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Agricultural Commissions

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By Jan Sevene, Monadnock Localvore Project

What is an Agricultural Commission (AGCOM)?  New Hampshire communities are able to establish agricultural commissions “… for the proper recognition, promotion, enhancement, encouragement, use, management, and protection of agriculture and agricultural resources, tangible or intangible, that are valued for their economic, aesthetic, cultural, historic, or community significance within their natural, built, or cultural contexts.”

AGCOM’s can be called upon to assist with farm-related problems or contribute to planning boards who are developing master plans.  They can also work to educate the public about farming and farm interests in a community.

Tracie Smith, operator of Tracie’s Community Farm LLC and member of Fitzwilliam’s AGCOM, says, “It will give agriculture a chance to explain to the town its needs when making important decisions, as well as give the faces of agriculture more recognition.  Keeping agricultural needs in mind when the town makes decisions… means keeping food in our communities as well the open spaces that come with it.”

Another Fitzwilliam AGCOM member, Brian Doerpholz adds, “I have found most people receptive (to an agricultural commission)… It gives Ag a voice at the local level.” Doerpholz encourages people to join the NHAGCOMM website, review Lorraine Merrill’s publication on Agricultural Commissions and utilize resources at the Cheshire County Conservation District.

How to Start

Any individual resident or group can start an AGCOM by first initiating a warrant article, which once voted in, enables the local legislative body to establish an agricultural commission. Several New Hampshire communities have already established AGCOMs, or are in the process of doing so.

Support your local agriculture. Find out where your community stands.

Agricultural Commission Resources:

Creating an Agricultural Commission in Your Hometown
By Lorraine Stuart Merrill
New Hampshire Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture
http://www.nh.gov/agric/documents/agcom.pdf

Cheshire County Conservation District
Amanda Costello, District Manager
11 Industrial Parkway
Walpole, NH 03608
(603) 756-2988 ext. 116
amanda.costello@nh.nacdnet.net
http://www.cheshireconservation.org

Agricultural Commissions
Juli Brussell, Program Leader, Agricultural Resources
UNH Cooperative Extension
59 College Road, Taylor Hall
Durham, NH, 03824-3587
(603) 862-2033
juli.brussell@unh.edu
http://www.extension.unh.edu
http://extension.unh.edu/Agric/AgComm/NHAGComm/NHAGComm.htm

New Hampshire Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture
Nada Haddad, Extension Educator, Agricultural Resources
UNH Cooperative Extension, Rockingham County
113 North Road, Brentwood, NH 03833
(603) 679-5616
nada.haddad@unh.edu
http://www.extension.unh.edu

NHAGCOMM
http://groups.google.com/group/NHAGCOMM/feeds

Shift Your Shopping & GO MAD FOR PLAID! (via Monadnock Buy Local)

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Can’t wait!

Shift Your Shopping & GO MAD FOR PLAID! Monadnock Buy Local (MBL) announces the launch of their Shift Your Shopping Holiday Campaign.  From November 22 to December 31, 2010 MBL will encourage residents and businesses to make the 10% Shift and make ten percent of their holiday purchases at locally owned and independent businesses.  Making the Shift to local independents is one of the fastest ways to build sustainable economies and create jobs in the local economy. Shift Your Shopping wi … Read More

via Monadnock Buy Local

Fall Vegetable Garden Activities & Other Season Extension Resources

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What does season extension mean to you?

  • Proper Storage
  • Hoop Houses
  • Late & Early Season Crops
  • Elliot Coleman
  • Permaculture

…Join the conversation on Facebook.

Resources to Learn More About Season Extension:

Fall Vegetable Garden Activities, Posted on Cheshire County UNH Cooperative Extension Facebook Page

Vegetable gardens need some special attention in the fall. Finish harvesting frost-sensitive vegetables before the first frost or extend their harvest by covering plants on nights when frost is predicted. Many vegetables are hardy and will live right in your garden all winter long, where they can serve as a continual source of fresh produce or, protected under mulch cover, provide the first spring harvests.
Great Resource: The Winter Harvest Handbook
By Elliot Coleman; Book Review Posted on Four Season Farm

Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend that’s taken hold throughout North America. Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with The New Organic Grower published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Maine. Now gardeners and farmers can use the innovative, highly successful methods Coleman describes in this comprehensive handbook to raise crops throughout the coldest of winters.

Growing Food on a Windowsill – Microgreens
Originally Posted on You Grow Girl

It is this short growth span that makes microgreens possible to produce on even the darkest windowsills through the dingiest months of the year. Even the most beginner seed starter can take this growing project on since the plants only need to be kept alive for a few weeks tops.

Use Low Tunnels to Grow Veggies in Winter: Quick Hoops
Originally Posted in Mother Earth News

Double your garden’s productivity with these simple, inexpensive low tunnels.  Which crops work well under quick hoops? Spinach would be an obvious candidate. New England growers have traditionally sown outdoor spinach in the fall, giving it a little protection with evergreen boughs, in order to get an extra-early harvest in spring. Many other hardy greens, such as lettuce, could also be planted in the fall for early spring harvest. We have often seen our latest-planted baby leaf salads for fall harvest successfully winter under a layer of snow and come up again in the spring much sooner and more vigorously than a spring-planted crop could ever do. Because one can’t count on snow cover, quick hoops are an excellent substitute. And what about a late-fall sowing of early-spring crops such as peas, carrots or beets? Hopefully, they would survive to germinate and start growing a month or two ahead of schedule – in the protected shelter of the low tunnel. A new idea always leads us to more new ideas.

Want to take it to the next level?  Visit Season Extension Techniques for Market Gardeners.

In Case You Missed These Past Localvore E-Newsletters: Season Extension Related Topics
•    Preserving Fruit
•    Root Cellars