Fall, 2005 Vol. 2, No.

66 Publication of the Northeast Organic Farming Association 1077-2294

Inside This Issue
Features
Transcript of Satish Kumar Keynote 42
IFOAM News 8
Local News 7&8
Supplement on
Renewable Energy
Farm Renewable Energy: Are Your Ready? 9
Leading the Way Off the Grid 13
Ice-Powered Refrigeration 17
Heating the Greenhouse with Cooking Oil 19
Electric Traction Vehicles 20
Green Power 23
Doing it All from the Sun 25
Storing Ice for Summer Cold 29
Sun, Wind and Wood at Far Acres Farm 32
Renewable Energy - Powering the Farm 37
Departments
Editorial 2
NOFA Exchange 4
News Notes 5
Book Reviews 45
NOFA Contact People 46
NOFA Membership Information 47
Calendar 47
Magazine, received a standing ovation before
his speech even began, following a noteworthy
introduction by NOFA Summer Conference
committee member Eron Sandler, who had
been previously inspired by the internationally
recognized guru of peace and simple living.
Kumars messages were simple and universally
appreciated: that making peace with nature is a
necessary step on the road to a peaceful world;
and to fnd joy in all of your tasks -- whether
tending the soil, planting seeds, baking bread,
taking a walk or spitting a bitter apple seed
onto the ground -- resulting in even the most
practical tasks taking on a spiritual meaning.
Kumar referenced Rawsons words about
fnding joy and shared his opinion that, in the
United States, people work very hard, too hard
in fact.
The working week should be reduced to three
or four days a week and make time for baking
bread. . . . Youd be surprised to know perhaps
that sleeping and taking a nap is also a spiritual
practice. You do no harm while you sleep.
You oppress nobody while you sleep. For this
reason, I would say, Mr. Bush, please go to
sleep, said Kumar, which drew loud laughs,
cheers and applause.
Summer Conference Co-Coordinator Jack
Kittredge felt Kumars keynote address was
among NOFAs best ever. Satish was very
well received, very popular. He was able to
frame questions in a way that led to positive
by Kathleen Litchfeld
Long-time farmers and young entrepreneurs
talked permaculture over dishes of homemade,
organic Indian food. Debaters shared strong
opinions about wind power and renewable
energy. Pie lovers stuffed goopy handfuls of
berries and crust into their partners mouths
as fast as they could. Children laughed as they
roasted organic marshmallows over a roaring
campfre and listened to stories. Editor of
Resurgence Magazine Satish Kumar shared
his inimitable wisdom with clusters of new
friends gathered on the green. And people of
all ages scurried out of workshops and through
the dining hall, toting books and literature and
chatting animatedly about what most recently
inspired them.
Theres only one place where this much fun
and education happens all at once during
the second weekend of August the NOFA
Summer Conference, of course! It goes without
saying that all 1,200 registrants (including
160 children and teens) at NOFAs 31st annual
Summer Conference challenged their brains,
widened their hearts and fueled their beings
with practical and spiritual wisdom to last yet
another year.
Drenched in sweat but smiling -- swamped
inside a mass of relentless humidity throughout
the four-day event -- these farmers, gardeners,
homesteaders, land care professionals,
homeowners, consumers and wide array of
inspired folks of all ages attended diverse
workshops, enjoyed nature walks and farm
tours, gathered for informal meetings and
watched eye-opening documentaries. Children
built shelters for wilderness survival and tie-
dyed T-shirts while teens discussed alternative
energy usage and expressed themselves through
art.
There was music everywhere, from the
beautiful, twangy melodies of the country/
western band Stampede! Friday night inside
the Crown Center to the cosmic drumming
that spontaneously combusted the frst-ever
campfre beneath the stars on Saturday evening.
The get-up-and-dance zydeco jammin of Dirty
Rice got the wooden foors of the Red Barn
rockin while 20-something guitar strummers
penned inspired lyrics alongside their tents
throughout the steamy weekend.
NOFA Nibbles offered homemade organic
Indian food for the frst time this year, thanks
to Roshni Prabakar and Dan Kittredge and their
stellar crew of hardworking, enthusiastic folks.
The Saturday Country Fair was a great success
again this year, as were the Childrens and
Teens conferences.
The Saturday night debate, What Price
Renewable Energy? proved lively and was
very well attended. The discussion of the
Berkshire wind tower proposal was at times
heated and brought forth strong opinions that
occasionally transcended renewable energy,
interspersed with the wisdom of reducing ones
footprint overall proffered by Jim Merkel of
Vermont, author of Radical Simplicity.
I think the conference is immensely successful
because so many people let me know there
photo by Jonathan van Ransom
Satish Kumar, 2005 Keynote Speaker
Speech reprinted on page 42!
THANK YOU!
