NOFA-NH Newsletter: Happy December!

Table of Contents

Seasons Greetings! Click on the headlines below to quickly navigate to the articles that most interest you, or scroll through this month's E-newsletter at your leisure!

Announcing Our 2018 Spring Bulk Order!
Calling All Winter Conference Sponsors, Exhibitors & Presenters
Celebrating the Holidays & Organics with Our Members
NOFA Organic Land Care Standards & Accreditation Course
NH Rural Renewables Offers Free Technical Assistance to Ag Businesses
The Healthy Food Policy Project
New National Gleaning Project Report on Reducing Food Insecurity & Waste
Chef's Guide to Healthy Soil Helps Cooks Improve the Food System
Part-Time Food System Development Position Available
Apply for the Northeast SARE Leadership Committees
BEE a Vendor at NH Audubon's Earth Day Festival Focused on Pollinators
Your Support Matters! Help NOFA-NH Thrive
Renew Your Membership, Join Today, or Give the Gift of Membership!
Upcoming Community Events
Thank You Sponsors!

Announcing Our 2018 Spring Bulk Order!

NOFA-NH's annual Spring Bulk Order is an opportunity to purchase fertilizers and supplies for organic farming and gardening at discounted prices while supporting NOFA-NH at the same time!

This year, we are excited to share hundreds of items to choose from.

Although NOFA-NH membership is not required to participate in the Bulk Order program, non-NOFA members will add 10% to their order.

Click here to become a member and receive your 10% discount!

Bulk Order Product Areas Include:

Soil Amendments

Pest & Weed Control Products

Organic Cover Crop Seed

Farming & Gardening Supplies

Organic Seed Potatoes

Animal Nutrition and More

We are pleased to be working with the following suppliers:

FER Fertrell/North Slope Farm Holtwood, PA
ICC Ideal Compost Co. Peterborough, NH
LAP Lancaster Agricultural Products Ronks, PA
NOC North Country Organics Bradford, VT
OGS Organic Growers Supply/Fedco Seeds/Moose Tubers Clinton, ME
VCC Vermont Compost Co Montpelier, VT

View or Download the Bulk Order Catalog & Order Form!

and

Shop Online at www.nofanhbulkorder.org!

ORDER DEADLINE - February 28, 2018

PICK-UP March 24-25 in Andover, Rochester, or Weare, NH.

Andover, NH: Saturday March 24, 2018 9:00-12:00pm

Belletetes Building Products 33 Ten Penny Lane, Andover, NH (off Rte 11) Andover, NH

Weare, NH: Sunday March 25, 2018 - 9:00-1:00pm

Country Three Corners 833 S Stark Hwy (intersection of Rtes 114, 149, 77) Weare, NH

Rochester, NH: Sunday March 25, 2018 - 3:00-6:00pm

Spaulding Industrial Complex 20 Spaulding Ave, Rochester, NH

We are establishing a fourth pick-up location near Plymouth, NH.

Special Orders Accepted!

Please use the suppliers' online catalogs for more information on these products. If you see something you need in their offerings that's not listed in the Bulk Order catalog, please submit a special order request, preferably by email.

Contact: Bulk Order Coordinator, Denise Rico, at (603) 224-5022 and

bulkorder@nofanh.org with any questions.

Visit the Bulk Order Page on our website to learn more!

Calling All NOFA-NH Winter Conference

Sponsors, Exhibitors and Presenters!

NOFA-NH's 16th annual Winter Conference will be held on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at Merrimack Valley High School in Concord, NH. This year's Keynote Speaker is doctor and author Daphne Miller, M.D.

Don't hesitate to reserve your spot as a Winter Conference sponsor, exhibitor, advertiser or presenter at this awesome event! Slots fill up quickly!

BE A SPONSOR The annual Winter Conference is our primary fundraising opportunity each year. You can support our organization & get loads of visibility for your business at the same time!

BE AN EXHIBITOR Have booth space & interact with hundreds of conference goers at our Green Market Fair! Exhibitors are listed in our conference booklet, too.

