| What we do | 
The mission of New Entry is to assist socially disadvantaged and other underserved individuals with agricultural backgrounds to successfully enter farming in Massachusetts. The broader goals of New Entry are to support the vitality and sustainability of the region's agriculture, to build long term economic self-reliance and food security among participants and their communities, and to expand access to high-quality, culturally appropriate foods in underserved areas through production of locally-grown foods.
To learn more, please visit our website at www.nesfp.org.
| | New Entry Learning Opportunities | Explore Farming! - Offered on a Rolling BasisDo you want to farm, but you're not sure if starting a commercial farm business is right for you? This free workshop will help you decide. You will learn about: * Small-scale commercial farming opportunities in New England
* Strategies that make successful farms and farmers
* How the New Entry program can help new farmers
 Explore Farming! workshops take place at the downtown Lowell office. Please call New Entry at 978-654-6745, or e-mail Sam at sanderson@comteam.org to register. Click here to learn more about Explore Farming! Farm Business Planning Course - Next Session in October 2010Applications are being accepted for the next session of the Farm Business Training Course in October 2010. Classes will meet on Tuesday evenings from 6-9 pm at MiddlesexCommunity College in downtown Lowell. To register, please contact Sam at sanderson@comteam.org. This 6-week course is offered twice every year, beginning in October and again in January. The course fee is $250, but applicants may be eligible for a tuition waiver of up to $200 based on financial need. The course covers: * Business plan and budget development
* Identification of market demand
* Crop planning
* Promotion of farm products
* Evaluation of the materials, equipment, and additional resources needed to run a successful farming business
You can learn more about the Farm Business Planning course here.
| Spring/Summer Field Trainings
| Come and check out New Entry's Hands-on Practical Skills Training Series to get some first hand experience in expanding your farming skills and knowledge. All the Field Trainings take place at our various training sites in Dracut on Thursday afternoons from 4-6pm. The workshops are free to New Entry graduates, or $15/class for the public. All levels of experience and skill are welcome. Expect to get dirty!
Event dates are as follows - please check our online calendar for updates of times and locations or email to confirm current status of workshop.
Next Up:
July 15- Disease Management (Organic Pesticides II)
July 29- Cover Cropping Field Trip
Sign up on our contact list to be notified of upcoming trainings (click Field Training box).
| | How to Support New Farmers | Donate NOW!
Do you believe in New Entry's mission? You can show your support for creating new farmers, cultivating local produce, and conserving farmland by donating to our organization. Your tax-deductible donations are accepted on-line through: Tufts University- At 'Select a School,' please select 'Friedman Nutrition,' then select 'New Entry Sustainable Farming Project' to ensure your gift goes toward farmer initiatives.
Click before you shop!Register on-line at www.igive.com and select Community Teamwork, Inc/ New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. Shop away and up to 26% of your purchases will benefit New Entry at no cost to you! Volunteer! We frequently host volunteer groups on our farm, large or small. We have hosted up to 100 volunteers and engaged schools, corporate programs and community groups.
| | Join Our List |  | | Staff Directory | | Project Director
Jennifer Hashley Project Developer
Hugh Joseph Technical Assistance Coordinator
McKenzie Boekholder CSA Coordinator
Matthew Himmel Program and Finance Coordinator
Kimberley Fitch Farm Manager
Don Couture Livestock and Outreach Coordinator
Sam Anderson Digital Media Specialist (Americorps/VISTA)
John Dorman | | We welcome your feedback! | Please write us at nesfp@tufts.edu with any feedback you have regarding the newsletter.
| | | | July 2010 |
|  Dear Friends,
The growing season is well under way in New England, and at New Entry it brings with it a familiar cycle of events. Each new growing season we get to see how our farmers have progressed since the past year. As some farmers move from our training fields onto land of their own, we welcome recent graduates of our Farm Business Planning course just getting started on our farms. One of those locations, the Ogonowski Memorial Fields, is in use for the first time this year, complete with all the infrastructure needed to start growing organic produce. Summer means something else here: CSA season has begun! Every week over 300 World PEAS CSA shares are delivered to 11 locations in Lowell, Boston, and the towns between. We are also providing shares to dozens of low-income families through the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, Lowell WIC Office, Community Teamwork Inc.'s Summer Feeding Program, and Homebound Senior Nutrition Program. As farmers come and go, so do the people back in our office. John Dorman has been cranking out top-notch training videos for almost a year, and we haven't quite come to terms with the fact that his time with us as an Americorps/VISTA member wraps up this month. If you want to see why, just look here - or here - or here.  This summer we also welcome two interns, Becca Weaver and Jeff Hake, both grad students at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition. Becca and Jeff will be spending lots of time out at the farms, helping with farmer technical assistance, packing CSA shares, and yes, doing a bit of grunt work too. They are seen here in the midst of one of their first exciting projects: spring cleaning! They will also be posting field notes and farmer profiles to our blog: blogs.uit.tufts.edu/newentrysustainablefarmingproject. |  Farmer Profile: Omar Khudari
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| When he began farming in the spring of 2009, Omar Khudari did not have the resume you might expect from someone launching a beef cattle operation. Omar's background was in software programming. In the 1980s he developed Atari games; when I spoke to him in June, he was sitting in a truck, taking a break from building fence. Yet the two professions are not as incompatible as you might think, Omar says. "Programmers like problem solving - you get to solve puzzles every day. And with farming, I found plenty of puzzles."
