EVENTS CALENDAR

First Tuesday Every Month

NOFA-NH Monthly Board Meeting

7:30 - 9:30 PM from April through October and 7:00 - 9:00 PM from November through March. Meetings are held at NOFA's office at 4 Park Street, office #208 in Concord, across from the State House, next to the Episcopal Church. Board meetings are always open to members and interested non-members alike. Please join us!

Summer 2009 Organic Garden & Farm Tours

All are Welcome! Tours are held Rain or Shine (extreme weather will cancel)
A modest fee of $5 per adult will be charged, but no one will be turned away if unable to pay.
Pre-registration requested but not required - 224-5022 / info@nofanh.org
For Potlucks please bring a dish to share, your own plate, utensils, and chair or blanket

Oct. 10

Saturday 9:00 am- 3:00 pm

NOFA-NH’s 1st Annual NH Herb & Garlic Day, - Backyard Medicine
Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH
Download the brochure in PDF format here

Kick off the leaf-peeping holiday weekend with an herbal extravaganza on Saturday, October 10, 2009! The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH) hosts its First Annual NH Herb & Garlic Day, titled “Backyard Medicine.” The daylong conference will feature herbal workshops and nature walks with some of New Hampshire's top herbalists. Participants will learn how to identify wild plants, harvest herbs from the garden, make remedies and use plants to enrich their lives and health. The event will feature how to grow and use garlic, too! The event is open to all levels of interest. Throughout the day, the Herbal Marketplace will be open for people to shop for unique, hand-made, local and organic products, herbs, garlic and garlic seed.

NH Herb & Garlic Day will be held at the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH, from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm. The pre-registration cost for full conference attendance is $35. An all-day vendor fair featuring 50 vendors, plus a raffle will be held during the conference.

Sustainable, natural healing herbs for the garden and home will be the major focus of Herb & Garlic Day. Presenters from New Hampshire will offer their experience and expertise in topics ranging from growing an organic herbal garden and wild-crafting herbs ethically and accurately to making healing remedies at home and using herbs to boost the immune system this winter. Outdoor, guided herb walks will introduce participants to wild and cultivated medicinal plants and their uses.

While many think of the “locavore” movement as pertaining to food, this concept can be expanded to our own health care. Many are frustrated with the modern health industry, the economy, our country’s state of disease, and a lack of connection with the products we consume. This conference will give participants the tools they need to become more educated and empowered in holistic self-care based on natural, homegrown herbs and remedies using organic methods. Local herbalists will come together to offer a greater understanding of how herbs that grow in New England can be used for medicine. This is New Hampshire’s ONLY bio-regional herbal conference featuring all local speakers.

This event is geared towards beginners who are just learning about herbs, gardeners who would like to incorporate them into their gardens, those who grow culinary and medicinal herbs that they don’t know what to do with, experienced herbalists and organic gardeners. NOFA is planning the event in conjunction with the New Hampshire Herbal Network.

Conference Documents: To register for the conference, please use the following link to download and complete our registration form:
09 HGD Registration Form.pdf.

Vendor space is limited! We anticipate 200 attendees at the conference. If you would like to become a vendor at the conference, please download and complete our vendor form: 09 HGD Vendor Letter Fom.pdf.

If you would like to purchase ad space in the conference program booklet, use the following ad space form: 09 HGD Ad Space.pdf.

Consider sponsoring the conference at the $1000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 level. Our sponsorship form and letter are located here:
09 HGD Sponsor Fom.pdf and 09 HGD Sponsor Letter.pdf.

If you would like to donate a product or service to the conference raffle, please use the following donation form: 09 HGD Product Donation.pdf.

For more information: visit www.nofanh.org or contact Maria Noel Groves, Conference Coordinator, at (603) 268-0548, (603) 228-6492 (fax) or office@wintergreenbotanicals.com.

Oct 17

Saturday 9:00 am-4:00pm

Morning: The Lodge at Pony Farm, Temple, NH 03084
Afternoon: Ideal Compost, Peterborough, NH 03458
Presenters: Bob Wells & Peter Hirst, Principals in New England Biochar
Hugh McLaughlin, Director of Biochar Research, Alterna Biocarbon, British Columbia

To register beforehand, contact Douglas Williams: douglaswilliams28@comcast.net or 603-924-7008

Cost: $50 for the day, including lunch & a sample bag of biochar
Checks to be made out to Douglas Williams, and mailed to 28 Cunningham Pond Road, Peterborough, NH 03458, or presented on the day at arrival

Participants may bring their own two barrels, tools, fuel, power cords, etc. to the morning session to receive guidance & support from Bob Wells & Peter Hirst, who will be demonstrating and describing the production of biochar with one of their own retorts at The Lodge at Pony Farm. Hugh McLaughlin, principal author of a recent scientific paper called “Not All Biochars Are Created Equal”, will discuss and answer questions on correct and necessary procedures for preparing biochar to be applied correctly in the soil.

After lunch everyone will relocate to the facilities of Mike Lombard’s Ideal Compost in Peterborough where Mike, as the new owner of the first mobile Adam Retort in this country, will demonstrate and explain its operation with Bob and Peter, its manufacturers. Mike will also describe his plans to make and mix biochar with his compost, to make it available to the public as a highly effective soil enhancement.

The Lodge at Pony Farm, 19 Putnam Lane, in Temple is located just east of Temple Mountain 1 ½ miles north of route 101. Turn north on Webster Highway at the intersection where route 45 goes south to Temple village, and follow the signs from there to the Pony Farm and the Lodge.

Ideal Compost is located in the northeast sector of Peterborough. Go north on route 202, turn right on route 136 toward Greenfield, go ¼ mile on 136, take the first right fork on Old Greenfield Road, go 2 ¼ miles, pass General Miller Road on the right, and take a right into the driveway by the fourth mailbox on the right marked 439.

Nov 14

8:00am -4:00pm

A BIOCHAR DEMONSTRATION DAY

New England Small Farm Institute (NESFI)
275 Jackson Street, Belchertown, MA 01007
(This event is being held in conjunction with the Northeast Biochar Symposium at UMass Amherst on Friday, November 13, 2009 see: www.nsm.umass.edu/biochar09 )

Bob Wells & Peter Hirst, Principals of New England Biochar Premiere introduction of the mobile Adam Retort

TLUD Demonstrations by Drs. Paul Anderson & Hugh McLaughlin Brush Pile Demonstration by Dr. Tom Reed Two Barrel Demonstration by Doug Clayton Possible other demonstrations

Suggested donation:$25 per person (checks made out to NESFI) payable beforehand or on the day itself at NESFI

For further information & to register beforehand, contact: NESFI Between 9:00 - 2:00 Monday - Friday 413-323-4531 info@smallfarm.org

Practical hands-on applications & methods discussed the previous day. Knowledgeable presenters demonstrating and explaining their retorts and small stoves, with principal attention directed to the newly manufactured mobile Adam Retort, capable of producing up to 800 pounds of biochar per batch, plus discussions about application of biochar in soil and related aspects of heat and energy generation and use.

Excellent directions & map on NESFI website & Mapquest