Farmer Led Innovator Field Walks
Soil Health Field Walk at Atlas Farm: Tillage-Reduced Cover Cropping and Planting Methods for Brassicas
Thursday, Sept 28th, 1:00-3:30 pm
635 River Rd, Deerfield, MA 01342
Join Gideon Porth of Atlas Farm and Julie Fine of American Farmland Trust for a field walk exploring an innovative approach to tillage reduction for organic vegetables. Gideon will showcase the initial results of a trial utilizing multiple cover crops, including oats and peas, followed by buckwheat, to prepare for no-till transplanting fall kale. This strategy reduces tractor passes by 75% and requires no tillage during the cropping season. Gideon will share the background of the trials, the equipment, and the operations involved, and participants will be able to compare each treatment with its standard tillage control.
Julie Fine, New England Climate and Agriculture Specialist will discuss challenges and innovations in regional efforts at tillage reduction on mechanized organic farms, and share resources for farmers.
We will round out the afternoon with farmer-to-farmer Q&A and discussion.
Gideon Porth has been farming since college and has been the owner/operator of Atlas Farm since 2004. He has grown Atlas Farm from a 2.5-acre rented plot to a 120-acre certified organic farm growing year-round for the local and regional produce market. Gideon and the Atlas Farm team strive to constantly evolve their farming systems to serve as a model for resource-conscious, ecological farming methods.
Julie Fine, New England Climate and Agriculture Specialist for American Farmland Trust has worked on dairy and vegetable farms in MA, CA, and New Zealand over the last 20 years before settling in western Massachusetts. In 2018, she earned an MS in plant and soil science from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst researching the effects of winter-killed cover crops on nutrient cycling, weed suppression, and soil health. Through relationships with farmers across the Northeast, Julie has seen the agricultural and climate challenges that food producers face and is dedicated to working together toward site-specific solutions for climate adaptation, soil health, and sustainable food production.
~Register Here
Soil Health Field Walk at Island Grown Initiative
Monday, Oct 2, 1-3:00pm
Island Grown Initiative Farm, 80 Stony Hill Road Vineyard Haven, MA
Join Island Grown Initiative and American Farmland Trust for a field walk exploring innovative approaches to tillage reduction on organic farms. Farmers Andrew Woodruff and Tim Connelly will provide a whole-farm tour focusing on their soil health and regenerative farming practices. During the tour, Andrew and Tim will showcase the custom zone builder they’ve built and the demonstration plots where they have used it to plant low-till fall brassicas into crimped and tarp-terminated rye, vetch, and crimson clover cover crop mix. They are tracking yield outcomes, labor investments, compaction, weed suppression, and other soil health indicators in the trial field. Andrew, Tim, and soil health advisor Alli Fish will discuss the soil health and crop performance outcomes of their tillage reduction trial. We will round out the afternoon with an informal farmer-to-farmer Q&A and discussion.
If you plan to bring your car to the island, make a reservation as far in advance as possible (as tourist demand is high). Contact Julie Fine (link Jfine@farmland.org) if you wish to arrange a carpool with other attendees. Arrive at the ferry terminal at least 30 minutes prior to departure and plan on a 45-minute ferry ride. If you plan to take the ferry as a passenger, you can park at the Woods Hole ferry terminal. Contact Andrew Woodruff (774-563-8197) for transportation from the Vineyard Haven ferry terminal to the farm. A link to the ferry schedule and tickets is here.
About the Farm:
Island Grown Initiative, a non-profit organization that works to build a regenerative and equitable food system on Martha’s Vineyard, has been transitioning its 40-acre farm to low- and no-tillage regenerative agricultural practices, utilizing tarps, landscape fabric, year-round, diverse cover crops, and multi-species rotational grazing. The farm also includes a 30,000-square-foot glass greenhouse, a ten-month CSA, a robust gleaning program, and frequent field trips from local schools. Approximately 1/3 of the food grown is donated to islanders in need through food equity programs and through partners in the Island Food Equity Network.
Speakers:
Andrew Woodruff has been farming vegetables on Martha’s Vineyard since he started Whippoorwill Farm in his teenage years. In 2017, after many decades of growing, Andrew decided to lease out Whippoorwill Farm and work as a consultant for local farms promoting soil health using regenerative systems. This journey has allowed Andrew to radically rethink land stewardship and how to grow food sustainably.
Tim Connelly hails from Schenectady, New York, and has worked for farms and environmental education programs around the Northeast. He moved to the Island in 2013 and served as Education Director of The Farm Institute for three years while working brief stints at numerous Island farms. Tim joined IGI in 2017 as Program Manager of Island Grown Schools and now is the Farm Director at the IGI farm, overseeing all of our farming operations and regenerative agriculture work. Tim hopes to use soil to heal humanity’s woes, but in the meantime, he’ll settle for providing the Island with as much nutritious and ethically produced food as possible.
~Register Here
Past Field Walks
Soil Health Field Walk at Andrews Farm
Monday, August 7, 4:30-6:00 pm
183 West Hill Road, Gardiner, ME 04345
Join Andrews Farm and American Farmland Trust for a field walk exploring innovative approaches to tillage reduction on organic farms. Farmer Mike Perisho will showcase his four-year minimum tillage rotation:
- Year 1: Onions mulched with aged leaves which are then raked to pathways after harvest and winter rye/vetch sown on bed tops;
- Year 2 Rye/vetch crimped/tarped for fall brassicas;
- Year 3: Residues raked into pathways for carrot and salad green successions;
- Year 4: Beds raised using BCS (2-wheel tractor) rotary plow and covered with wide landscape fabric with permanent holes for peppers, eggplant, and summer cucurbits.
Mike will provide a whole-farm tour and will discuss the operations involved in the trial rotation, elaborating on his initial soil health, weed suppression, and crop performance observations. We will round out the afternoon with a lightly-moderated farmer roundtable sharing session on what soil health and climate adaptation practices participants are exploring on their farms.
Speakers
Mike Perisho began growing vegetables on his wife Jess’s family land in 2014, which had been farmed by her family since the late 1800s. This fifth-generation effort is keeping the land in agriculture while involving family members, friends, and neighbors in the stewardship of the land. Mindful of how their activities affect life downstream, the farm team takes any opportunity to work with nature, rather than intervene against it, through the use of practices that preserve soil structure and maintain high levels of biological activity.
Julie Fine, New England Climate and Agriculture Specialist for American Farmland Trust has worked on dairy and vegetable farms in MA, CA, and New Zealand over the last 20 years before settling in western Massachusetts. In 2018, she earned an MS in plant and soil science from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst researching the effects of winter-killed cover crops on nutrient cycling, weed suppression, and soil health. Through relationships with farmers across the Northeast, Julie has seen the agricultural and climate challenges that food producers face and is dedicated to working together toward site-specific solutions for climate adaptation, soil health, and sustainable food production.
~Register Here
Soil Health Field Walk: Crimson & Clover Farm
Monday, July 17th, 1:00-3:00pm
215 Spring St, Florence, MA 01062
Join Crimson Clover Farm and American Farmland Trust for a field walk exploring innovative approaches to tillage reduction on organic farms. Farmer Nathan Frigard will showcase three tillage reduction and soil health trials: zone-tilling and planting crops into established dutch white clover living mulch, growing teff as a living mulch between tomato beds, and the use of intensive cover crop successions for organic matter/residue building. Nathan will provide a farm tour, stopping at each trial plot to discuss the operations involved and any initial soil health, weed suppression, and crop performance observations. We will round out the afternoon with an informal farmer-to-farmer Q&A and discussion.
Speakers
Nate Frigard co-founded Crimson & Clover Farm in 2011 with a mission to provide quality products, build healthy soils, and create a vibrant community farm where folks could come to not just pick up their CSA vegetables but also walk the land, pick strawberries, and flowers, see their neighbors, and learn where their food came from. For Nate, farming has always been about more than just growing great food but also building connections with nature and among people.