Food & Ag Working Group Resources

Please visit our new home for the Brix Bounty Blog at http://www.brixbounty.com/blog. We will not be updating the blogspot blog site in coming weeks.

This email was recently posted to the Food&Ag Working Group of the Southeastern Massachusetts Council on Sustainability…

Hello,

Hope to see folks at the quarterly Council on Sustainability meeting this afternoon (March 11th) and at this Saturday’s Shrink Your Footprint Fair; 1-5PM at the GNB-Voc Tech School, 1121 Ashley Blvd. in New Bedford. Here are a few other items that might be of interest to the Food&Agriculture working group in the coming weeks:

Health, Nutrition, and Food

• The School Nutrition Bill and the Local Farm Products Bill will be voted on in the Senate today (March 11th); see also today’s Globe Article: Support grows for limiting junk food…
• IATP Food&Society Fellows Child Nutrition Issue was recently published on the web (Feb 2010).
• Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition – Food Systems and Public Health: Linkages to Achieve Healthier Diets and Healthier Communities free access to current issue online.
• Healthy Southcoast by Design Summit in New Bedford featuring Mark Fenton – March 23rd and 24th.

Sustainable Agriculture at the Local Level

• Enhance Your Farm’s Future -One Day Farm Conference and Resource Fair – Sat. March 27th at BCAHS in Dighton.
• Building Sustainable Farms, Ranches and Communities, a guide to federal programs that provide financial and technical support for sustainable agriculture.
• Relocalizing our Foodshed Conference is next Mon/Tues in MN – might be worth watching what reports or abstracts come out of this gathering…
• The Carrot Project – Small Farm Loan Program has a March 19th deadline for loan applications.
• Slow Money’s Ideas for Change in America Invest in Local Food Systems to Save the Economy and the Planet

Educational Resources and Events

• Annual Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom Winter Conference – Sat. Mar 13th in Ludlow, MA.
• Saturday March 13th – Shrink Your Footprint Fair ; 1-5PM at the GNB-Voc Tech School, 1121 Ashley Blvd. in New Bedford.
• Helping You Grow Your Bounty, Trade Your Foodmiles for Foodsteps: ongoing – organic gardening, nutrient density, and sustainable agriculture workshops presented by Brix Bounty Farm – see list of upcoming events and resources.

Brix Bounty Blog has a new home

Now that it's March; we have decided to officially launch our new website and blog
We still have a few items to smooth out with our new website, but I would estimate its 90% complete. Please visit the new site at www.brixbounty.com and also our new BrixBounty.com Blog page.

Please consider updating your bookmarks or links to the new website.

Thanks!
-Derek

Ag. Conference for Southeastern Mass.

Enhance Your Farm’s Future:

3^rd Annual One-Day Farm Conference & Resource Fair
Organized by Bristol County Conservation District & SEMAP
Saturday, March 27, 2010, 8:00 am-4:00 pm
Bristol County Agricultural High School, 135 Center St., Dighton MA

A great event in the works for Saturday March 27th, including demo and introduction on Biochar. I'll be offering a workshop on soil fertility in the morning - with an emphasis on organic methods for nutrient dense production.

We are in the process of switching from blogspot to our new website at www.brixbounty.com. and our new BrixBounty.com Blog. Please visit the new website and blog for up to date Brix Bounty Farm info.

Roots Down New Bedford - postponed 'til Feb. 18th

UPDATE: Due to the anticipated arrival of a winter storm and a Snow Emergency Parking Ban in effect in the City of New Bedford, we have decided to postpone the start of our Roots Down Series until next Thursday Feb. 18th. If you have any questions please contact the farm. Thanks.

For more information on the Roots Down Wintertime Garden Planning Series please visit our new website: http://www.brixbounty.com/events/roots-down-new-bedford/

And if you haven't heard the news out of Washington; The First Lady launched Let's Move, the new Child Obesity Campaign yesterday and the USDA released it's impressive Food Environment Atlas, which contains an astounding array of data related to access to healthy food.

Join the 2010 Brix Bounty Crew

Our new website development is going well...In a few weeks we'll be transitioning our blog to the new BrixBounty.com Blog.

Find out about the many ways you can join the Brix Bounty Crew for 2010 on the Apprenticeships Page on the new site.

Roots Down NB - Wintertime Organic Garden Planning Series

*note, we are currently transitioning to our new home on the web - www.brixbounty.com

Just Announced - Roots Down - New Bedford - We are pleased to announce the dates of our free 2010 Wintertime Organic Garden Planning Workshop Series.
4 Thursdays (Feb 11, Feb 25, Mar 18, Mar 25) 4PM-6PM, at the Coachman's House at the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum (entrance on 7th st.)

This series of four workshops is geared toward new and experienced gardeners who are interested in learning more about organic growing techniques, connecting with other gardeners, and learning about nutrient dense food production.

Each workshop will build on topics presented in the earlier workshops, so we invite and recommend attending all four dates. More details available at http://www.brixbounty.com/events/roots-down-new-bedford/.

Please RSVP to preregister by contacting us at 508-992-1868 or emailing derekchristianson@gmail.com..

We plan to resume monthly Roots Down - New Bedford Workshops in April 2010. Visit www.BrixBounty.com for more information.

CSA 2010 and New Website

Over the past few days we have been busy building our new BrixBounty.com website... we'll be finalizing a few items over the coming week and hope to have a full version online by the end of January.

We have also put the finishing touches on the details about our 2010 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

We have two exciting options for CSA membership in 2010:

• Protein&Vegetable Share (in partnership with Elen&T Vieira) - Mondays 2PM-7PM at Round the Bend Farm in South Dartmouth

• Vegetable Share - Fridays 2PM-7PM at Brix Bounty Farm in Dartmouth.

For more details please view or download our

• 2010 CSA Flyer
• 2010 CSA Info
• 2010 CSA Registration Form

We are excited to join a terrific group of local farmers providing CSA programs for our community. Other local CSA's in the area are listed at the SEMAP Online Farm Guide.

If you have any questions about our CSA programs after reviewing the info files please contact the farm at 508-992-1868.