Our members fuel our work providing organic-themed workshops, advocacy, and events that celebrate local foods, farmers and ecological heroes. As a member, you become part of our vocal community of farmers, gardeners, land care professionals, educators, chefs and consumers committed to growing Connecticut organically.

All donations are tax-deductible. Please give generously.

 
 
New Morning Market has generously underwritten the Connecticut Farm & Food Guide - 2018 edition! Thank you!

Stop in their Woodbury location for local organic produce, prepared foods, fresh juices, and a wide selection of organic provisions and beauty products.
JOBS: Check the Community Board for CT NOFA member posts about jobs and items for sale. 

EVENTS: Check out the Local Event Calendar for events by CT NOFA members and partners.

CSA: To find yourself a tasty CSA subscription, check out the CSA website
Organic Management 
of Invasive Plants
with Michael Nadeau of Wholistic Land Care Consulting
  Hanson Building | Beardsley Zoo 
Wednesday May 16, 2018
10:00 am to 3:00 pm
 
Join CT NOFA on  Wednesday  May 16, 2018 from 10:00am to 3:00 pm in the H
anson Building on the grounds of the Beardsley Zoo for a hands-on course with Mike Nadeau of Wholistic Land Care Consulting speaking on Organic Management of Invasive Plants. $70 NOFA or Zoo Members. $85 non-members.

Mike will cover the organic management and removal of invasive plants. Please bring gloves, hand pruners or loppers, and other digging tools that you have on hand. Mike will start the day with a brief presentation on invasive plants and how to manage and remove them organically. We will then head out to the zoo grounds for field-work including plant identification, organic removal techniques, and tool choice.
 
Questions? Email us at: events@ctnofa.org or leave a message in the office: (203) 308-2584.
  
 
May is CT NOFA Membership Month!  Join our growing community of organic gardeners, farmers, and consumers-people who know and value good, clean, and healthy food. The benefits of membership are many-plus we'll mail you the new 2018 edition of the Connecticut Farm & Food Guide. Everyone who joins, or renews, in May will get a new book - An Intro to Organic Lawns & Yards, as a thank you for being passionate about organics. 

Please join by phone, mail or online today! 

Best regards, 
  
Jeff Cordulack, 
Executive Director 
jeff@ctnofa.org 
(203) 613-8813


CT NOFA Policy Report: A Message from Bill Duesing bill duesing

In Connecticut t his year, our biggest push was for a Healthy Soils bill which would support farmers who want to adopt practices to build carbon-rich organic matter levels in soil. These practices, such as using no till methods, cover crops and compost, provide multiple benefits by encouraging healthier soil, plants, water, air and climate.
 
Because of the nature of this short legislative session, a bill has to be introduced by a committee, in this case the Environment Committee. Jeff and I met with the committee chairs and co-chairs and lobbied other members, but the Committee leadership didn't introduce our bill. We've been encouraged to bring it up again next year when there will be fewer limitations. It often takes a number of tries to get a bill through all the hoops to become law. At many stages a bill's success is more in the hands of committee or chamber leaders than those of the rank and file members and the public. Read more.
Volunteer in the office or on the Board of Directors 
Now is the time to put your name in the hat - in the name of organics!
 
CT NOFA was founded by volunteers and their collaboration brought about many great changes in Connecticut. Their accomplishments led to the first Organic Certification program in the state, to the now famous Winter Conference which started as potluck gatherings, the development Farmer's Markets, the pesticide ban on school grounds, and so much more!   Your time volunteering could simply be helping in the office or you can apply to be on the Board of Directors!  
 
If you would like to get involved and create meaningful change with CT NOFA, contact Executive Director Jeff Cordulack to talk about your interests, skills and the organization's needs. You never know where it will take you! CONTACT:  Jeff Cordulack | jeff@ctnofa.org | 203-613-8813
Farm Pollinator Dinner & SoirĂ©e 
A Dinner Party & Fundraiser
with CT NOFA and Sugar & Olives 
Sugar & Olives | Norwalk, CT
Saturday June 2, 2018
6:30 pm to 9:00 pm 

 
Join CT NOFA and Sugar and Olives on  Saturday June 2, 2018 from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm at Sugar & Olives in Norwalk  for an exclusive dinner party hosted by Chef Jennifer Balin to celebrate bees, butterflies, and local organic farmers who provide pollinator habitat on their farms. Dinner followed by a "Pollinator Party" with dancing into the late evening. $150 per person. 

Our summer dinner with Executive Chef and Sugar & Olives Owner Jennifer Balin will feature a wonderful selection of local, organically-grown produce harvested to achieve maximum nutritional value. Sugar & Olives seeks to educate diners and cultivate the relationship between farms and families. Sugar & Olives supports CT NOFA's mission to ensure the growth and viability of organic agriculture, organic food, and organic land care in Connecticut.
Together businesses and communities can improve our food system. We hope you'll join us in June!
 
