Community Garden Scholar

Sharing these from the  NH Food Alliance : May 1st Network Cafe , 12:00-1:00pm :  The Food Alliance team will have just a few updates about a "NH Feeding NH" crowdfunding program and the new USDA Food Box program. Afterwards, we'll open it up to you to share what your organization/community is doing and connect with others. RSVP by clicking the linked title. Information for NH Farmers to Accept SNAP : We know that supply chains are disrupted and more people are food insecure - to help with this, the Food Alliance, UNH Extension, and other partners have created a simple flyer detailing how farmers can start to accept SNAP (using EBT cards) for their products. There is information about a program called MarketLink that offers FREE EBT card readers to selected applicants. Also, there will be  a useful webinar on May 6th @ 7pm detailing more about the SNAP process for food producers. Please feel free ...

I'll be posting more gardening and homesteading pieces in the coming days, since working from home has taken on many layers of meaning. Today I built a hugelkultur bed.  The top layer here is leaves, grass, and cardboard that I'd already let my chickens play and scratch in before raking up. Underneath is a layer of semi-rotted woody debris. The woody layer lends height and spaces for oxygen, helps with water retention, and provides a mix of soil microorganisms to support the decomposition process. The shredded leaves, grass, and cardboard mainly provide carbon as they break down. To these I added a thin layer of bedding from the last time we cleaned out the chicken coop. The chicken manure adds nitrogen. Here the bedding has been spread over the leaf layer. The right mix of carbon and nitrogen will help everything to break down, creating compost right in place where it will be available to the plants. I'll keep adding layers of carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich ...