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In this Newsletter: 

Message from the President


I'm gonna make it quick for the Message this month—spring has exploded and I know we’re all busy so here are some key things we’re working on:
 
The Virginia Soil Health Coalition is up-and-running and VABF is serving as a representative on the Steering Committee as well as a partner on the National Fish and Wildlife (NFWF) grant called “Building Soil Health in Virginia”.  Stay tuned for updates and coming events and outreach activities.
 
We’re starting to plan for the 21st annual Virginia Biological Farming Conference to be held at the Hotel Roanoke in January 2022.  We’re so excited to be able to have an in-person event again and hoping that all things COVID settle down enough to allow us all to get back to some type of normal.  Webinars are fine and all but I think we’re all hankerin’ for some in-person interaction, networking and socializing once again.  We’ll be sending out a save-the-date notice soon so be on the lookout.
 
We have also been approved for a SARE grant with the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) with a special focus on regenerative grazing of livestock in Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas.  We’re partnering with Virginia Tech and Virginia State University to identify practical and regionally appropriate methods of regenerative grazing and accelerate the adoption of these methods in Virginia so stay tuned for more on that as well.
 
And this spring, we partnered with several farm-related organizations like the Virginia Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coalition (VBFRC), the Minority and Veteran Farmers of the Piedmont (MVFP), Virginia State University (VSU) and the Real Food Campaign to put on webinars on everything from transitioning to organic and soil health to controlling weeds and getting more nutrient density in crops.  We engaged with hundreds of participants in these webinars, so many thanks to everyone for pitching in and taking the time and effort in order to pull this outreach off successfully.
 
Here’s looking forward to pasture walks, farm tours and potluck dinners again! 
 
Happy Memorial Day—
 
Brent

May Gardening Tips


By Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
and the author of  The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast and the new Grow Great Vegetables in Virginia


Keep Weeding and Thinning

When May comes around it’s time to start weeding and thinning. Thin your beets and carrots 2 weeks after they emerge to keep them growing vigorously. To keep the weeds under control and save your aching back, lightly scuffle hoe regularly on sunny days and hand weed when the ground is moist. . Learn more about The Importance of Thinning from our blog post.

Add Beans, Corn and Cucumbers to Succession Plantings

Start sowing heat resistant lettuces like Sierra and summer greens such as Malabar spinach, orach and Rainbow chard. Add beans, corn, cukes, and squash to succession plantings. When the soil warms at the end of May sow peanuts, okra, edamame, sweet potatoes and other hot weather crops. Learn More about Sowing Summer Crops Straight into the Ground.

Time to Transplant  Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant and  More!

Mid-month transplant tomatoes, celery, and peppers into mulch to keep ahead on weeding.. Plant eggplants  into bare soil for better control of flea beetles. If needed a bucket made sticky on the inside with tangle foot makes a nice trap for flea beetles..Put the bucket under your plant and . just shake’em in.

Hill your potatoes when they are 8 inches high. Cover half the plant and repeat at 2 week intervals thru May. Keep an eye out for Colorado Potato Beetles on your potatoes. Pick them by hand or use BT to control them. Remove the scapes and keep your garlic weeded to get the largest bulbs. This might be a good time to remove the mulch from your garlic as well. Download our Perennial Onion and Garlic Growing Guide to learn more about growing these delicious Alliums in your garden.

Delicious, Nutritious Homegrown Sweet Potatoes

We just started planting sweet potato slips and will continue planting thru mid-June. Tasty, easy to grow sweet potatoes are one the most nutritious vegetable commonly grown in home gardens, low in fat and sodium but high in fiber, potassium, manganese, vitamins A and C. Start growing your own orange, purple or white sweet potatoes now! For growing details see our Sweet Potato Growing Guide.

