NOFA-NH E-Newsletter: November 2022
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Dear Friend of NOFA-NH,
November certainly rings in the season of giving. You can support our work moving into 2023 by making a year end donation to NOFA-NH today. Your donation, big or small, supports our vital education programs, food access initiatives, advocacy work, and so much more!
November is also Native American Heritage Month, and NOFA-NH would like to once again extend our gratitude to the first stewards of this land we call New Hampshire today. Thank you to the Pennacook, Abenaki, and Wabanaki people, past and present, who have cared for their ancestral land, or N’dakinna, and its waterways through the generations. You can learn more about the Indigenous peoples of this land, their work, and how to support them at:
This month invites us to toast the harvest, eat delicious, local comfort food, and connect with loved ones near and far. We hope that you will join us for our upcoming offerings that celebrate food, farmers, and community, including our final Share the Bounty Fundraiser of 2022, 2023 Winter Conference, Winter Book Study, Food & Climate Panel, and Bulk Order Program.
Thanksgiving is, of course, all about the food and if you are looking to Live Free & Eat Local for your turkey day dinner, you can find local food here with the NH Food Alliance’s local guide to Thanksgiving.
This Thanksgiving, NOFA-NH is grateful for this vibrant community of organic farmers, gardeners, eaters and advocates who share our vision and work so hard to create meaningful change. Thank you for being committed to building a healthy, local, ecologically sound New Hampshire food system with us. We wish you and your families the best as we move into the holiday season!
Yours in Good Health & Healthy Food,
Team NOFA-NH
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- Registration is Open for Our 21st Annual Winter Conference!
- Submit Your Winter Conference Award Nominations by December 31st
- Share the Bounty Update: Over $10,000 Raised
- More Ways to Share the Bounty: North Conway Flatbread Co. Community Bake
- Thank You for Another Great CRAFT Season
- Mark Your Calendars: 2023 Bulk Order Site Goes Live this December
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Attend the 2022 NH Agricultural Policy Forum December 13th
- Winter Book Study: A Precautionary Tale
- A Future of Food Security for All w/ Special Guest Ira Wallace January 10th
- Food & Climate Panel: Carbon Market Pitfalls January 18th
- Carbon Offsets at COP27 Webinar Recording
- 2023 Farm Bill – NOFA Priorities & Public Review
- 2022 Weekly Market Bulletin Organic Produce Prices
- LTE: Support NH Farms Before They All Vanish
- Join the Lakes Region Farmer-Buyer Meet & Greet December 9th
- Local Organic Food vs. the Climate Crisis
- Monadnock Food Co-Op Farm Fund: Applications Due February 1st!
- Free Business Planning Course for NH Specialty Crop Producers
- News from the USDA
- Customized Coaching for Food & Farm Businesses
- The Impact of Organic Hydroponics and Possible Solutions
- Census & Survey: Two Ways to Share Your Experiences
- Funding Opportunities
- Food System Jobs
- Meet Our Members: Sarah Hansen of Warner Public Market & Kearsarge Gore Farm
- November Recipe: Gingered Cranberry Sauce
- Welcome New & Renewing Members
- Classifieds, Upcoming Events, Sponsors & Advertisers
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Registration is Open for Our 21st Annual Winter Conference! |
We are excited to announce that registration for NOFA-NH’s 21st Annual Winter Conference is open! This year’s conference theme is The Art of Food & Farming: Skill Sharing for a Brighter Future and we hope you will join us to hone our skills with over 25 in-person workshops and panels focused on sharing expertise, filling our toolkits, and building community resilience! An online track will be available for those unable to attend in person. NOFA/MOFGA Members save 20% on registration!
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Submit Your Winter Conference Award Nominations by December 31st |
Each year, NOFA-NH is pleased to provide an opportunity to recognize leaders in the organic farming community at our Winter Conference. Please help us identify and honor those deeply committed to organic agriculture and advocacy!
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Share the Bounty Update: Over $10,000 Raised |
NOFA-NH extends our deepest gratitude to our Share the Bounty partners who helped to raise over $10,000 for our 2023 Farm Share Program. Thank you to the Monadnock Food Co-op, Vital Communities & The Local Crowd Monadnock, Merrimack County Savings Bank, the Kearsarge Food Hub & Sweet Beet Farm + Market + Café, Revival Kitchen & Bar, Warner Public Market, The Works Bakery Café, Flatbread Company Portsmouth, and C&S Wholesale Grocers for your generosity and support of food access for all in our communities!
If you would like to support our Farm Share Program this giving season, you can do so through our donation form here.
