Author: dgroberg

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Hi folks,

Below is the message from back in April with the soil test results.  The magnesium tested high.

Based on Mike’s recommendations, I think we should plan to put on less than the recommended amount, rather than the full amount, this fall – because we sure don’t have 6 inches of topsoil on a lot of that land.  Ideally, we would put on ½ the recommended amount.

The calcitic lime vs. dolomitic lime question is tricky.  While calcitic lime would be the best thing, it is much harder to get and more than twice as expensive.  I would recommend that we go ahead with dolomitic lime now at ~½ the CAES recommended rate, and work on getting calcitic lime for the next application in the spring.  While we don’t need the magnesium, and I know that Mike would argue that continuing to put on dolomitic lime and adding more Mg year after year will decrease soil quality in the long run, at this point I think getting the pH in a reasonable range is a higher priority.  Extra Mg will not lead to pollution, the way extra P or N might.

I’d say, after going through the above process, we should get one pallet-load of dolomitic lime from the least expensive local source (or donated, if possible!).  On Monday, we can figure out how much area we want to lime

Is there anyone willing to work on getting a pallet-load of lime delivered quickly and at low (or zero) cost?

Here are the results:

Soil texture: Sandy loam

Organic Matter content:  medium low

pH 4.8

Nitrate N Low

Ammonium N Low

Phosphorus:  Stripped area = medium, area not stripped = medium high

Potassium Very Low

Calcium Low

Magnesium High

Suggested treatments in pounds per 1000 square feet:

Limestone 175 lbs.  (this may be too much to apply all at once – we may want to apply half in spring and half in fall)

Fertilizer (given both as 10-10-10 and as organic fertilizers)

Either 25 lbs. 10-10-10 pre-plant and 10 lbs in July

Or 30 lbs. cottonseed meal, 20 lbs. bone meal, 20 lbs. Greensand  (this would all be pre-plant, but these might not be the best choices for organic fertilizers – I’ll work on alternative recommendations)

Our friends in Woodbridge will be starting a CSA at Massaro Farm.  They had to mobilize quite a movement to keep this farmland (50 acres!) from becoming baseball fields, but they did it (and they will help the town find another site for ball fields).

Here’s an article on them: Amity (Orange) Bulletin: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19854794&BRD=1661&PAG=461&dept_id=9538&rfi=6

You can help bring Community Supported agriculture to Cheshire. Become a member of Friends of Boulder Knoll today. 

Hi Friends,

Hope you can come to our upcoming Board meeting on Thursday July 24 at 7  pm – we have a lot to do! Email info@friendsofboulderknoll.com for information or directions. 

Agenda:

Brief update on lease, insurance, plans for the land for any new people

Liability Waiver – before we do anything, everybody who will be involved needs to sign a waiver, and we need to keep them in a permanent file somewhere.  I have 15 copies of the waiver to distribute

Getting started on the garden area: 

Mowing (done by Bob already)

Plowing

Liming

Harrowing

Compost

Planting (transplants and seeds)

Mulch

Water???  Do we all need to pray daily for rain?

Expenses/Donations for materials

Scheduling work days

Plans for the rest of the two acres – how much to lime?  How much to plow and plant for cover crops?  Building topsoil in the area where it has been removed?  We will need to work on this soon (planting cover crops by mid September)

Outreach and fundraising

Outreach: Letter to Herald thanking everybody, press releases, recruiting volunteers, outreach to landscapers to get fall leaves

Educational event in the fall?  If we will do it, we should set a date now.

Fundraising:  Here is the fundraising plan that Jeff and I sent to the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

Friends of Boulder Knoll Fundraising Plan

1.    Letter to former and current members describing progress in starting an agricultural operation and asking for renewal of memberships and contributions.  Went out July 1 [*] $200 

2.    Letter to interested individuals in the Cheshire community from our list of organizational contacts and personal contacts of board members.  Planned for late August. [*] $500 

3.    Phone calls with follow-up letters seeking sponsorship for Friends of Boulder Knoll from community businesses.  Planned for September. [*] $2000 

4.    Sales of produce from the farm – will be very modest this year.  September – November. [*] $300 

5.    Fundraising event – with dinner and music – at the Boulder Knoll Montessori School (down the street from the farm).  October.[*] $1000 

Date and time of next regular meeting

Seems like more than enough for one evening!

A Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but No Muss

The New York Times may describe the new “lazy localvore” trend, and a solution to fix it, but Friends of Boulder Knoll has an even better solution.

Support Friends of Boulder Knoll today, and one day soon you may be eating locally grown produce, right from Boulder Knoll Community Farm!

Click here to contribute and help see our shared dreams prosper. 

We just signed a lease with the Town of Cheshire for two acres of land, and we can’t wait to get started! We plan to grow organic produce as part of a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture program. Plus, we will provide great recreational and educational opportunities. 

We need your support now more than ever. Donate to Friends of Boulder Knoll today by becoming a member. Click here to support our efforts! 

Hi Friends of Boulder Knoll:
Congratulations! Thanks to your hard work, this afternoon, the Friends of Boulder Knoll signed a lease with the Town of Cheshire for the 2 acres of land at Boulder Knoll.  
More to come…
Best,The Board

New Interest in Vertical Farms for Urban Areas

While you won’t see a vertical farm coming to Cheshire any day soon, this New York Times will get you excited about the latest concept in local farming.

“What if “eating local” in Shanghai or New York meant getting your fresh produce from five blocks away? And what if skyscrapers grew off the grid, as verdant, self-sustaining towers where city slickers cultivated their own food?”

Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms

A terrific article in The NY Times about CSAs. Thanks to your hard work, Cheshire may have a CSA to call its own at the Boulder Knoll property soon! E-mail info@friendsofboulderknoll.com for more information on how you can help.

“CAMPTON TOWNSHIP, Ill. — In an environmentally conscious tweak on the typical way of getting food to the table, growing numbers of people are skipping out on grocery stores and even farmers markets and instead going right to the source by buying shares of farms.”

Minutes -Meeting of Thursday, June 26, 2008 at home of Fellis Jordan.

Attending:  Jonathan Parizer, Greg Melville, Bob Giddings, Fellis Jordan, Jeff Rapoport and Kimberly Stoner

Meeting called to order at 7:15 PM by President Kimberly Stoner

Fellis passed around an article on CSA about scarcity of local crops and CSA memberships.

Lease:

Kim reported on interactions with Town on the lease agreement.  Ben Alderton and Jill Casertano both had input on the lease agreement.  Questions included:

1)    making and importing of compost

2)    indemnification of the town for all liabilities

3)    Michael Milone will be away until July 6^th

The consensus was that the arrangements were satisfactory.  Kim will clarify start date of July 1 with Arnett Talbot and Suzanne Simone.  Jill and Fellis will be away until July 6^th.

Gov’t Relations:

Kim spoke Elizabeth Esty who said that in the future, open space monies will be available for management of open land as well as acquisition.  She also spoke with Erin O’Hare, Land Use Planner for Wallingford who said that she is interested in our walking tour. Mary Mushinsky, Mary Heffernan and two others from the Environment Commission of Wallingford are interested in a tour of Bob G.’s wildflowers.

Insurance:

Jill is working on this with Farm Family.  The rate will be based total sales and is expected to be about $500.  A liability waiver will need to be signed and filed for all FOBK members and visitors to the physical premises.  We are basing our waiver on Walter Greist’s Mill River CSA.  Ben Suggested contacting Cheshire sports clubs and other organizations to see a copy of their waiver.  Jonathan Parizer was quoted about $5,000 for general liability insurance, board liability and auto insurance.   Jeff will call Soul Friends and Greg will call Jean Garner to see if they have a Liability Waiver that we could see as an example. 

Treasurer’s Report:

2006 & 2007 Connecticut Corporate Tax Returns and Federal Tax Returns have been filed.  No Federal tax was due.  $640 in CT tax was due and paid along with the accountant’s at-cost fee of $76 leaving a balance in the checking account of $7.96.  The balance in the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven is $1,000 and there is one check for $50 that has not yet been deposited.  Kim will speak to Angel Fernandez about details of a fundraising plan for the CFGNH account so that we will be able to draw out funds and keep the account open.