Book Review: The Living Soil Handbook: The No-Till Grower’s Guide to Ecological Market Gardening

Jesse Frost, Chelsea Green Publishers, July 2021
Book Review by Pam Dawling

Jesse Frost, the host of Farmer Jesse’s No-Till Market Garden Podcast, has now made a lovely how-to and why-to book for us. No longer do we need to imagine the pictures while listening to the podcasts! The book is generously illustrated with color photos, charts, and diagrams and also hand drawings by Jesse’s wife Hannah Crabtree. The text and photos make plain the experience behind the suggestions. A glance at the bibliography shows how deeply Jesse educated himself on soil biology, chemistry and physics – it’s a list of detailed articles, not a list of books. I was interviewed by Jesse’s collaborator Josh Sattin for Farmer Jesse’s podcast, in November 2019.

Jesse and Hannah farm at Rough Draft Farmstead in central Kentucky, winter hardiness zone 6b with 55” (140 cm) of annual rain on average. While writing the book, Hannah and Jesse moved farms, gaining road frontage for on-farm sales!

The book revolves on three basic principles of professional no-till market gardening: disturbing the soil as little as possible, keeping soil covered as much as possible, and keeping it planted as much as possible. The phrase “as possible” in each of the three principles remind us to be reasonable, and aware of the context. No-dogma is as important as no-soil-disturbance. Sometimes a short-term soil disturbance will ultimately create a healthier soil: you might need to incorporate compost or amendments, or break up compaction. We are not feeding the plants. Nor the soil. We are farming the micro-livestock....
Read the Full Review

Buy The Living Soil Handbook: The No-Till Grower’s Guide to Ecological Market Gardening here


VABF has partnered with independent bookseller, Stone Soup Books, in Waynesboro, Va. Buy this book, and ANY of the farming books found on their website here, and 1/2 of the net proceeds from your purchase will come back to support VABF! Thanks for your support! Happy Reading!
Purchase The Living Soil Handbook: The No-Till Grower’s Guide to Ecological Market Gardening

May Policy Updates

By Mark Schonbeck and Francesca Costantino 

Debt Relief Available to Farmers of Color 

As part of the American Rescue Plan, the most recent coronavirus relief package, Congress authorized $5 billion in direct aid to Black, Native American, Alaskan Native, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Latinx farmers.  This includes $4 billion in debt relief on current FSA loans, and $1 billion in other forms of aid, from land access, training, and technical assistance to funding for minority-serving colleges and universities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) is distributing the $4 billion in farm debt relief payments for farmers of color who have farm loans made directly by FSA or through private lenders (i.e. Farm Credit, ag banks) with USDA guarantees.  Information on how the relief funds will be distributed and what farmers need to know about accessing this relief here. FAQ's here
 

Pandemic Assistance for All Producers

The USDA is also following up on the American Rescue Plan with an additional $6 billion in Pandemic Assistance for Producers (PAP) including expanded funding for the Specialty Crop Block Grants, the Farmer Opportunities Training and Outreach (FOTO) program, and the Local Agricltural Markets Program (LAMP) and much more. NSAC has posted a full recap of coronavirus relief for producers on its website. 

Pending legislation

A bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives has introduced the Farm to School Act of 2021, which is designed to help school food systems recover from the impacts of the pandemic.  This bill would expand both funding and scope of the USDA Farm to School Grants program, with a special focus on communities of color and high-need student populations.

Other Funding Opportunities

The Farmers Markets and Local Foods Promotion Program is offering an unprecedented $77 million in funding for a wide range of local food and direct-to-consumer market development in 2021.  Of this large sum, $47 million came through coronavirus relief legislation, and matching requirements have been reduced to facilitate wider access to the program. Check out NSAC’s blog on this funding opportunity, which includes information on how to apply.
 
The USDA has announced $15 million in funding available for the Regional Food Systems Partnership (RFSP) program, which was established in the 2018 Farm Bill as part of the Local Agriculture Markets Program (LAMP).  Covid relief legislation added $10 million to the $5 million mandated by the Farm Bill, making for a larger program that can fund more products in 2021.  Click here to learn more including how to apply. Application deadline is July 6. 
 