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More Ways to Share the Bounty: North Conway Flatbread Co. Community Bake |
Save the date for our final Share the Bounty fundraiser of 2022 and support NOFA-NH’s Farm Share Program by attending a Community Bake at the North Conway Flatbread Company on Monday, November 28, 2022. A portion of every pizza purchased will go to our Farm Share Program, which helps provide limited income NH residents with a season’s worth of local, organic produce at a reduced cost.
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Thank You for Another Great CRAFT Season |
Our 2022 CRAFT season has come to a close. Over 170 farmers, gardeners, and interested eaters came together to build skills, network and work to improve our local food system at 6 on-farm CRAFT tours. In addition to our on-farm tours, we also offered 4 online CRAFT webinars this past fall. Over 55 registrants attended these virtual farm business focused workshops presented by industry experts. Thank you to our farmer hosts and webinar instructors for sharing your space and expertise with us! If you are interested in hosting a group or presenting a workshop for our 2023 CRAFT season, please email us at info@nofanh.org.
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Mark Your Calendars: 2023 Bulk Order Site Goes Live this December |
We are excited to announce that our Bulk Order Program website will go live in December 2022. Please stay tuned for more information and visit www.nofanh.org.bulk-order for updates.
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Attend the 2022 NH Agricultural Policy Forum December 13th |
Join national and state-level experts in agricultural policy for a FREE, one hour event discussing federal and state bills working to build a sustainable, equitable, and robust local food system in New Hampshire and beyond.
Hear from keynote speaker Chelsea Gazillo, American Farmland Trust (AFT), New England Policy director and director of AFT's Working Lands Alliance and other speakers, including Rob Johnson of the NH Farm Bureau, Julie Davenson of NOFA-NH, Stacey Purslow of NH Farm to School, Tiffany Brewster of NH Hunger Solutions & NH Food Access Coalition, and Rob Werner of League of Conservation Voters.
Topics include: 2023 Farm Bill policy priorities, Inflation Reduction Act impact on New England small-scale farms; soil health, climate change, farm to school, and food access bills coming to the NH legislature, & more. Register here.
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Winter Book Study: A Precautionary Tale
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We hope you will join NOFA-NH and Seacoast NH Permaculture this winter for a 5-part Zoom book discussion of A Precautionary Tale: How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage and Inspired a Movement by Philip Ackerman-Leist. Meetings will take place every other Thursday from January 5 to March 2. Register for the whole 5-week series for $10 (NOFA members) or $15 (non-members). Only six spots are available and will be filled on a first come first serve basis. Participants must purchase their own copy of the book. Learn more and sign up at www.nofanh.org/book-club.
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A Future of Food Security for All w/ Special Guest Ira Wallace January 10th |
The seven chapters of the Northeast Organic Farming Association have been working to develop food security programs and learning opportunities throughout our region. This winter each chapter will be implementing various workshops at our Winter Conferences that discuss topics to build self-resiliency, grow agricultural communities, develop systems for improved access, increase land access, and reduce climate decline. To kick off our Winter Conference season we have invited the NOFA/Mass Keynote Speaker Ira Wallace, of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, to share with us the importance of food security and how seed saving continues to play such an important role in feeding our communities. We hope you will join us for this free, virtual event on January 10 from 12 PM – 1 PM.
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Food & Climate Panel: Carbon Market Pitfalls January 18th |
Please save the date for an exciting online panel NOFA-NH is presenting in collaboration with Seacoast NH Permaculture. Join us on January 18, 2023 at 7 PM for an online panel discussion: Food and Climate: Carbon Market Pitfalls & Better Strategies for Regenerative Farming Practices. Panel speakers include Cat Buxton of Grow More, Waste Less, Caroline Gordon of Rural Vermont, Stephen Leslie of Cedar Mountain Farm & Cobb Hill Cheese, and Julie Davenson of the Regenerative Food Network, Southshire Meats, & NOFA-NH.
This webinar will offer participants an opportunity to discuss methods to more fairly acknowledge farmers’ contributions to land care through Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). It will also highlight the drawbacks and vulnerabilities to cooptation that are contained in some of the proposed measures. Plan for a lively Q&A session!
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Carbon Offsets at COP27 Webinar Recording |
On October 27th, The Indigenous Environmental Network and National Family Farm Coalition, along with 7 other partners, cohosted an illuminating webinar that explored the growth of carbon offset programs, the harm they cause, and real solutions to address the climate crisis. It clearly outlines the flaws in ‘net zero’ programs that allow polluters to ‘compensate’ for their pollution through investment in farms and forests. ‘Carbon Offsets at COP27: A Poison Pill for the Planet, Farmers and Communities” is well worth hearing or watching, and a great resource to view in advance of our upcoming Food & Climate Panel on January 18th.
