Things are finally warming up. Maybe spring has sprung? It may not look like it should just yet, but the robins are busy, buds are on the trees, and farmers and gardeners all over the Northeast are nurturing their seedlings to health in greenhouses, on window sills, high tunnels and under row cover. A celebration of new life and a renewed sense of wonderment that is another growing season in our NOFA states are awakening.

Another thing to celebrate is that registration for the 44th Annual NOFA Summer Conference is now open! This year’s conference is shaping up to be an amazing weekend with depth and variety. Organizations and individuals alike will find benefit in attending the wide range of workshops held over the three days of August 10-12 in Amherst, MA. Building a successful conference program is not unlike hosting a successful dinner party; there has to be something there for all of your guests to enjoy, and (hopefully) while leaving at the end of the evening craving just one more bite.

Not so long ago, I was a member of NOFA/Mass, and not a staff member. It was the first NOFA conference that I attended in 2016 that convinced me to join. It was raining that weekend in January when I left our small homestead, seed catalogs scattered on the table, and loaded our family of four into the car to quell our impatience for spring.

We had made the decision to take more control of our food supply, but didn’t have the knowledge or experience to implement a strategy that had any hope of succeeding. So off we went, seeking education. As we perused the catalog of workshops being offered that day, it seemed that every single one offered an opportunity for advancement. Beekeeping, raw milk production, biomass heating, farmers market development, soil nutrition, increasing yield in a small garden…we wanted to know it all.

Here it is, another wild-weather day here at the homestead. I realize that it is still early spring and the weather is unpredictable, but somehow in recent years, the swings in daily weather patterns seem more extreme. Another good reason to be glad that I am a “Carbon Farmer”, co-creating a more healthy and resilient soil, which can roll with the punches, tolerating swings between mild, 60-degree days and those like today, with high wind, snow, sleet and rain. 

This time of year (most times really) I like to take regular garden walk-throughs, inspecting and observing the conditions of the soil, growing beds and mulch. Earlier this week (in mid-April) I determined it was time to plant those early cover crops (discussed in the April issue of this newsletter). For the most part, the beds were still covered in mulch, with just a few bare spots of unprotected soil. The depth of all of the mulch is much thinner now than it was in the fall, an indication that throughout the winter, there has been a slow process of healthy decomposition. The worms, macro and microorganisms have been doing their jobs, integrating organic material into the soil and simultaneously receiving nutrients for their winter survival.

A new state program regulating incentives for solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays is expected to be up and running this summer. Under the 2018 Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program, incentives are structured to promote a range of on-farm PV applications, including systems installed on farm buildings, canopy systems built over vehicle parking areas, and systems sized to meet on-farm demand. If you own land either in Chapter 61A or with Prime Farmland Soils (as defined by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, NRCS), financial compensation is also available for dual-use systems, in which ground-mounted solar PV panels producing electricity are interspersed with crops or livestock on agricultural land. Additional incentives are available for projects that incorporate energy storage, or that feed energy to certain types of consumers through net metering. These types of consumers include community-shared solar projects, low-income housing, and public buildings.