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"Sustainable Farm" tours set for Sunday, July 20from the Regional Farm & Food Project On Sunday, July 20, the Regional Farm & Food Project is sponsoring two Columbia County farm tours showcasing sustainable farming in the Albany area. Tours will be held on both farms at 1 pm, and again at 2:30. At Full Belly Farm in Old Chatham, Tina Van De Water produces a variety of organic vegetables, flowers, and berries that she markets through a self-serve farm stand alongside the road. Visitors will learn small-scale organic techniques, such as interplanting of perennials in the vegetable rows to attract beneficial insects, cover cropping, and brewing homemade pesticides like stinging nettle tea. There will also be an opportunity to look at the greenhouse where winter greens are grown, spring transplants are started, and summer melons are pushed. Other highlights include a flock of chickens, a custom-built walk-in cooler, and a solar dehydrator. On Red Barn Farm in Canaan, visitors will see sheep and chickens raised on the green pastures of this 132-acre farm nestled at the foot of the Berkshires. Grace Bischoff practices intensive, rotational grazing using portable, electrified mesh fencing. Her Coriedale and Hampshire sheep are completely grass fed and remain on pasture from May to October. The chickens are raised as broilers and are rotated around the barnyard. She sells the meat and wool both on the farm and at the Chatham Farmers Market. Grace will talk about her farming operation and discuss how small family farms fit into today's changing landscape. Other highlights include a llama and a pot-bellied pig. Farm tours last an hour, and are free and open to the public. Please-no dogs. For more information and directions, contact the Regional Farm & Food Project at 271-0744 or visit their website, www.capital.net/~farmfood/. |
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