There's no better way to support our long march to an organic Connecticut than joining or renewing your membership.

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





All donations are tax-deductible. Please give generously.
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Giving Day 2018

TODAY ONLY: Donate to CT NOFA as a part of Fairfield County's Giving Day! 

Your support empowers us to bring our mission to fruition: to ensure the growth and viability of organic agriculture, organic food, and organic land care in Connecticut. From farmers to consumers, land care professionals to the Capitol, we partner with the community to move the needle on healthy foods and sustainable practices in Connecticut.

There is a lot of work to be done to create an organic Connecticut - and we can't do it without you! Without your generous support, we won't be able to educate our members on new organic ways or take the fight where it matters: the Capitol.

 For example, just this Tuesday, Executive Director Jeff Cordulack spent the day in Hartford, connecting with legislators and testifying on the dangers of recycled tire rubber on playgrounds and athletic fields. He explained how the material is literally 'toxic waste' and that the health of our kids should take precedence over the use of these cheap materials which is relentlessly lobbied for by the rubber industry and its big political spenders. Watch his testimony in support of HB 5188 - a moratorium on the installation of crumb rubber ground covers at municipal playgrounds.

Vote with your dollar and support this worthy cause. Please give to CT NOFA today on Giving Day.

Click the button below to help us perform in Fairfield County's Giving Day competition.



March 10, 2018 | Danbury, CT
Western Connecticut State University
8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Join us for the premier event for organic fans, farmers, gardeners, foodies, and families. This conference is the largest gathering of organic farming and food enthusiasts in Connecticut. Enjoy over 40 workshops, great gift and farm goods shopping, a delicious lunch, and our keynote speaker Dave Chapman, a farmer and activist who is a leader in the fight to protect the integrity of organic food and ways.

Between four sessions and eleven classrooms, we will have 45 workshops to choose from. Midday, we will enjoy local and sustainable-sourced lunch provided by Barcelona, Plan B Burger Bar, Fleisher's Craft Butchery, Wave Hill Breads, White Pine Teas, Sodexo, and New Morning Market. In the afternoon, our keynote speaker, Dave Chapman, will discuss the integrity of the organic label. When we aren't learning or eating, we will be shopping! Over 50 vendors will be selling their wares in Berkshire Hall gym. 

Workshop Schedule 

Session 1 Session 2 Session 3
Session 4
9:00 am to 10:00 am
10:15 am to 11:15 am
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Business Basics for Organic Farmers
Attracting Nature's Pest Control: Natural Enemies and the Native Plants They Love
Top Ten: A Checklist for New Farm Owners		 Soil fungal inoculants impacts on crop yield, nutrition and Basil Downy Mildew.
FSMA Compliance for Exempt Producers and Processors Integrating Pollinator Habitat into Your Farm Tips and Tools for Organic Management of Vegetable Insect Pests
Soil Fertility
Common Vegetable Diseases and Their Management
All about Grafting		 Pests and Diseases of Brassica Crops Using Yard Wastes to Benefit the Soil
Raising Chickens Right: Best Management Practices For Small Farms and Backyard Flocks Silvopasture: Combine trees, grass, and livestock in useful ways. A tail of a no till transition; stewarding the livestock underfoot Connecticut Food Forests - The current landscape and a look ahead
Certified Organic Nutrient Dense Carbon Friendly Fruit Practical Organic Gardening Lessons from working with forests, trees and beautiful wood Winemaking At Home
The Medicinal Uses of Common Garden Plants, Herbs and Wild Weeds Eat Your Weeds: Foraging among your vegetable rows can yield healthful and delicious foods. Glyphosate Toxicity and Chronic Disease Critical Information on the Prevention and Care of Lyme Disease
Pastured Pork for Profit
Lasagne Mulching		 Growing Gourmet Mushrooms on a Diversified farm The Science, Art, Fun, and Tasty Fruit of Espalier
How to Create a Gorgeous Pollinator Garden Garden Quality Compost in 6 Weeks! Composting 101 Bringing Soil Back to Life with Worm Composting
Lactofermentation
CTCORE Food Justice Guide Fixing Our Food and Farm System through the Farm Bill and Beyond Partnering with the CT Dept of Agriculture How to Start and Grow Your Organic Food Business
Clues to Clever Organic Consumer Choices Pollinators and Pesticides: An Update Connecting Institutions and Local Farms Eat Vegan with Me
Wildly Profitable Marketing Tactics for Young Socialpreneurs Learning in the Garden - education with Edible School Yards NOLA Six Steps to Creating a Zero Food Waste School Youth Leadership in Agriculture at Common Ground HS

Auxiliary Room The Genesis Story of Plants is the Origin of Organic


Conference Schedule
6:45 - 7:00 am          Volunteer Registration
7:00 - 8:00 am          Vendor Set Up
8:00 - 9:00 am         Shopping & Registration Opens
9:00 - 10:00 am       Workshop #1
10:00 - 10:15 am      Shopping Break
10:15 - 11:15 pm        Workshop #2
11:15 - 11:30 am        Shopping Break
11:30 - 1:00 pm        Lunch Shifts Begin
1:00 - 2:15 pm          Keynote & Special Guests
2:15 - 2:30 pm          Shopping Break
2:30 - 3:30 pm         Workshop #3
3:30 - 4:00 pm         Final Shopping Break & Raffle Drawing
4:00 - 5:00 pm         Workshop #4

OrganiConn is the time for all those in the organic community, be they farmers, consumers, business owners, to come together and celebrate organic-ism. We hope you'll join us March 10th in Danbury because it wouldn't be the same with you!
OrganiConn Keynote:
Dave Chapman 

The Fight For Organic Integrity & What Savvy Organic Eaters Need To Know:
How the USDA Organic label has strayed from its origins, what that means to us, and how to identify foods grown with the original organic values. 

