New England Events
No-till Farming Walk: The Use of Leaves as a Nutritive Mulch
WHEN: November 16, 2024, 10am EST
WHERE: Hopestill Farm, Sherborn, MA
Join Jeremy Barker Plotkin and our friends from Hopestill Farm for a walk focused on using leaves as mulch and other regenerative farming practices. Jeremy is an Implementation Specialist with AFT New England who has been growing using organic practices to build soil health at Simple Gifts Farm for 18 years.
Click here to learn more!
Past Events
Working Lands Alliance Annual Meeting
WHEN: November 13, 2024 from noon – 2 pm
WHERE: Thomas Hooker Live, 1 Sequassen Street, Hartford, CT 06106
Please join the Connecticut Working Lands Alliance (WLA) for our 2024 Annual Meeting! This event is a luncheon to celebrate WLA’s achievements for the year and to present our policy priorities for the 2025 legislative session.
We will hear from WLA Steering Committee members, legislators, and a keynote speaker, Julia Freedgood, who is a Senior Fellow and Senior Program Advisor for American Farmland Trust.
Climate Adaptation in Action Webinar with Johnny’s Seeds
WHEN: November 7, 2024, 4pm EST
WHERE: Online
Are you a farmer or landowner who wants to explore how to plan for ongoing and future impacts of climate change? Join Julie Fine (New England Senior Climate and Agriculture Specialist) and Sara Kelemen (New England Soil Health Specialist) from American Farmland Trust’s New England team at a special webinar presented by our friends at Johnny’s Selected Seeds, a Maine-based company. This free webinar will introduce tools and tips for approaching climate adaptation planning, and will feature farmers Sal Daggett of Stubborn Oak Farmstead in Wisconsin and Kyle Burns of Burns Blossom Farm in California for a national perspective.
Click here to watch the video!
Keyline Workshop with Mark Krawczyk and Charlotte Rosendahl
WHEN: October 20, 2024 from 10 am – 1 pm
WHERE: 1123 W Woodbury Road, Wolcott, VT 05680
Join us in West Woodbury, VT on Sunday October 20 to gain a practical introduction to Keyline design at a new agroforestry farm in the north-west corner of Washington county along the slopes of Woodbury Mountain. We’ll begin the morning with an overview of the philosophy and practice of keyline before shifting towards a deep focus on our host site. After developing an appreciation for the site’s unique topography studying freely available high resolution LiDAR-derived contour data, we’ll head out into the landscape and identify these patterns and opportunities in the field. Participants will learn to use a laser level to rough out what a keyline patterned access and agroforestry system might look like. Time and weather permitting, we also intend to spend some time looking at a few of the participants’ own parcels to help illustrate these concepts applied to several diverse sites.
Maine Reduced Tillage Field Walk at Goranson Farm and Crystal Spring Farm
WHEN: October 15, 2024 from 10am – 3:30pm
WHERE: 10am – 12pm at Goranson Farm, Dresden, ME, then 2pm – 3:30pm at Crystal Spring Farm, Brunswick, ME
Join us for a field walk to discuss the challenges of reducing tillage at Goranson Farm and Crystal Spring Farm. Both of these farms have been experimenting with equipment and techniques to cut down on tillage intensity, reduce the number of passes, or utilize cover crops to reduce tillage. You can come to one farm, or both!
Click here to learn more!
Planning for the Future of Your Farmland in Berkshire County
WHEN: September 5, 2024
WHERE: The Guthrie Center, 2 Van Deusenville Rd, Great Barrington, MA
Have you thought about the future of your farmland? Do you want to learn how to plan for, protect, lease, finance, or pass on your farm?
We invite you to join your fellow Berkshire County farmers and farmer support organizations to learn about tools and resources to help you put into motion your goals for your land.
This special farmer workshop, Planning for the Future of Your Farmland, is organized by American Farmland Trust and Land For Good. It will be the final workshop of our multi-year workshop series that we have organized in Berkshire County under existing grant programs.
FREE local dinner and refreshments will be provided; advance registration is required.
The event will include speakers from American Farmland Trust, Land For Good, Berkshire Natural Resources Council, MA Department of Agricultural Resources, Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, Farm Credit East, and Gail Garrett Law.
There will be lots of time for questions, networking, and resource-sharing.
The event is capped at 40 farmers, and advance registration is required, so reserve your spot now! Please register below. Reach out to Jamie Pottern, jpottern@farmland.org, 413-240-4621 with any questions.
Click here to learn more!
Climate Adaptation and Soil Health Practices
WHEN: September 24, 2024
WHERE: Evening Song Farm, Shrewsbury, VT
Climate change mitigation and adaptation has been a key motivation for Evening Song Farm owners Ryan and Kara Fitzbeauchamp since relocating their farm in 2012. For 12 years they have been increasing farm resilience by improving soil health and fertility with management strategies, such as no-till planting through cover crop residue, undersowing cash crops, and transplanting through clover sod. Ryan will be joined by Justin Rich from Burnt Rock Farm; together, they will lead a tour of the farm. Fellow farmers are invited to see these soil-building techniques in action and hear about farming with organic practices at their two different scales. Alissa White from American Farmland Trust will discuss how adaptation planning can identify strategies and prioritize actions that will increase water quality, farm success, and resilience. She will share a Climate Adaptation Worksheet for farmers that is being developed as part of an NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant “Collaborative Planning for Adaptation & Resilience to Climate Change in Vermont”. Plus, learn about the Transition to Organic Partnership Program, who is a generous supporter of this workshop, and earn one RAP Agricultural Water Quality education credit.