Thank you to everybody who participated in
the 2005 NOFA Summer Conference, for your
generosity! A total of 47 people were able to
attend the conference this year on full or partial
scholarships, thanks to direct donations to the
scholarship funds this year, the application of
honorariums and the money raised from the
2004 auction.
and afterwards that it has an incredible, life-
changing impact on their lives. It inspires
people to go home and be better people. Its
an institution that has a life of its own its
a phenomenally important event for people,
said Julie Rawson, Summer Conference co-
coordinator and executive coordinator of
NOFA/Massachusetts.
People say they have turned their lives around,
they met their mate there . . . and it was great
to see so many young people there this year, in
their 20s, inspired by what the conference had
to offer.
Julie Rawson was named the NOFA 2005
Person of the Year during NOFAs annual
meeting held before Satish Kumars keynote
address on Friday evening.
Rawson, who was surprised and delighted to
be honored in this way, has immersed herself
in NOFA for a little over two decades and is
presently executive coordinator of NOFA/
Massachusetts and coordinator of the Summer
Conference with her husband, Jack Kittredge.
She also runs the certifed organic Many Hands
Organic Farm in Barre, Mass., loves to sing and
perform music on her French horn and directs
the Circle of Song community chorus in Barre.
With a humble smile in her much-loved
gentle manner, Rawson accepted the award
from NOFA Interstate Council President Bill
Duesing, and imparted the following short,
sweet and well-spoken wisdom: Find work
that you love to do. Work hard and with respect
for others, and do whatever you do with joy,
she said, carrying away an engraved, green-
handled shovel.
Keynote speaker Satish Kumar, founder of
Schumacher College and editor of Resurgence
Summer Conference Tops 1200 (in the shade)
(continued on page 41)
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 2
The Natural Farmer is the newspaper of the Northeast
Organic Farming Association (NOFA). Regular
members receive a subscription as part of their dues,
and others may subscribe for $10 (in the US or $18
outside the US). It is published four times a year at
411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005. The editors are
Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson, but most of the
material is either written by members or summarized
by us from information people send us.
Upcoming Issue Topics - We plan a year in advance so
that folks who want to write on a topic can have a lot
of lead time. The next 3 issues will be:
Winter 2005-06 Organic Fine Dining
Spring 2006 Agriculture & Globalization
Summer 2006 Is Organic Better?
Moving or missed an issue? The Natural Farmer will
not be forwarded by the post offce, so you need to
make sure your address is up-to-date if you move.
You get your subscription to this paper in one of two
ways. Direct subscribers who send us $10 are put on
our database here. These folks should send address
changes to us. Most of you, however, get this paper as
a NOFA member beneft for paying your chapter dues.
Each quarter every NOFA chapter sends us address
labels for their paid members, which we use to mail
out the issue. If you moved or didnt get the paper,
your beef is with your state chapter, not us. Every
issue we print an updated list of NOFA Contact
People on the last page, for a handy reference to all
the chapter names and addresses.
As a membership paper, we count on you for articles,
art and graphics, news and interviews, photos on
rural or organic themes, ads, letters, etc. Almost
everybody has a special talent or knows someone
who does. If you cant write, fnd someone who can to
interview you. Wed like to keep the paper lively and
interesting to members, and we need your help to do
it.
We appreciate a submission in any form, but are less
likely to make mistakes with something typed than
hand-written. To be a real gem, send it via electronic
mail (Jack@mhof.net.) Also, any graphics, photos,
charts, etc. you can provide will almost certainly make
your submission more readable and informative. If
you have any ideas or questions, one of us is usually
near the phone - (978) 355-2853, fax: (978) 355-4046.
The NOFA Interstate Council website is www.nofa.
org.
ISSN 1077-2294
copyright 2005,
Northeast Organic Farming Association
The Natural Farmer
Needs You!
Advertisements not only bring in TNF revenue, which
means less must come from membership dues, they also
make a paper interesting and helpful to those looking for
specifc goods or services. We carry 2 kinds of ads:
The NOFA Exchange - this is a free bulletin board
service for NOFA members and TNF subscribers. Send
in up to 100 words (business or personal) and well print
it free in the next issue. Include a price (if selling) and
an address or phone number so readers can contact you
directly. If youre not a NOFA member, you can still
send in an ad - just send $5 along too! Send NOFA Ex-
change ads directly to The Natural Farmer, 411 Sheldon
Rd., Barre, MA 01005 or (preferably) E-mail to Jack@
mhof.net.
Display Ads - this is for those offering products or ser-
vices on a regular basis! You can get real attention with
display ads. Send camera ready copy to Dan Rosenberg,
PO Box 40, Montague, MA 01351 (413) 863-9063 and
enclose a check for the appropriate size. The sizes and
rates are:
Full page (15 tall by 10 wide) $300
Half page (7 1/2 tall by 10 wide) $155
One-third page (7 1/2 tall by 6 1/2 wide) $105
One-quarter page (7 1/2 tall by 4 7/8 wide) $80
One-sixth page (7 1/2 tall by 3 1/8 wide), or
(3 3/4 tall by 6 1/2 wide) $55
Business card size (1 1/2 tall by 3 1/8 wide) $15
Note: These prices are for camera ready copy. If you
want any changes we will be glad to make them - or to
typeset a display ad for you - for $10 extra. Just send us
the text, any graphics, and a sketch of how you want it
to look. Include a check for the space charge plus $10.
