Conservation Innovation Grant – Soil Health Monitoring, Reduced Tillage Techniques and Farm Tours.

NOFA Massachusetts, NOFA Connecticut and NOFA New Jersey each have three farms participating in a three year grant, studying soil health, carbon sequestration and Reduced Tillage Practices. To learn more about the Grant, check of NOFAMass.org, Specifically; https://www.nofamass.org/programs/nofa-conservation-innovation-grant-nrcs-project

North Slope Farm, Morganics Family Farm and Cherry Valley Cooperative Farm are all committing to three years of soil testing, farm tours, and a focus on integrating reduced soil tillage practices into our management.

At North Slope Farm, we already have been using a reduced tillage technique, we call “Favorable Furrows” to plant our field beds. In our permanent raised beds we typically Broad Fork and rototill, pre planting, but to reduce tillage we have been using Solarization and Lasagna Layered Mulching Techniques to beat the weeds, without tillage..

A great Primer for any discussion of Soil Health and the Carbon in the Soil is the White Paper – Soil Carbon Restoration – Can Biology Do the Job?.. Follow the Link to NOFAMass.org’s site and download a copy.

If these topics interest you, we want you to participate in our Farm Tours and there is a Farmer Roundtable planned, to hear input from other NJ Farmers and develop topics to build on. Sign up for our email newsletter (top of page) to receive a reminder of upcoming tours / Events, Join NOFA-NJ, or reach out to Morganics or Cherry Valley Coop Farm so we are sure to include you in our outreach!