portable oven ran all day- the event spokesperson told us this oven has attended every NOFA-Vermont event for the last 20 years- cooking root vegetables free for the sampling. After each day we were given free ice cream and treated to free live music by The Appalachian Horse Thieves, a name with implications and meanings I am still sorting out.

Lastly I want to mention Saturday’s keynote speaker, a homesteader and author by the name of Shannon Hayes. Her topic - Real Cows in a Parallel Universe - characterized the entire event; that we are now a movement, millions strong, in part defined by a growing separation from mainstream culture. On her farm in upstate New York Hayes was snapped to this conclusion by an exiting farm intern, who barked at her "You people aren't living in the real world, you are living in a parallel universe!" At first Hayes was dismayed, disgruntled, maybe a bit peeved, but then she examined the comment some more and decided it to be perfect.

The modern world eats food from gleaming packages in brightly lit stores with dictionary pages for ingredient lists, the likes of which are shipped at great cost from far off places. But in the parallel universe we eat kale, rutabaga, fava beans, pork, and tomatoes that we buy from farmers. We have neighbors that we seek to connect to- a community to nourish- while in the "real world" there is a trend to become as rich as you can as such that you will never need the help of anyone ever again; picture a "KEEP OUT" sign.

In the "real world" we are told who is hot and who is not, what movie to see or what music to listen to- all of it riddled with endless supplies of advertising money. We are shown material extravagance as if it were a vestige of the average working American when really it is a dream afforded (and touted) by a rich elite far detached from the realities of working a 9-5 only to have a mortgage pulled out from under-foot.

But in the parallel universe, Hayes explained, exercise is a product of work and not endless vanity, wealth cannot fit in a wallet or a bank account, and entertainment comes from all angles- our work, our community, our family and our friends. To highlight this last point she left us with a pastoral picture of her daughter, 2 years-old, lilting among a row of tomato plants with a cotton-white lamb in tow.

We Love Volunteers!!! Join us in 2010

“Volunteers Make the Farm Go ‘Round”! We depend on them immensely - without their support, we wouldn’t be able to proceed with our non-profit projects.

How can you volunteer?

-In the greenhouse from March 15 - June 15: sowing seeds, planting plugs, transplanting, making soil, organizing plant displays, deadheading, and loading trucks.

-Working in the fields from April 30 - October 30. Learn first hands how to grow sustainable, organic vegetables employing permaculture, companion planting, mulching, and bed making methods.

-Be a workshare member. We have 12 during the year, work forty (hours) and get 140 ($ of produce).

-Join us on potato planting day - the last Sat. of April.

-Join us on Permaculture day in May or our Weed ‘n Feed Day in July.

Our goal is to have all our volunteers go away saying:

“I can do this - I can have a garden”.

Interested? call 642-5161 or better yet email Julee at greengrower@ripplingwaters.org.

Share in the Harvest - 2011 CSA Shares Now Available

CSA shares are now available for the 2010 growing season. Our Community Supported Agricultural Project allows members the flexibility to choose when, what and how much they want of any of our products. We off a wide variety of certified organic fruits & vegetables, herbs, baked goods, organic eggs, annuals, vegetable seedlings, hardy perennials and many garden supplies including organic certified compost and potting soil. You can pick up your goods at the Portland and Bridgton Farmers’ markets or at the Farm.

Each market share cost $100 and provides $110 worth of goods. If you love to buy local organic produce, a family of two will want to purchase 2 shares. We take care of the bookkeeping and let you know when your account is up. Additional shares can be purchased throughout the season. Any balance leftover at the end of the season will be considered a donation in support of the farm’s community food security work. You can pay through PayPal at our website or mail the enclosed form with a check.

Today we hope you will join our collaboration enabling us to grow organic food for those who can afford it as well as those served by the local emergency food system.

SNAP Program Grant

Rippling Waters has recently received a small grant which will enable us to provide a financial incentive to SNAP (formerly the Food Stamp Program) or WIC recipients to join our CSA.

MOFGA received the grant through the Wholesome Wave foundation to subgrant to Maine CSA farms who are vendors of either the SNAP or WIC program with the intent of encouraging participation by reducing the cost of the share for these members.

SNAP or WIC program recipients will be able to pay as they buy our fresh vegetables and fruit and will receive a 50% discount as an incentive to participate in the program. As we only have enough funds to provide discounts for 14 SNAP or WIC participants please be sure to apply early. by calling the farm at 642-5161.

Meet our New Education Coordinator - Marielle

Idyllic Maine has a special kind of draw for outsiders. I am not even from very far away, but I still idealize Maine. Rolling hills approaching mountains, friendly faces nearly everywhere (truly exceptional in New England), rocky coastline, and celebrated agricultural living.

