Farmers take on the farm bill (audio)

MCA staff always enjoy attending the Future Harvest CASA (Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture) annual conference.  This year’s keynote, a conversation about the most recent Farm Bill and government support for sustainable ag, was broadcast on WEAA.  Be sure to listen for Frederick County farmer Will Morrow of Whitmore Farm, one of the panelists.

Urgent! Support Farming in the Reserve with Bill MC 16-12

Update: The committee has put off the vote on this issue a second time. It will be heard on Thursday February 9. Your calls and emails matter even more as we make the case for this bill! MCA has met and talked with residents of the clustered subdivision in Laytonsville where the farmer profiled in our video lives. Our goal was to create a better climate for communication between neighbors in that community in order to ease concerns regarding the legislation and its purpose. We also wanted to see if there was a way to help folks mediate their issues rather than resort to litigation.

We Need Your Calls/Emails to Support Farmers’ Right to Farm in the Ag Reserve!

Background: Currently, farmers in the Ag Reserve are being sued and prevented from farming by residents in developments that form homeowner’s associations and rules (covenants) that do not allow for farm activities or structures in the Reserve.  MCA, along with our partners including Audubon Naturalist Society and County Ag groups including the MC Farm Bureau, had confidence that this common sense legislation aimed at ensuring farmers the right to farm would easily make its way to passage at the State level. Other stakeholders, including the Maryland Environmental Trust, have been working with us to ensure that the legislation is crafted to protect farming as well as important conservation programs.  The process has been thoughtful, collegial and public.

MCA Testimony

Montgomery County Ag Advisory Committee

Manna Testimony

Letter from Reserve Farmer

Midwinter Garden Dreams Event: Jan 28

Join Sugarloaf Citizens Association for the annual Midwinter Garden Dreams event to discuss your garden plans for the coming year over tea and snacks. January 28th, 1-3pm at Linden Barn in Dickerson. More info here.

New Online Tools from Park and Planning

Montgomery County Park and Planning has added some neat tools to their site and we have in turn added them to our Government Links page.

Click the links below to check out the new tools.
Tree Canopy Explorer
Deer Hunting Park Closure Schedule
Historic Property Locator Tool
Forest Conservation Easement Tool

Star Gazing Farm on Perennial Plate (Video)

Perennial Palate, a fantastic road tripping local food web video series, stopped through town on their national tour and visited Farmer Anne  at Star Gazing Farm in the Reserve.  See the video here.
fyi- although the description says Virginia- this farm is very much in the MoCo Ag Reserve, a look at the satellite photos of the two states will tell you which side of the river a farm like this would be more likely to call home.
Want to watch more Perennial Palate? We can highly recommend the New Orleans episode.

Nick’s Organic Farm Brickyard Rd. Update

Councilmember Roger Berliner got more than he bargained for at the  West Montgomery Citizens Civic Association (WMCCA) meeting  on January 11. Residents were frustrated that Berliner knew about the Brickyard deal (to end the 30 year lease of land in Potomac to a celebrated organic farmer in order to make soccer fields) and were asking what he could do to stop it. Berliner maintained that there is very little that the Council can do, further frustrating residents.
In the months since the farmer, Nick Maravell, and the surrounding Brickyard Rd. Community heard about the sudden termination of the lease, Nick and his supporters have won several court cases, the most recent development being an out of court settlement with the Board of Education (the body that owns the land)  that will allow Nick to farm until August 15, 2012. However, as evidenced by the WMCCA meeting, residents are still upset over a process governing public land that was any thing but public, at times seeming intentionally opaque.
Nick and his supporters are going to keep up the pressure in hopes that Nick can continue to farm the parcel until it is needed for school construction (the original terms of the lease with the BOE). Over 23,000 people, some living in the county, some from far off countries, have signed the MCA originated petition on Change.org in support of Nick’s Organic Farm and applying public process to public land.
Take Action – Learn More
Save Nick’s Organic Farm
Patch report on Jan. 11 WMCCA meeting

Scenes from the Reserve: Building Soil at Grassential Farm (video)

From time to time, we like to bring the Reserve to you though videos and pictures. Here is Matt Rales from Grassential Farm discussing how he uses his farm animals to build soil and improve the health of the land. You can hear many of those animals in the background trying to steal the scene.

Scenes from the Reserve: Goats in the Winter Sun (video)

From time to time we like to bring you a look at the Reserve through pictures and videos. Watch goats doing their goat thing at Rocklands Farm (“locally known, sustainably grown”).

Farming Robots? Yes, with your help…

First Fruits Farm of Germantown is boldly going where few other farms have gone before. Mechanization of farming is old news but using robots to plant and harvest greenhouse crops is a novel concept. First Fruits is soliciting donations on Kickstarter.com, an online venture capital site where ordinary people can fund extraordinary projects.

From the Kickstarter profile:

“Remember R2D2 and the Skywalker ranch? We hope to make that vision of a small family farm of the future, a reality today.
By reducing labor and energy costs, we hope to bring affordable, organic, locally grown food to every neighborhood.
Help us change the world by developing a robot controlled DIY neighborhood farm which is powered entirely with free, local, sustainable, renewable energy sources like yard and food waste.
We are recycling motors, engines, and materials to develop a series of greenhouse robots that anyone can replicate with simple tools and access to their local dump, craigslist and freecycle.org.”

ECO-City Farm: The First Urban Farm in Prince George’s County

With only 2 years since it’s beginnings, ECO-City Farm, located in Prince George’s County, has seen great success in “growing great food, farms, and farmers.” The non-profit farm is well-known for growing and selling vegetables at the Riverdale Farmers Market, as well as hosting a farming summit, and engaging it’s community through a volunteer program. Interestingly enough, the farm is located specifically in an area where obesity and poverty are a familiar sight and healthy food is difficult to come by. It is exciting to see how these urban farms are sprouting up and succeeding throughout the country. We wonder, what positive ideas may come to fruition in our county in this new year?

Please read this encouraging Washington Informer interview with ECO-City Farm CEO Margaret Morgan-Hubbard here.

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