Questions? Email us at: events@ctnofa.org or leave a message in the office: (203) 308-2584.
 
 
 
Upcoming OLC Accreditation Opportunities - and Scholarships!
  

Join CT NOFA's Organic Land Care Program for an accreditation course this year:
August 13-16 and November 12-15
If you are passionate about transitioning from conventional land management to organic methods, this scholarship is for you. Expand your client base by offering organic land care all while protecting our community from toxins. 

This summer, NOFA is pleased to offer scholarships to our upcoming Organic Land Care Accreditation 4-day courses. Per grant requirements, all attendees who receive this scholarship must work and live in Connecticut and will be required to submit a plan to transition a percentage of land in their care to an organic program with implementation in the Spring of 2019.

Join us for the August course (Aug. 13-16 in New Haven) or the November course (Nov. 12-15 in TBD). For more information about the scholarship opportunity, contact Jeremy Pelletier: jeremy@ctnofa.org or apply below.

Featured Business Members 

Green Jay Landscaping 
222 Purchase Street
Rye, New York 10580
(914) 560-6570

G reen Jay Landscaping is a Go Green New York
based company committed to the highest standards of Landscape Design,
Development  and Construction Services. 
Uniquely beautiful,  sustainable landscapes utilize all positive attributes and advantages of the natural  resources available on your property. Architectural style and existing landscape features such as trees, lawns, gardens, rock outcroppings, wetlands, streams, ponds and woodlots impart a character or describe a feeling special to your landscape.

To learn more about the services Green Jay Landscaping offers, click here

Yellow House Farm
Middletown, CT 06457 
860-740-6761
yellowhousefarmct.com

Yellow House Farm is owned by the Scott-Danner family and is located in Middletown, CT. We started 
the farm here in 2014, in a (possibly naive) attempt to convert a 
small section of hay field with well entrenched perennial weeds into a productive, organic vegetable farm. They sell produce at Ivoryton Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings (June to Oct), 
an d Garden of Light Natural Food Market in Avon. Yellow House Farm also runs a  CSA  for about 15-20 weeks in the
summer  months, and have coolers at the end of our driveway  Sunday-Tuesday in season. 

Contact them now to reserve your treasured CSA share, ASAP!

Sweet Acre Farm 
Lebanon, CT 06237
860-531-0094
Sweet Acre Farm is a small, diversified family farm, producing certified organic vegetables, flowers & eggs for Farmers Markets, wholesale restaurant & grocery accounts in the Hartford and Eastern CT area., and a small CSA. 

At  Sweet Acre, they believe strongly in allowing the principles of nature to govern their fields. This means they count on the diversity of crops, the diversity of insects, and the 
health of their soil to produce bountiful, beautiful, nutritious, and delicious food. Within their Holistic approach, there is no room for chemicals, pesticides or fungicides of any kind. 

To learn more about what they grow or to join Sweet Acre's CSA, click here.


T he Common Bond Market 
40 Huntington Street
Shelton, CT 06484
(203) 513-8200
 
The Common Bond Market has two similar underlying 
philosophies. The first is that  food, good food, serves as a c ohesive bond for families and communities. The second is that 
the local market is still an important idea in the age of the big box supermarkets. 

Locally grown produce, locally manufactured food and goods, and farmers' markets are becoming more and more important for people as they realize that our relationship with food has become too distant. Common Bond remedies that by providing products that consumers can trust and focus on through building strong local relationships. 

To learn more about the market, click here
NOFA Summer Conference

During the weekend of August 10-12, 2018 we will gather again at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts for the 44th Annual NOFA Summer Conference. This immersive annual gathering is an opportunity to come together as the regional organic community from the seven NOFA states - NY, NJ, VT, MA, RI, NH, CT. The conference is a three day event packed with education programming for adults and children, an array of fun-spirited activities and the opportunity to be nourished by the collective wisdom and knowledge of decades of farming, gardening and activism that makes up the work of our NOFA chapters.
This year's conference program is woven with workshops and activities that will pay homage to the agricultural wisdom that has been instructive to us through the ages. We will celebrate the wisdom of the rich indigenous agricultural past that has provided the basis of the organic movement and the ecologically based practices we have used to be successful.  Register now !
In the News...

Madison.com | April 2, 2018

Business Insider | April 2, 2018

Quartz | April 2, 2018

Organic Insider | April 4, 2018

NPR | April 9, 2018

Civil Eats | April 17, 2018

New York Times | April 18, 2018

Now available:
  • Introduction to Organic Lawns and Yards 
  • NOFA Standards for Organic Land Care - 6th edition