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has announced $25 million in funding for Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) On Farm Trials.  Priorities include soil health, climate friendly agricultural practices, and irrigation management.  Applications are due June 21. Apply here. 

The USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production is making up to $2 million available for local governments to host Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction (CCFWR) pilot projects for fiscal year 2021. The cooperative agreements support projects that develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction plans and they are part of USDA’s broader efforts to support urban agriculture. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 16, 2021. Find the overview webinar here and full press release here! 


Take Action!

Call our Senators and your Representative and urge them to support the Strengthening Local Processing Act (H.R. 1258 and S. 370).  Over the past year, the pandemic has severely impacted large scale meat processing facilities and created bottlenecks for small and midscale livestock producers in getting their products to market. This Act would increase the capacity of small scale meat processors to meet current needs and help local farmers get their meat to market.  To learn more and take this action, click here.  To find your US representatives in Virginia:  https://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/

Our nationwide campaign to recruit Congressional co-sponsors for the Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA), introduced earlier this spring by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) continues unabated.  The ARA is designed to help farmers weather the storms and droughts of climate change, and to help make US agriculture climate-beneficial by 2040.  Call your Representative and our two Senators and ask them to co-sponsor the ARA.  We are In Virginia, Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-7th) and Gerald Connolly (D-11th) have already joined Rep. Pingree as original cosponsors – so those of you in their districts, call them to say Thank you!
 

Technical Assistance with Grant Applications

Case Studies of Successful Marketing Program Grants – Seeds of Success

Each month USDA highlights the work of work of Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion grant recipients. Check out these reports to get ideas for your grant projects! Read more here. 

USDA reports progress on Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy

The Biden Administration directed federal agencies to coordinate a Governmentwide approach to combat the climate crisis through Executive Order 14008 Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. This Executive Order tasked the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to deliver a report with recommendations for a climate-smart agriculture and forestry (CSAF) strategy. USDA issued the Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Strategy:  90-Day Report on its progress in developing the strategy. This is just the first step. The VABF policy staff are working with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition to comments to USDA. If you have any input, let us know - Mark Schonbeck schonbeckmark@gmail.com and Francesca Costantino labella_francesca@yahoo.com.

Food System Supply Chain Comment Period Open through June 21 

USDA is seeking comments on a Department-wide effort to improve and reimagine supply chains for production, processing and distribution of agricultural commodities and food products. USDA is seeking input on:  1) critical factors, risks, bottlenecks, and vulnerabilities that can reduce critical processing and infrastructure capacity and impact availability and integrity of critical goods, products, and services, competitive and fair markets landscape; viability of local and regional producers and processors; and equitable access to food and economic opportunity across diverse communities; and 2) strategies to support resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains and ensure U.S. economic prosperity, national security, and nutrition security for all Americans. 
View the Notice/Leave a Comment


Annual Organic Oversight and Enforcement Report Now Available

Alternative Farmers Market Models

Insights on consumer perceptions on local food during the pandemic

Senate confirms Virginia’s own Jewel Bronaugh as Agriculture deputy secretary

On May 13, the Senate confirmed Jewel Bronaugh as the Agriculture deputy secretary. Dr. Bronaugh’s confirmation is historic, as she will serve as the first Black woman and woman of color to serve as deputy secretary. Dr. Bronaugh has had a long, distinguished career as an educator and champion for farmers and rural communities. Most recently as the 16th commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Jewel Bronaugh worked to expand opportunities for small and midsized farmers and ranchers to obtain infrastructure and processing capabilities, and developed strategies to meet environmental and water quality goals for the Chesapeake Bay. She also served as dean of the College of Agriculture at Virginia State University, and Virginia state executive director for the USDA Farm Service Agency. In spring 2019, Bronaugh launched the Virginia Farmer Stress Task Force to raise awareness and coordinate resources to address farmer stress and mental health challenges in Virginia. In the fall of 2020, she helped establish the Virginia Food Access Investment Fund and Program, the first statewide program of its kind to address food access within historically marginalized communities. Bronaugh received her Ph.D. in career and technical education from Virginia Tech.