In the last ten years, we have seen explosive growth in demand for organic food. Certified organic sales reached $50billion in 2017. The very success of the National Organic Program has perhaps spelled its doom. We will try to understand what has happened to the National Organic Program (NOP), which has been the subject of a series of articles from the Washington Post exposing the failures of the USDA to protect organic integrity. As the NOP has redefined organic to suit the demands of corporate agriculture, the organic movement has woken up and begun a protest movement that continues to this day. The question is whether the National Organic Program and the organic movement are coming to a parting of the ways? As healthy soil becomes ever more significant in our ability to heal a broken water cycle and a warming planet, the need for leadership from the organic movement becomes critical. We will look at the fraud, the protests, how to identify truly organic growers, and try to understand what to do next to protect organic.

Check out the workshops and ticket deals online ($5 more at the door): ctnofa.org/winterconference
Film Screening and Reception
Saturday, March 3
New Morning Market | Woodbury, CT 
5:00 pm Rare Bean Reception
6:00 pm Discussion & Film Screening   

Ever heard of the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin? Bootleggers corn? Hank's X-Tra Special Baking Bean? Join the organic food and farming community for a great afternoon reception and film screening featuring CT NOFA's Executive Director Jeff Cordulack and the Slow Food Metro North chairperson, Donna Simons when they introduce the film, discuss Slow Food's mission and the Slow Food Ark of Taste - a growing catalogue of rare foods and species that were almost forgotten. Guests will learn about these nearly lost foods and sample a few dishes made with them before the film. 
 
About the film: For nearly four decades, John Coykendall's passion has been preserving the farm heritage - the seeds and stories - of a small, farming culture in Southeastern Louisiana. Nominated for two 2017 Suncoast Emmy Awards, Deeply Rooted chronicles how Coykendall has tracked down and safeguarded rare and heirloom varieties of crops from the region and safely returned them to the descendants of farmers who described them to him decades earlier. John's specialty - beans! Hundreds and hundreds of bean varieties. To view a trailer: www.lpb.org/deeplyrooted.

Light refreshments available thanks to New Morning Market and BYOB welcome. Suggested donations for this mini fundraising event: $10-$50 per person. An opportunity to make additional donations & new memberships will be available at the event.

Please RSVP for th is event at: [email protected] | 203-308-2584 |  www.ctnofa.org.  

To invite friends via Facebook, click here.

Thanks to New Morning Market for hosting!
UCONN's Solid Ground Workshops
Strengthening Our Farms Across Connecticut

There are many free classes this season. To see the full schedule of Solid Ground Farmer Training events, click here.
 
UCONN is pleased to offer one-on-one technical assistance with farmland soils and farmland seeking provided by, Consulting Conservation Scientist, Kip Kolesinskas. To apply,  click here .
Featured Business Members 

Paul's Custom Pet Food 
P.O. Box 794
New Milford, Connecticut 06776
(603) 706-0739

The folks at Paul's Custom Pet Food prepare fresh, ethically sourced, organic, handmade pet food for your best friend. Their food may be used as a topper, or customized to meet your pets' complete dietary needs.

Founders Paul and Lynn switched their canine pal, Hunter, from traditional processed foods to whole foods upon the discovery of a malignant tumor below his jaw that brought with it a time frame of only six months to live. Seven years later on Paul's Custom Pet Food, Hunter is as energetic as a puppy and the tumor is gone. Check out Paul's menu here. 


 Mill River Supply 
365 Adams Street 
Bedford Hills,  NY  10507
(914) 666-5774

Mill River Supply specializes in organics for your lawn, garden and farm needs. The store  is family owned and operated and has been for over 30 years.  

They stock Fertrell, Coast of Maine, Espoma, Fox Farms, and more. As the saying goes at Mill River Supply, "From fertilizers to insect control we have it all!" 


Koan Farms
1907 Litchfield Turnpike
Woodbridge, CT 06525
(203) 257-5704

Koan Farms is a micro-farm located in Woodbridge, CT growing and distributing organically and sustainably produced vegetables through their Vegetable Share program.
 
This year they are diversifying their crop list 30% by adding in crops and varieties. Despite Koan's status as a "micro-farm" on three-quarters of an acre, they grew about 5,000 pounds of food last season. Learn more about their CSA here. 

Want to Put Spare Time Towards Creating an Organic Connecticut?
Volunteer with us, in the office or on the Board of Directors.
 
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!
 Jeff Cordulack | [email protected] | 203-613-8813
In the News...

Eco Farming Daily | April 28, 2016

Morning Ag Clips | February 14, 2018 

Los Angeles Times | February 27, 2018

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