BE A PRESENTER Share your expertise with the masses! Please submit your workshop proposals via the online form, link below. Topics include: Advanced Growers, Agricultural Business, Beginning Farmers, Carbon/Soils, Gardening/Homesteading, Health/Nutrition, Livestock/Animals, Policy/Advocacy, and Social Justice. Submit your proposal online here .

Click here to learn more about the benefits for sponsors, exhibitors and advertisers.

Questions about the conference?

Contact Monica Rico , NOFA-NH Winter Conference Coordinator .

Celebrating the Holidays & Organics with Our Members

Thank You NOFA-NH Members, Board Members and Staff for a delicious and joyous Member Appreciation Holiday Potluck! On Monday, December 11 ^th, we gathered to celebrate the holiday season, organic food and the NOFA-NH community.

Click Here to become a new member or renew your membership and enjoy festive member benefits like this all year round!

Announcing *NEW* NOFA Organic Land Care Standards and the Next Accreditation Course in Organic Land Care

The Organic Land Care (OLC) Committee first developed NOFA Standards for Organic La nd Care, Practices for Design and Maintenance of Ecological Landscapes in 2001 to present a vision of how organic agricultural principles can be applied to the landscaping profession. Through an education and accreditation program based on the Standards, NOFA OLC hopes to make organic landscaping services available to the public, and to educate the public on the importance of using standards-based organic landscaping services. Unlike agriculture, in landscaping there is no regulation on using the word "organic."

The Committee reviews and updates the Standards approximately every three years.

The 6th edition, published in November 2017, is available here .

To order a hard-copy of the standards, click here .

The next 4-day Accreditation Course in Organic Land Care will be held February 6-9, 2018 in Norwich, CT. The course is a New England Regional Training. Please click here to learn more.

NH Rural Renewables Offers Free Technical Assistance for Agricultural Producers & Small Businesses

NH Rural Renewables provides free technical assistance to small business owners and agricultural producers in the rural regions of New Hampshire, helping to evaluate and assess the potential for using renewable energy.

Rural small businesses interested in installing solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wood heat, and other renewable energy technologies can receive helpful educational information and preliminary site evaluations at no cost.

The development assistance provided by NH Rural Renewables will be vendor neutral.

Lakes Region Community College, Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative (PAREI) and New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association (NHSEA) are teaming up to provide this free technical assistance. The team will also be leveraging energy efficiency technical assistance from the utility-based NHSaves @ Work program as well as the Rural Energy Development Assistance grant team at the NH Community Development Finance Authority.

This Renewable Energy Development Assistance two-year grant is part of USDA Rural Development's Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which has a variety of energy efficiency and renewable energy grant and loan programs.

Interested farmers and businesses can visit www.lrcc.edu/nhrr , which has renewable energy information, web links, and a short survey to fill out to determine eligibility for technical assistance.

For more information, e-mail nhruralrenewables@gmail.com .

Click Here for NH Rural Renewables Commercial Solar Installer Directory.

The Healthy Food Policy Project

The Healthy Food Policy Project (HFPP) identifies and elevates local laws that seek to promote access to healthy food while contributing to strong local economies, an improved environment, and health equity, with a focus on socially disadvantaged and marginalized groups.

A four-year collaboration between the Center for Agricultural Food Systems (CAFS), the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut, and the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, the HFPP website is designed to help healthy food advocates, policy makers, and public health agencies champion healthy food access in their communities.

The site contains a curated, searchable database of innovative local healthy food policies, analyzed by HFPP staff; a crosswalk of local laws and policies, organized by food system category and type of law; and case studies that showcase healthy food policy initiatives around the country.

The project team is continuing to add new policies and case studies to the database. Explore the project at www.healthyfoodpolicyproject.org.

A New Report from the National Gleaning Project Focuses on Reducing Food Insecurity and Food Waste

This summer, the National Gleaning Project released a new report recommending programs and policies to support increased fresh food donations from gleaning organizations to nonprofit distributors.

Titled R educing Food Insecurity and Food Waste: Improving the National Framework to Support Gleaning Operations, the report builds on the National Gleaning Project's earlier work, which compiled gleaning resources and organizations as well as analyzing legal challenges and presented recommendations to better support gleaning across the country.