 Omar retired from programming in 2008, and that same year he began looking into how he could get involved in sustainable agriculture. "It actually wasn't abrupt," he says of the transition, "but it was drastic." After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and learning more about sustainable food production, Omar took the next step in his farming education. He went on pasture walks and attended workshops, including New Entry's Mobile Poultry Processing Unit training, Poultry School, and hands-on Field Trainings. Then, while looking for sources of local meats, he was introduced to Steve Normanton. Steve grew up in South Africa, where he gained years of experience managing livestock operations, and had a small herd of grass-fed beef cattle in New England. Omar was first a customer of Steve's, then a volunteer worker; by March 2009 the two were business partners. "Steve had experience but no capital," Omar recalls. "I had capital but no experience."
Today Steve Normanton Grass-fed Beef operates on around 40 acres of open land near Litchfield, New Hampshire. Omar discovered the challenges of farming quickly - "I was expecting it to be easier," he laughs - but he stuck with it and continues to take on new challenges. This year the farm introduced pigs and chickens for both meat and eggs. All of the animals are raised on pasture, and the cattle eat no grain at all.
The farm operation is Steve's full-time job, and Omar spends around four days per week working on the farm. Omar thinks of himself as retired and enjoys spending time with his family; he treats the farm as a business venture, a blue-collar job, and a constant learning experience. Between the education Omar gets off the farm - most recently he attended New Entry's Forage and Grazing Field School on June 24 - and what he learns from working alongside a highly knowledgeable farmer like Steve, "It's just like a fantastic internship."
| Mark Your Calendar: New Entry Open Farms Tour
| | Date: Thursday, August 5th
Time: 5:15 - 7:45 PM
Location: Begins at John Ogonowski Memorial Fields, 126 Jones Ave., Dracut, MA
Cost: Free!!
 You are invited to join us for an insider's tour of New Entry's beginning farmer training sites. New Entry will open its training farms to the public during our 3rd Annual Open Farms Tour on Thursday, August 5th, beginning at 5:00 PM. During this free tour, you will visit three training farms, located in Dracut, MA.
Speak with project farmers and staff to learn about our beginning farmer training programs, our farmland preservation efforts, and farm employment resources. Discover what motivates New Entry farmers. Learn about actions that New Entry farmers take to mitigate risks on their farms. Explore where your food comes from! Meet and network with other project supporters who believe in our mission. Taste delicious appetizers made with locally-grown produce.
This event is free and open to all New Entry friends and supporters, and registration is required. Donations are always welcome to support and expand our work. Click on the link below for registration, directions, and donation opportunities.
Register Now!
| 2010 Livestock Field Schools Underway
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| New Entry sponsored the first Livestock Farm Day on June 5 to kick off the 2010 Livestock Field School series. The Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine hosted the free event at its campus in North Grafton, Massachusetts. Despite a threatening weather forecast, over 50 visitors came for the livestock production workshops, feed and equipment vendor booths, and of course the pig roast!
 On June 24 the series continued with the Forage and Grazing Field School, also held at the Tufts vet school. Participants learned pasture management, buying and making hay, balancing forage rations for different species, and a lot more, both in a classroom setting and during a tour of the vet school's own pastures. Instructors included Tufts' own Dr. George Saperstein, Jim Phillips, and Scott Brundage, as well as Barbara Miller (NRCS) and Stephen Herbert (UMass).
Upcoming Livestock Field Schools
July 10 - Poultry School
1:00 - 5:00 pm, at Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds, Concord MA
For more information and to register, click here.
 July 27 - Meat Marketing and Processing
9:30 am - 2:00 pm, at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, MA.
For more information and to register, click here.
| Thanks to Volunteers!
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|  New Entry hosted a group of 12 high school volunteers on June 8th, at Richardson's Dairy farm, in Dracut. The volunteer initiative was part of a course at the Innovation Academy Charter School in Tyngsboro, called "Where does food come from?" The students use hands-on experiences to learn about the cycles of food production, from planting to harvesting.
The group worked at the CSA packing and distribution area at Richardson's Dairy, to prepare the space prior to the first CSA distribution. Volunteers planted herbs and flowers for the CSA pick-your-own garden, they helped construct shelves inside the CSA cooler, they cleaned inside and outside the CSA cooler, and they cleaned out a garage, providing space for the CSA delivery van to park during the CSA packing process. All agreed that the volunteer project fostered an important relationship where students learned first-hand about what New Entry is doing to build local community agriculture systems.
Volunteer initiatives add important capacity for New Entry to manage its training sites and CSA packing and distribution area. They are also a great opportunity for members of community groups to learn about sustainable agriculture. If your community group would like to consider a volunteer project with New Entry, please contact Kimberley at kfitch@comteam.org. We require that all volunteers be at least 15 years-old, and the group must have at least 10 people. All volunteer projects take place during the weekdays, with a minimum of 5 hours per day.
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