Growing Organically Since 1982

 

Join the Human Health and Climate Action Challenge

The Human Health and Climate Action Challenge is an interactive, virtual event that combines personal commitment, public education and crowdfunding to raise awareness about how organic agriculture is linked to human health and the Climate Crisis, and to support NOFA/Mass in doing this important work year-round.   

 

Members Hit the Ground Running with Human Health and Climate Action Challenge

Events, Fundraising

On September 22, NOFA/Mass Communications Director and Fundraising Coordinator Christy Bassett sent out a link to her Human Health and Climate Action Challenge crowdfunding page to our whole staff and board. It didn’t take long before other staff and board members started setting up their profiles, many of them personalized with photos and comments relating to their specific challenge. Soon participants from outside the NOFA/Mass staff began signing up to fundraise as well, and even before the official launch on October 1st the momentum started to build.

With a goal of raising at least $20,000 for NOFA/Mass’s education and advocacy programs during the month of October, the Climate Action Challenge is both a fundraiser and an educational opportunity. Much of our promotion involves educating friends, family, and the public about human health and climate health, and the countless ways that we can make a difference through individual actions and systemic change. NOFA/Mass staff and board have formed 5 different teams, each promoting a challenge relating to human or climate health, including: Pollinator Protection, Healthy Soils, Physical Feat, Food as Medicine, and Become an Activist. Funds raised through the Challenge will support:

Do the Largest Garlic Cloves Make the Largest Heads? One NOFA/Mass Farmer's Quest to Find Out

Farming, gardening, Vegetables

Autumn is garlic planting season. If you save your own bulbs for planting (and I heartily recommend you do), you will need to decide what part of your crop to plant and what part to sell or eat or give away. The usual advice is to plant your very best—those giant heads with mammoth cloves, because, the advice goes, “the largest cloves makes the largest heads.” But those giant heads will also sell for the most money, and that made me wonder whether I could come out ahead if I planted my mediums instead. Would they do just as well?

This past season I tried an experiment to answer that question. I took 50 large, 50 medium, and 50 small cloves, and planted them in the same bed, with the same soil preparation, and the same irrigation. (As I’ve described before, I plant shallowly into several inches of compost, and cover with several inches of leaves, which makes for a fertile, no-weed bed that requires no digging at harvest time.)

NOFA/Mass 2021 Virtual Winter Conference Takes Aim at Feeding the Commonwealth

Events, Winter Conference

In this era of a global pandemic, the strength of our local food system has become glaringly apparent and the opportunities for further solutions have been illuminated by the crisis. Our farmers have had a hard season with climate disruptions from Spring to Fall in the form of massively fluctuating temperatures, drought, and unseasonal weather events. Yet, many farmers have sold every last stitch of product that they can produce, thanks to a huge increase in local demand.

At this year’s 34th NOFA/Mass Winter Conference, happening virtually January 8-10, 2021, we will address the theme Feeding the Commonwealth and inspire you to create, discover and rely upon your local community’s food producers and build the vision of a Massachusetts that collectively becomes more resilient and secure in its local capacity to feed everyone. Registration opens October 15th.

See current and archived NOFA/Mass newsletters