Help preserve the history of organic/sustainable agriculture!


As a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,  Anneliese Abbott is working on collecting and preserving the history of organic/sustainable agriculture in the midwestern and northeastern United States and neighboring states like Virginia. She is trying to identify key people, publications, and organizations that helped shape and promote organic/sustainable agriculture, and you can help by filling out this brief questionnaire about how you became interested in organic/sustainable farming. Any identifying/contact information that you provide will be kept confidential.
 
To fill out the questionnaire online, just follow this link. If you would prefer to fill out a paper survey, Anneliese may be contacted  amabbott@wisc.edu

Recipe: Miso-Honey Glazed Radishes


By Kelly Key

Okay, so I am not an avid radish fan. They're fine on a salad and all but I've never really been into them that much. But last year I planted watermelon radishes in my garden with the intention to sell to restaurants but since they were all struggling and not buying much from us, I was sitting on a whole bed of radishes...my favorite. So I loaned the copy of "Dishing up the Dirt" by Andrea Bremis from the public libararyand decided to try this recipe out, I LOVED IT! I'd never thought to cook radishes before. I made this as a side with some steelhead trout and a salad of escarole, fennel, orange and chevre...so good! Now we basically make this miso honey butter and use it on any and all root veggies! We just made this dish but with parsnip and carrot:)

Miso-Honey Glazed Radishes

Ingredients:
2 TBS white miso
2 TBS unsalted butter
1 bu of radishes, with greens
1 1/2 TBS honey
pinch of salt


Method:

  1. Stir together the miso and 1 1/2 TBS of the butter
  2. Separate the greens from the radishes and roughly chop the greens; set them aside. Slice large radishes in half and smaller radishes kept whole. Add the radishes to a skillet with 3/4 cup water, the honey, the remaining 1/2 TBS butter, and the salt.
  3. Cover the pan, bring the mixture to a boil. Remove the lid, keep the heat on high, and cook for 8 to 12 minutes, stirring often, until the radishes are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. 
  4. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook until the sauce has almost evaporated and is reduced to a glaze, 3 to 5 minutes.
  5. Stir in the radish greens and miso butter and cook for 1 to 3 minutes longer, or until the radishes are golden brown and lightly caramelized. Serve them warm.

Farmer John: Go into establishing your own flock of chickens with a gameplan


By John Wilson
April 25, 2021, Princess Anne Independent News


Chickens are fun, relatively easy to care for and provide eggs. They don’t bark, they don’t bite, and you don’t have to carry a bag and pick up their poop because their manure is useful and can be managed with a little forethought. And the eggs are so good. In the past, I’ve talked here about my love for this perfect food. It’s nothing like supermarket eggs.

I love my chickens, and I support allowing back yard hens in Virginia Beach. (Come on, City Council.) There is a catch for people who want to keep chickens. Chickens may be easier to raise than some other livestock, but they need to be kept well to make life easier for the birds, you and your neighbors. I want to address issues people who want to raise hens should know up front if – as it stands now in our city – you can keep chickens on your property.

If you can, their pen needs to be big enough for how many you have. Ideally, you have them in a moveable house where you can roll them around every so often, spreading the benefits of their poop. How often – and how big –  will depend upon how much space you have. 
I raise hens, and one of my houses holds 30 birds. They have access to the grass, and it has an automatic door opener and closer.The more they can be on grass, the better.

Especially when you have a pen and the birds don’t go out into a larger run or your yard, you have to clean it regularly. You can take out old bedding and replace it, and you can add more bedding when it is needed, generally each week or so. Manure and bedding can be put in a compost bin. It makes very good compost, but this also must be done properly. It all depends on how many birds in how much space. 
Continue Reading

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