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2023 Farm Bill – NOFA Priorities & Public Review |
NOFA's Farm Bill Principles advocate for a Farm Bill that:
- Actively invests in and protects the integrity of organic and agroecological practices as a core solution to our climate and biological crises.
- Ensures fair treatment and just livelihoods for farmers and workers throughout the food and farming system.
- Invests in rural communities, increases fairness and resilience of local and regional supply chains and breaks up consolidation in agriculture.
- Centers racial justice across all programs and repairs past and ongoing racialized harm.
- Promotes food sovereignty for disadvantaged communities and ensures nutrition security for all.
- Eliminates the use of toxic substances on farmland and in our food system while supporting a just transition for farmers.
The House Agriculture Committee is seeking direct input from producers, stakeholders, and consumers on how various farm bill programs are working for them as an integral part of the review process of the 2018 Farm Bill and for preparation for the 2023 Farm Bill. You can submit your review here.
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2022 Weekly Market Bulletin Organic Produce Prices |
Each year, the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food collects and summarizes retail produce prices from farm stands throughout New Hampshire. NOFA-NH & the NHDAMF are seeking price lists from organic farmers around the state. These prices will appear in the Weekly Market Bulletin newsletter, which is published by the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food.
The summary includes price ranges for different crops from the various organic farm retail outlets. The weekly information is reviewed and used by producers throughout the state and region. This is completely anonymous. No names are tied to the price information in any way.
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LTE: Support NH Farms Before They All Vanish |
Gene Jonas, farmer and owner of Hungry Bear Farm in Wilton, NH and NOFA-NH Education & Policy Committee member, penned this letter to the editor, published on November 10th.
“Another farm here in the Monadnock region just went out of business. I’ve heard through the grapevine that another one lost access to the land they farmed. A third plans to cut production by 70% next year. If the New England Feeding New England Project (nefoodsystemplanners.org) is to succeed then we must develop more ways of producing the food we consume, growth through attrition is not the answer...”
You can read the full letter here.
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Join the Lakes Region Farmer-Buyer Meet & Greet December 9th |
This event slated for Friday, December 9th from 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM at the Gilford Community Center is an opportunity for farmers who are looking to sell their products to meet local food buyers, and for food businesses seeking local products to serve their customers and clientele. This is a networking event and farmers are encouraged to bring samples of their products if available.
Food buyers include local schools, hospitals, restaurants who wish to offer their clientele locally grown food.
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Local Organic Food vs. the Climate Crisis |
Why is small-scale, localized, organic growing and eating so crucial for our tumultuous times? Why are such practices key to a healthy, just, and climate-stable future? How can we encourage others to support this important work?
Here’s an exceptionally insightful webinar from IPES-Food (the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food and A Growing Culture). It’s titled ‘BEYOND CARBON: Food systems, Climate and Greenwashing at COP27.’ While it’s directed towards journalists, it could be very helpful for anyone who’d like to better understand the deliberate shifts in language that are being used to try to shape people’s grasp of climate change; the ecological impact of different kinds of food production and eating patterns; and the social power dynamics that distort taxpayer-funded farm subsidies, programs, and trade treaties.
Pair the above with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy ( IATP’s) four-part series of short podcasts on COP27 and you’ll have an in-depth summary of current actions and narratives swirling around these vital concerns. Here’s a link to the first episode of that IATP series.
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Monadnock Food Co-Op Farm Fund: Applications Due February 1st! |
The Monadnock Food Co-op Farm Fund program, in partnership with the Cheshire County Conservation District, is now accepting applications from local farmers. Currently, in its seventh year, the fund has supported sixteen farms in the Monadnock Region.
The Monadnock Food Co-op Farm Fund's mission is to support local farmers in increasing sustainable food production and wholesale sales to contribute to a thriving local farm economy. This grant supports several of the co-op's goals, including building a healthy, sustainable food system, supporting local farmers and producers, and contributing to a strong, sustainable, and improving local economy.
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Free Business Planning Course for NH Specialty Crop Producers |
The Cheshire County Conservation District, the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, and National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) are partnering to host a free 7-week-long business planning course (waived fee of $600!) for specialty crop producers in New Hampshire. Specialty crops are defined in law as, “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture."
Throughout the course, farmers will learn how to enhance the competitiveness of their business, receive technical assistance, receive peer support from other specialty crop producers, create a business plan, and will receive a $2,000 stipend to implement their business plan after successfully completing the course. The course will meet in person at the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship in Keene, NH every Wednesday from 4:00pm-7:00pm, January 11th, 2023 through February 22nd, 2023.
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In the past month, the USDA has announced several programs, tools, and publications of interest to organic farmers, eaters, and advocates.