Agriculture:

Soil Amendments:  Marlene McKenzie reported to Kim that Greencycle of Wallingford will deliver 7 yards of certified organic compost to Boulder Knoll at a charge of $320.  Fellis mentioned that she recalled Michael Milone offering the towns assistance with soil amendments.  Kim recalled that this offer was definite for lime only, and the availability of compost was unclear.  Fellis will talk to Arnett about our needs for lime and compost to determine if the Town will be able to help out.  The soil tests indicate a ph of 4.8 and 350 lbs of lime will be needed for the 2,000 square feet that we plan to cultivate.  If we need to purchase lime, Bob G. said that he would pick up some at Greenbackers and that about 7 bags would be needed at approximately $20 per bag. 

Procedures:  Bob G. said that the land should be plowed first then limed and harrowed.  This will keep the lime in the top 12 inches of soil.  Bob is planning to run his tractor and harrow after John Casertano runs a plow on the land.  One acre will be improved with hairy vetch or winter re and one acre will be mowed only.  If we are to use the mowed grasses for mulch, then a sickle bar would be needed to cut rather than a mower which would pulverize and scatter the hay.

Crops:

Kim will supply seed garlic for October planting

Kim will supply 30 basil plants for immediate planting

A strip of perennials will be planted by the road for beauty and PR value.  These plants were donated by Al Mitlehner and are currently healed in at Fellis’ home. 

Jeff will approach potential plant donors including to see what may be acquired.  To include:  Home Depot, Stop & Shop, Tower Farms, Cheshire Nursery, and Zentek Farms

Jill has some cover crop seed.

Kim recommends ordering more cover crop seed as needed from Greenbackers Agway in Meriden, Meriden Feed & Supply, Fedco, or Johnny’s Seed

Rye could be planted in mid September or later, but, Hairy Vetch must be planted by mid September.

Marketing: of produce was discussed.  Bob suggested that there probably would not be enough of a crop this year to offer CSA memberships at $75, but, maybe a credit could be given on next year’s crop.  Kim said that volunteers could work for a share.  Fellis liked the idea of donating rather than selling the crop. It was agreed that the first year we would donate the crop to a food bank or other non profit and sell some at the Wallingford Farmers Market or to others, such as Jordan Caterers.  Greg said that it would be good to sell the produce in Cheshire.  Everyone felt that we should work towards having a Cheshire Farmers Market, in the long run, but that it is not a project for this year. 

Fundraising was discussed briefly.  Fellis and Jeff agreed to meet to draft a letter to FOBK members requesting renewal of dues.  Kim said that we should plan an event such as a walking education tour in the fall to get people to the farm.  Points of discussion would be organic gardening, composting, and wildlife.  Discussion ensued about making it a Sunday “walk” preceded by a Saturday night dinner.  A ride to the Wallingford property could also be included.  Kim and Jeff said that they would draft a fundraising outline.  Jeff and Fellis said that they would work at revising the mailing list.  Fellis presented a page from a Red Rock Canyon preservation group that included some verbiage that could be useful in our publicity.  Jeff agreed to draft a solicitation deck for corporate membership and sponsorship.  Greg suggested that we send a thank you note to all renewing and new members including a DOAG Farm Map.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeff Rapoport

In Search of Local Produce, but Coming Up ShortBy GERRI HIRSHEYPublished: June 22, 2008  New  York Times

NEW MILFORD

 Wendy Carlson for The New York Times

EARTH MAN Paul Bucciaglia of New Milford’s Fort Hill Farm.

WAIT-LISTED for broccoli rabe? I blinked at my computer screen in disbelief. In fact, it was worse than that. A polite, regretful notice on the Web site for Fort Hill Farm, an organic producer here, informed me that the wait list for a seasonal share in the farm’s C.S.A., or community-supported agriculture program, is now closed until at least 2009. And it’s not sure when the list can be reopened.

Having munched and swooned our way through Fort Hill’s chard, heirloom tomatoes, fingerling potatoes and other dewy fresh produce for a few years at local farmer’s markets, we thought we would look into a C.S.A share: Pay the farmer up front in February and pick up a box of vegetables, herbs and fruit weekly from June to October at the farm or at designated drop spots. C.S.A. shares are generally calculated to provide a week’s worth of fresh, organic, locally grown produce for a family of four. Some farms, like Fort Hill, also offer pick-your-own options that send shareholders into the strawberry and tomato rows.

