Growing & Marketing Organic Vegetables
One Straw Farm
White Hall, MD
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
10am - 3pm
$10 PASA and Future Harvest-CASA members, $20 all others
A local foods lunch will be provided.
*Online Registration for this event is now closed. For additional information about the Field Day, please call Alice Chalmers at 443.243.2998.
Joan & Drew Norman, One Straw Farm
Join PASA and Future Harvest-CASA for a tour and lunch at One Straw Farm, Maryland's largest organic vegetable farm, has been tended by Drew and Joan Norman since 1985. Drew will describe the challenges of organic growing as you tour the fields, hoop houses, and warehousing facility, just as the Norman family enters the most busy months of the year. Joan will describe the diversified marketing approach they've adopted, selling at farmers' markets, restaurants, and grocery stores, and how she has grown her CSA business throughout Baltimore, by working with and giving back to the communities she serves.
We will see the Normans' progress enabled by funding made available under the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), under a category specifically set aside for organic or transitioning to organic crop production. Hear about their participation in the Organic Cost Share Program and their past experience with a SARE grant to grow no-till.
This field day is being held in partnership with Future Harvest-CASA, a network of farmers, agricultural professionals, landowners and consumers living and working in the Chesapeake region. Future Harvest-CASA promotes profitable, environmentally sound and socially acceptable food and farming systems that work to sustain communities. Funds for this event are provided through grant support from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC).
About the Presenters
One Straw Farm owners, Drew and Joan Norman, knew from the beginning that they wanted to grow produce organically. "We believe in putting time, energy and talent close to home which is why growing and selling locally and organically is so important to us," says Joan. One Straw Farm has been around since the 1980s, growing over 100 different kinds of vegetables. When One Straw Farm began, the state didn't have an official organic certification program and the organics movement was just in its infancy in Maryland, but Drew was "just doing what he felt was right," says Joan. "Farming isn't a job, it's a lifestyle, it's never ending," says Drew. They offer their home-grown vegetables either through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, the Mill Valley General Store, the Waverly Farmers Market, Boordy Vineyards, Kennilworth Farmers Market, wholesale and restaurants in the Baltimore area.
Click here for directions, available on the Google Maps page.
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