A few months ago, I found myself in the Colorodo Rockies, surrounding by beautiful scenery, but longing that indescribable something that New England embodies. Like many other small town East-coasters, I grew up imagining what life was like out West. From what friends told me and the few short visits I made, the West was like the East, but on growth hormones. The states were giant, the mountains were huge, the desert was expansive. All I wanted was to live there and to experience life in those epic surroundings. I drove out to Colorado with the intention of staying, but after only two and half months working as a Wilderness Ranger in an awe-inspiring setting, I hopped back in the car to return to familiar territory. Key to my decision to make the long drive: I couldn’t get any fresh food in the mountains!

My interests are varied—health, agriculture, art, the outdoors—but Maine has a place for it all. I believe that in order to be healthy and happy, one has to start at the table, or rather, in the soil. I was drawn to Rippling Waters because of the farm’s mission: To increase food security through education, action, and service. Before going to Colorado, I spent time on farms in Massachusetts and central New York and grew to understand the importance of not only fresh local produce, but also the communal sharing of agricultural knowledge. Good farms bring people together and offer community. The mission of RWF is something that I want to uphold during my time as the farm’s education coordinator, and carry with me in whatever new community I find myself. Good food means good community and even though New England is rarely recognized for its hospitality, the special community that exists here is what keeps wanderers coming back.

“Grow Your Own Organic Garden” Class

“Grow Your Own Organic Garden”. April 6, 6 - 9 pm , Bonny Eagle High School. Are you concerned about the rising cost of food? Unsure what the term “certified organic” means? Interested in learning how to grow your own vegetables in a sustainable manner? Join Richard Rudolph for an evening long workshop on how to grow your own garden. He’ll talk about the basics of soil science, how to enrich your soil to produce healthy, high-yielding plants, making and using compost,, crop rotation, green manures and managing nutrients in the garden. Other topics will include how to tell the difference between cultivated plants and weeds, basic weed control strategies and common insect pests and control. The class is offered through the MSAD 6 adult education program. Please contact them to register either online at www.sad6.maineadulted.org or call 929-9185. There is a $5 fee for reading materials.

‘Sustaining the Soul of Organics’ - Making a Sustainable Garden Bed

Yup the garden seed catalogs are coming already. Do you really want to open them up and start planning? Or would you rather enjoy some snow? Well that’s how I feel about my own garden – it has to wait until I enjoy a little bit of the off-season, snow and have Rippling Waters crop plan finished. But here are some suggestions for making a garden bed.

We get a lot of questions about how to make raised beds, since most of our customers have backyard lawns that they want to turn some of the space into a garden. Also I find that most people have extremely busy lives and don’t have much time to devote to their garden, especially when it comes to weeding. So here is a great way to help – you’ll just have to invest most of your time in the beginning to create a raised bed.

The method I like best is using resources you already have around your home. I use a layering technique of organic matter often called Lasagne Gardening (you can buy books about it from us). In essence you are creating a compost pile. Although making the bed in the fall from saved organic matter will give it more time to breakdown, a spring raised bed works just fine.

Start by laying out your raised bed area with 4-5 layers of newspaper or flattened cardboard boxes or something similar to these. Water it to hold it down. Then put your bed frame on top if you’re going to use one. Simple scrap boards can be used for sides. Next put down a layer of larger pieces of cut shrubs if you have any. If you have any sand add about an inch of that next. Then start layering other organic materials you have compiled like unfinished compost, leaves, hay, grass clippings, or animal shavings/manure. Layer the greener, nitrogen-rich and animal residue materials between the carbon brown materials like leaves and hay. Your carbon layers should be thicker than the nitrogen layers, as high as 10-1. Other nitrogen rich amendments you can buy are blood meal, fish meal, soy meal, cottonseed meal, general fertilizer and greensand. Adding bonemeal is also great because plant roots love the calcium and your soil organisms love the silica found in bonemeal. WATER thoroughly each layer. Finally finish layering the bed with compost (nitrogen layer), peat moss or some chopped leaves or hay, and finally topsoil.

You want to top off your raised bed with a nice thick 4-6” layer of mulch. I almost always use mulch hay for this because it is porous for water seepage, decomposes well, and isn’t too acidic.

Now you have a weed-free, highly fertile garden bed! Soon your layers will decompose until you have a wonderfully dark colored, earthworm filled soil. Then to replace the volume of your bed as it decomposes, each year add a little more compost and yard waste or leaves that you now know to stockpile.

If you want to make a quicker bed and don’t have the compost materials stockpiled, we have all the ingredients for sale to make the Square Foot Garden bed mix as well as the amendments listed above. Come on out to the farm and stock up – we’ll help you make the best garden bed ever!