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Customized Coaching for Food & Farm Businesses |
Organizations from around the state are partnering to offer customized coaching to New Hampshire farms and food businesses! Thanks to a grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission, administered by the Agricultural Viability Alliance, these organizations will be offering teams of specialists, catered to farm and food businesses' individual needs in Belknap, Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, and Sullivan counties. Kate McNamee of Clover Meadow Farm credits the Agricultural Viability Alliance (AVA) with providing her tailored support in business planning and website marketing. With a full time job already, and a growing flower farm to take care of on top of that, Kate was able to receive support developing a colorful and informative website so that she didn’t have to take on a third job of web developer. If you would like support in marketing or business planning, read more here about what it’s like to work with the AVA or submit an intake form here!
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The Impact of Organic Hydroponics and Possible Solutions |
Jim Riddle of Organic Independents LLP and Blue Fruit Farm, and NOFA-NH member, penned the article "The End of Organic Farming (as we know it)" in response to the recent Appeals Court ruling to allow hydroponic operations to be certified organic:
“The fundamental concepts of organic farming have always been, “Feed the Soil, not the Plant,” and “Healthy Soil leads to Healthy Crops, Healthy Animals, Healthy People, and a Healthy Planet.” Now, those concepts have been turned on their head, with a recent Appeals Court ruling that you don’t even need soil for growing terrestrial crops, in order to be certified organic in the United States.
Will the 9th Circuit Court’s September 2022 ruling, which stated, “no part of the statute [Organic Foods Production Act] clearly precludes organic certification of crops grown hydroponically,” mean the end of organic farming, as we know it? Maybe. Maybe not...”
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Census & Survey: Two Ways to Share Your Experiences |
Submit to the National Farm to Food Assistance Survey by Friday December 2, 2022! The purpose of this survey is to better understand the market channel that connects small-to mid-size local food producers and the food assistance/hunger relief sector. Connections between farmers and food assistance efforts come in many shapes and sizes. This survey is specifically interested in those where farmers are paid for their product, which people facing food insecurity then access for free or at a discounted price. Submit to the survey.
The Census of Agriculture, taken only once every five years, looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures. For America’s farmers and ranchers, the Census of Agriculture is their voice, their future, and their opportunity. Learn more and download the census form. Responses are due February 6, 2023.
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Meet Our Members: Sarah Hansen of Warner Public Market & Kearsarge Gore Farm |
NOFA-NH's knowledgeable and passionate members make our organization great. That's why we offer our members with farms and food-related businesses eligibility to be featured in the 'Meet Our Members' e-news column. Each month, we make our community a little closer by introducing you to someone new. Please contact us if you'd like to be featured!
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November Recipe: Gingered Cranberry Sauce |
One of the few fruits native to North America, cranberries have been used by Indigenous peoples of New England as food and medicine for generations.
This cranberry sauce is a fall classic with a spicy addition – and yes, you can get local ginger in NH! Check out Warner Public Market, Sweet Beet Market, or Benedikt Dairy’s farm store to find some!
Ingredients:
12 ounces fresh cranberries
½ cup honey
½ cup apple cider
¼ cup golden raisins
Zest of 1 medium orange
1 tsp fresh grated ginger, or ½ tsp ground
½ tsp cinnamon
Pinch salt
Preparation:
Combine all ingredients into a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until cranberries pop and the sauce has thickened. Adjust sweetness to your liking!
Allow to cool and store covered in your refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Delicious with poultry or as a topping for vanilla ice cream!
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Welcome New & Renewing Members |
Thank you to our NOFA-NH Members who became new members or renewed their memberships in October 2022.
New Members:
Renewing Members:
Monadnock Food Co-op, The Works Bakery Café, Flatbread Company Portsmouth, Kearsarge Food Hub, Revival Kitchen & Bar, Warner Public Market, Brandmoore Farm, Lorax & the Secret Gardener, Emery Farm, Art Cycle, Brookford Farm, ReGenerative Roots Association, Lost Nation Orchard, Norman Pinard, Farm at the Edge
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Management & Leadership Opportunities at Root 5 Farm in Vermont (Fairlee, VT)
Windswept Farm Is Hiring (Andover, NH)
Posted October 1, 2022: Would you like to work on a farm this season? Learn and bring your knowledge to growing a variety of vegetables and fruits to be delivered to farmers' market. Email tjgallagher13@yahoo.com for more information and to apply.
Grow Your Profits
Posted October 1, 2022: Keeping honey bees as pollinators will increase your yield! White Mountain Apiary has everything you need to become a successful beekeeper. We offer online beekeeping classes, honey bees, queen bees, beekeeping equipment and support. Visit
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Thank You, Sponsors and Advertisers! |
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NOFA-NH
Office Hours: By appointment only
Phone: (603) 224-5022 Email: info@nofanh.org
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