Dirt under his nails and a warm smile behind a scraggly beard, John Whitmore of Shagbark Gardens in Danby, NY sat down with me on Tuesday to reflect on his experience in the “Grow Your Farm Business Course”, held every winter here at Groundswell. Situated atop the Autumn Leaves Book Store in a cozy little…

The Green New Deal is increasingly becoming a hot topic in discussions about climate change. Introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward J. Markey earlier this year, the Green New Deal is a plan to fight climate change through moving away from fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy,…

March 2, 2019 Volunteers gather on a sunny May evening to cut down brush and clear new beds for planting at the Groundswell Incubator Farm. These monthly volunteer nights are a way for the public to support the 11 farm operations enrolled in this unique farmer support program in Ithaca, NY. One such farmer featured…

Do you love mushrooms? Do you love shiitake mushrooms? Have you ever wanted to grow them at home? Here are some links about how to inoculate your own mushroom logs! How to: Inoculate Logs by Mushroom Species by Asheville Fungi Growing Shiitake Mushrooms: Step-by-Step Guide to an Agroforestry Crop by Northern Woodlands A Guide to…

Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming in Ithaca, NY coordinated a Community Caravan of 18 people from Ithaca to Grafton, NY, outside of Albany, for a Day of Community Farm work, with over 100 others from all over the Northeast, at Soul Fire Farm. We collectively accomplished, what seemed like close to a week’s worth of farm…

Greetings Folks! We hope everyone is soaking up as much of the last of summer that they can. August and September are always the hardest months as we become inundated with planting fall and winter crops at the same time that harvest peaks. Most of us have done our best to work with major weather…

Our Apple CSA is in the popular tradition of the Ithaca CSA– members join and pay ahead of time to receive (in our case) fresh, local, organic apples throughout the season from their chosen pick up site. Members receive 5lbs of fresh organic apples (2-3 different varieties each time) beginning August 31st and ending November…

This past Saturday Groundswell hosted a workshop on Multispecies Regenerative Grazing at the beautiful Shelterbelt Farm, led by farmer Erica Frenay. Shelterbelt’s “flerd” (a combination of a flock and a herd) of cows and sheep had just been put out to pasture for the season 2 days prior to the workshop, and it was the…

Participants arrived to the Building Permanent Raised Beds workshop, at the Incubator Farm and taught by Sean Dembroski of Edible Acres, from as close as Ecovillage and as far as Massachusetts. As we gathered, Sean quickly gathered some scrap wood and banged together an A-frame tool. Our goal as a class was to start with…

Allan and Bob Cat, owners of Main Street Farms in Homer NY, are graduates of Groundswell Center programs who now operate a small diversified vegetable farm that does CSA and wholesale and farmers markets. They currently have 30 acres in vegetables, 15 in cover crop, a aquaponic operation, and a plan to farm their entire…

Sustainable agriculture

Connecting Community Through Food: An Interview With Up-and-Coming Local Farmer, John Whitmore

What does the Green New Deal Mean for Justice & Farming?

Groundswell Incubator Farm: Working to Support Equitable Farming Opportunities in Ithaca (WRFI Radio Piece)

Grow Your Own Shiitake Mushrooms

November 10th Community Farm Day at Soul Fire Farm

ALL ARE WELCOME TODAY TO AUGUST MEETING OF CNY YOUNG FARMERS COALITION!

Hemlock Grove Farm’s FALL 2018 Organic Apple CSA starts SOON!

The Word on Flerds …and Other Grazing Practices

Building Perennial Raised Beds

Groundswell Story: Main Street Farms