"The Journey" - Meet Stowe & Marina

Hello and hope you are having a productive and happy winter, we are Stowell and Marina- the brand spanking new farm interns at Rippling Waters Backyard Organics! We both grew up a few miles from the farm and have watched it grow and expand as a part of our Maine landscape- the fields reaching ever closer to the Saco, the new concrete compost bins springing up, tractors puttering between olive skinned farm hands- but never had the impetus to become involved, until now.

Early last January we embarked on a life-changing odyssey across the country. From snowy Pennsylvania to the arid Mojave Desert we lived out of the back of Marina's Toyota Tacoma, working for our room and board through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms program (WWOOF). Every few weeks we'd open the WWOOFer's guide-book to feast our eyes upon a host of unique organic farms and, pulling out our dog-eared atlas, move west into unexplored territories, well-springs of new ideas, radical methods of subsistence, fresh vegetables, soils of all make and kind, and ultimately - our future.

In Colorado we found one of the most hip farming towns we've seen, Paonia, nestled at the foot of the towering Land's End and Lamborn Mountains. There we worked on a large organic CSA vegetable and flower farm and earned the collective nickname of "The Mighty Mainahs." In New Mexico we tended a massive herd of goats 7,000ft up in a Native American territory speckled with striped pottery, tribal bunk houses, and other relics of the civilization once so powerful there. We put our fingers into the earth at a farm that supplied the produce for a Buddhist restaurant deep in the Zion area of Utah, and in Pennsylvania we made hundreds of bars of herbal soap and teas and received daily instruction from a wise farmer by the name of Rusty.

Through these experiences and more along the way we quickly realized our passion for farming, for growing things without the use of chemicals, and for upholding a way of life lost to those in highly urbanized areas of the world and lost to many of our twenty-something generation. We saw people thriving without money, we saw sunsets as we cooked on our travel stove, we saw our hands grow dirtier and our hair grow longer, we saw food from field to plate and we saw, above all things, the importance of work and how fulfilling it can be to sit beside a friend and pull weeds.

It is this tremendous energy we will employ in the fields by the Saco River, helping as others have before us to turn out nutritious produce from the soil there. Our hopes are to learn everything we possibly can from Julee, Richard and everyone else associated so that one day we can start our own small farm on Stowell's family land in Limington. So if you are driving by the farm some sunny day make sure to stop by, we would love to meet you and shake your hand among the swooping plovers and the wonderful things growing all around.

“The Good, the Bad, & the Beautiful of the 2010 Season”

Julee’s Ramblin’ Reflections

“The Good, the Bad, & the Beautiful of the 2010 Season”

The Good – we harvested the most delicata squash ever! We had it available up to our last sale day, December 4. The Bad – we didn’t grow successfully as many potatoes as usual – due to the dry summer. The Beautiful – “Kaylee’s Garden”, our permaculture plot was one of pure enchantment. It was the center of our tours, our education, our experimental varieties, and our meditations.

The Good – our soil is becoming so ‘earth(worm) bound’. You can pick up handful of soil in certain plots and see and feel the worm castings! The Bad – the hot dry summer lowered our lettuce production. The Beautiful – Upper A Garden was a magnificent palette of purple shades. Joey had companion planted purple basil with eggplant, and pink cosmos with peppers. The plot was a magnificent example of interplanting of herbs, flowers, and nightshades.

The Good – our volunteers worked tirelessly this year helping us with large improvement projects. They helped us make four raised beds in the hoophouses and we had the best tomatoes in there in years; they helped us sheet mulch the permaculture plot and week after week spread leaves and hay to enrich our soil. Bill devoted his time to improving the wooden structures on the hoophouses which are now painted, solidly built and look fantastic! The Bad – we still have a tremendous water and erosion problem, coming right from the road, washing out our path, and flooding our hoophouse and field C area. The Beautiful – seeing our wet, heavy soil Field D produce! We are creating cover crop paths between our beds, which certainly paid off this year. Usually Field D is a washout, but produced beautiful cucumbers, eggplant, mustard, Chinese cabbage, beans, and pac choi this year.

The Good – our Food Connection Corps program, was the best yet. The students worked hard, took pride in their work, and learn a lot about organic gardening, which they proved in their last matching game of the year. The Bad – seem to have more than our share of Mexican bean beetles. Ah – just a challenge for next year. The Beautiful – the Rippling Waters Staff. They work tirelessly, have tremendous spirit, enjoy the farm and each other. Thank you so much, Jen, Joey, Livy, Chris, Mary, Phil, Karla, Karen, and Mike!!!