Hello Freshman Farmers (and aspiring farmers everywhere)!

You may have already heard of this other initiative, and I must say that I personally haven’t looked into it much, but it seems like a funding opportunity for people just getting started with organic farming

An Alert from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Organic Initiative Funds Now Available!
First Sign up Period: May 11 - May 29

The Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) has created a special $50 million pool of funding for a new Organic Initiative under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The Initiative will provide payments and technical assistance to transitioning and existing organic farmers who adopt NRCS conservation practices used in organic production systems.

Eligible Farmers:
•  Farmers just beginning or in the process of transitioning to organic production;
•  Existing certified organic farmers who want to transition additional acres or animals;
•  Existing certified organic farmers who need to adopt additional conservation measures;
•  Producers who sell less than $5,000 in agricultural products and are thus exempt from formal certification are still eligible for Organic Initiative payments.

The program will be available in every state and county. Sign up begins for this special pool of funds on Monday, May 11th and continues through May 29th. Organic or transitioning farmers who have already applied for EQIP funding may choose to move their application into the special organic pool which will have higher payment rates for some practices than the regular EQIP program and a $20,000 per year ($80,000 over 6 years) payment limit. Costs of technical assistance provided by NRCS will not count against the payment limitation.

Transitioning farmers are also being offered an opportunity to develop a “conservation activity plan” as part of their EQIP Organic Initiative contract. A conservation activity plan will be needed to meet National Organic Program certification requirements and is an important step toward certification.

All applications received during this sign up period will be ranked using national and in some cases state level criteria related to how well the proposed contract contributes to conserving soil, water quality and other resource concerns. Farmers who are awarded a contract will then be eligible for technical assistance to assist with implementation of the practices. NRCS has set aside an additional $5 million for technical assistance for this initiative.

You can find contact information for your local local NRCS office here.
A number of NSAC Member organizations are available to answer producer questions about the Organic Initiative.  Visit their websites for more inforamtion:  Organic Farming Research Foundation, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Center for Rural Affairs, Agriculture and Land Based Training Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Kansas Rural Center, Florida Organic Growers.

For additional detail on the Organic Initiative see this NSAC Memo and this May 5th directive from NRCS.
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
110 Maryland Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20002
202-547-5754

Your looking at our new seed starting “caterpillar” style greenhouse.  On the left is a table which has two 25’ long seed starting mats, 48 trays can be germinated at once.  On the right is a table with PVC pipes acting as rails for proper air circulation for our germinated seed trays. The sun is predicted to arrive for a whopping four days and plans are being arranged to get some tillage done.  Saturday and Sunday we let the sun dry out our soils a bit more.  Monday morning… Read the rest of this article »

We don’t have a greenhouse on the Mueller Farm, which makes it pretty difficult to start seeds on our own. Thank goodness we have Dave Horton around to help with that! Dave just happens to live a few blocks from the farm, (yes, blocks; our farm is in a neighborhood), and for the last few years he’s been helping out John Wilkerson on the farm, in addition to continuing to volunteer at Gateway Greening. So anyway, Dave loves starting seeds. Just loves it. Lucky for us! He led an enrichment… Read the rest of this article »

It has been a while, but now that the throes of winter are deep (or super hot like it has been here) now’s a good time to catch up. I’ve been doing a lot of relaxing, a lot of staring at my computer, a lot of spread-sheet making.  A lot of overkill planning for this upcoming season.  That is the funny thing about farming in the foothills.  The season is long.  However, there’s enough of a break to make your hands idle.  And, you know, idle hands end up doing… Read the rest of this article »