Paul Bucciaglia, Fort Hill’s proprietor, was in his barn mending wooden display stands for this sold-out season when I showed up bemoaning his success. Tanned, compact and bespectacled, Mr. Bucciaglia offered a hand seamed with the patina of an average day: loam, chlorophyll and a sprinkling of sawdust. “I’m a vegetable grower. Why am I news?” he asked affably. “It’s almost a little sad that we’re talking.”

Nonetheless, he is voluble on the subject of disappearing or unaffordable farmland in Connecticut — a problem that limits how much his business can grow. Most of the state’s veggie consumers still don’t know a C.S.A. from a G.P.S. Yet the demand for buying quality, locally grown food directly from farmers is so great that the area’s organic growers cannot meet the demand; Holcomb Farms in West Granby, the only farm comparable in size to Fort Hill, sold out its 350 shares for this season before last Thanksgiving.

Fort Hill operates on a lovely tract of rich, well-drained soil leased from the Sunny Valley Land Trust, which is mandated to keep some of its land in cultivation. Driving up from the south, the stretch of Route 7 long bordered by cornfields, farm stands and silos is now an unlovely sprawl of condo developments, corrugated-metal big-box stores, a megachurch surrounded by acres of steaming macadam, and several plots of gouged and bulldozed landscape with signs advertising “Topsoil for Sale.” The most fundamental element of the state’s rich agricultural past is being trucked off for gated estates and golf courses.

“The problem is that we’re not saving enough farmland,” Mr. Bucciaglia said as we headed out to his fields. “We’re not getting the people who are trained to do the next generation of farming onto the land. And we’re not supporting those who are.”

He thinks that FarmLink, the state’s year-and-a-half-old Web site designed to connect farm owners with others seeking land, is a good resource, but that preservation efforts are lagging. Mr. Bucciaglia cited a nearby property I had asked about that has been scraped of its topsoil and sits, ugly and forlorn, with a “For Sale” sign.

“That could have supported a family,” he said. “That’s where things go awry in Connecticut. There’s just so much money flying around. I’m sure somebody in the financial industry would look at this farm and say, ‘What a waste of land.’ I’ve had several people say that to me — that this should be a housing development or an industrial complex. That’s based on the idea that we can keep trucking food from other places indefinitely. I don’t know how long that’s going be true.”

A bluebird flashed across the rows of fennel as Mr. Bucciaglia pointed to a construction site bordering his fields. “We’re getting neighbors. They’re going to put 36 units of condominiums right across the street.”

The most pressing mandate, as he sees it: “We need to move a new generation of farmers onto the land as the older farmers in this area, who generally produce commodity crops like bulk milk or hay, retire. What’s special about market farming is that fresh local produce is in high demand, and a good living can be made from a small acreage.”

When winter winds howl and his venerable fleet of used tractors stands idle, Mr. Bucciaglia does his thinking. And ciphering.

“I crunched the numbers in this state,” he said. “Anybody in the legislature wants to call me, I’ve got the numbers. There should be one of these farms for every 50,000 people — 200 C.S.A.’s the size of Fort Hill Farm — in this state. Now there’s two. Us and Holcomb Farms. There are several with 100 to 150 shareholders, and maybe a dozen that have 25. I can only serve 380 families. Every town should be setting aside a piece of land like this. And they’re not.”

Fort Hill also donates produce weekly to the New Milford food bank. “I do think it’s important that people of all income levels have access to high-quality food,” Mr. Bucciaglia said.

As a pair of chickens began a noisy disagreement, Mr. Bucciaglia said that he had recently found one of their number dead just inside a greenhouse. As he bent over the carcass to determine the means of dispatch, a huge red-tailed hawk sauntered past the farmer, ignoring him, and tucked into his fresh-killed meal.

Raptors, like land developers, get their nourishment by pouncing on the main chance. But for the rest of us arugula eaters, it’s looking like a mighty long wait for a local share.