For the full report, click here.

To learn more about the project visit nationalgleaningproject.org .

Through a grant from NOFA-NH, NH Farm to School and Seacoast Eat Local, NH Gleans has been coordinating gleaning projects in the Seacoast region of the state. Click here to learn more about NH Gleans and how to participate.

A Chef's Guide to Healthy Soil Helps Restaurants & Cooks Improve the Food System

The Healthy Soil Guide aims to encourage chefs and consumers to reward farmers for using sustainable practices while helping restaurant and home cooks find farms with the healthiest soil.

Organic matter in healthy soil enhances flavor, nutrition, water-holding capacity, and-critically-represents the soil's role in reversing global warming. Chefs and restaurants are in a unique position to share this information through delicious food.

To create a user-friendly score for healthy soil, the guide focuses on the soil organic

matter level of a farm, taking into account the differences in soil types (sandy, versus clay, etc.).

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations along with the Global Soil Partnership declared December 5, 2017 World Soil Day.

Soil is a finite natural resource, and on a human time-scale, it is non-renewable. This essential resource is becoming increasingly degraded due to inappropriate land management practices. The Global Soil Partnership intends to r aise the profile of healthy soil by encouraging governments, organizations, communities and individuals around the world to engage in proactively improving soil health.

The Healthy Soil Guide is another piece of the puzzle enabling the public to learn about this important issue. Check out the guide here.

Part-Time Food System Development Position Available

The North Country Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council seeks a Project Coordinator for the Harvest of the Month (HoM) Pilot.

The HoM Pilot will test the feasibility to enhance income generation of NH farms, farm to table restaurants, and retailers of local food products by using showcased "Harvest of the Month" educational materials. The position is for an independent contractor and will be filled by February, 2018, running until January 2019.

Contact Rick DeMark at the North Country RC&D to request a copy of the Position Announcement at ncrcd.rick@gmail.com, and v isit www.nhrcd.net to learn more.

Apply for the Northeast SARE Leadership Committees!

The Northeast region of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program is seeking a farmer-member for its 20-member administrative council, which reviews and evaluates grant proposals and provides input and advice to guide program and policy development.

Farmers with experience in aquaculture, grain production or urban agriculture are desired for the four-year term, although those with other agricultural experience will be considered. Council members spend about seven days per year on this work.

The grants program relies on diverse individuals from the agricultural community to provide leadership to keep the program innovative and responsive to the needs of farmers in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

Northeast SARE is also seeking members with a wide range of sustainable agriculture experience for its technical committee (TC), which reviews proposals for the program's six grants programs. The anticipated time commitment for TC members is two days per year for a term of three years.

Click here for more information and to apply.

BEE a Vendor at NH Audubon's Earth Day Event Focused on Improving Habitat for Pollinators

NH Audubon invites Earth-friendly businesses and organizations to share their work at Audubon's annual Earth Day Festival. This year's theme is "Bee Empowered," with an emphasis on how we can all improve habitats for pollinators and everyone else.

Interested participants may contact Angie Krysiak, NH Audubon Massabesic Center's Program Manager & Camp Director at akrysiak@nhaudubon.org & (603) 668-2045 .

You don't have to be a vendor to take part in this fun, family event. For more information on attendance and registration, click here.

Your Support Matters! Help NOFA-NH Thrive

NOFA-NH uses every cent of your donations on its important programs like providing CSA shares from local farms to underserved families, educating consumers and organic producers, and maintaining our website as an educational clearinghouse to support our network of growers, gardeners & more.

Help us continue to provide the programs you love, like our free e-newsletter, by making a donation .

Renew Your Membership, Join Today, or Give the Gift of NOFA-NH Membership!

We've streamlined to just two membership levels:

Student/Senior Membership: $30 (Available to full-time students currently enrolled in school and persons over 65 years old)

Standard Membership: $45 (Available to everyone)

Check out a list of member benefits on the membership page of our website.

A year's Membership to NOFA-NH makes a great gift any time of year! Call our office to purchase the gift of organic for your loved ones: 603-224-5022.

Current memberships will continue for one year from the date you joined.