Frequency discounts: if you buy space in several issues
you can qualify for substantial discounts off these rates.
Pay for two consecutive issues and get 10% off each,
pay for 3 and get 20% off, or pay for 4 and get 25% off.
An ad in the NOFA Summer Conference Program Book
counts as a TNF ad for purposes of this discount.
Deadlines: We need your ad copy one month before the
publication date of each issue. The deadlines are:
January 31 for the Spring issue (mails Mar. 1)
April 30 for the Summer issue (mails Jun. 1)
July 31 for the Fall issue (mails Sep. 1)
October 31 for the Winter issue (mails Dec. 1)
Disclaimer: Advertisers are helping support the paper
so please support them. We cannot investigate the
claims of advertisers, of course, so please exercise due
caution when considering any product or service. If you
learn of any misrepresentation in one of our ads please
inform us and we will take appropriate action. We dont
want ads that mislead.
Sponsorships: Individuals or organizations wishing to
sponsor The Natural Farmer may do so with a payment
of $200 for one year (4 issues). In return, we will thank
the sponsor in a special area of page 3 of each issue, and
feature the sponsors logo or other small insignia.
Contact for Display Ads or Sponsors: Send display
ads or sponsorships with payment to our advertising
manager Dan Rosenberg, PO Box 40, Montague, MA
01351. If you have questions, or want to reserve space,
contact Dan at (413) 863-9063 or dan@realpickles.com.
Advertise in or Sponsor The Natural Farmer
With the surge in petroleum prices over the
last few years farmers, like other people, are
looking again at their relationship to energy.
One exciting possibility arising for some
is on-farm production of renewable energy
for commercial resale. Farms lucky enough
to be located in the Buffalo Ridge area of
southwestern Minnesota (where winds are so
strong and constant that they drove early white
settlers mad) are fnding that they can lease land
for wind turbines at an annual $5000 per year
per machine. Ones with the right topography
(like Crown Hill Farm in northwestern Oregon)
can install hydro systems capable of generating
thousands of kilowatt hours per month for sale
to the local utility.
Since Californias energy crisis in 2000-2001
sent bills soaring and imposed blackouts on
many businesses, farms throughout that state
have invested in solar photovoltaic (PV) panels
for electricity generation. A Peach orchard in
Clovis installed 7,730 solar panels atop the
4 acre packing shed to produce 1 megawatt
of power, enough to run the conveyor belts
without interruption and cut a $1.5 million
Renewable Energy on the Farm
energy bill in half. A cotton farm in the Central
Valley built a 36 kilowatt system to run all the
irrigation pumps. It will pay for itself, at current
power prices, in 7 years.
In the northeastern United States our operations
are usually smaller and more family-scale. But
our farmers are no less innovative. In this issue
we feature some of the ways in which they use
renewable energy sources to do farm tasks.
Some are old technologies like ice houses and
gravity-run hydraulic pumps. Others are state-
of-the-art wind generators, PV arrays, biodiesel
and recycled grease burning vehicles and
greenhouses, and micro hydro plants.
We hope these ideas stimulate your thinking.
The catastrophic impacts of continuing to burn
fossil fuels on our environment, our security
and our health are now becoming clear to even
the most obdurate observer. Organic farmers
have taken the lead in creating healthier
alternatives in the felds of farming and
nutrition. We have a responsibility to continue
to lead by developing sustainable energy
solutions as well.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 3
Please help us thank these
Friends of Organic Farming
for their generous support!
dairy farmers
wanted
Ca|| o0| fa|me| |ot||ne to |ea|n mo|e aoo0t o0| o|gan|c
t|ans|t|on ass|tance o|og|am, 888-809-9297 o| 512-801-3505
and as| fo| Pete| M|||e| East Reg|on Poo| Coo|d|nato|.
Wouldrt you rathor bo with tho farmorowrod cooporativo
thats providod sovortoor yoars of stablo, growirg pay pricos`
rgaric is Amoricas lifoliro for family farms. rgaric Valloy
has lod tho way. Erjoy logordary mombor support ard soll
your milk irto local markets. Give us a call anytime.
www.organ|cva||ey.coop Ca|| Peter Mi||er at 888-809-9297
CROPP COOPERATlvE
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 4
Blow Your Own Horn!
Many Hands Organic Farm has Baystate Organic
Certifed seed garlic for sale. Soft and stiff neck
varieties. $8.00/lb ($7 for 25+ lb, $6 for 50+lb)
plus shipping. Call or email to check availability
and fnal pricing. Or you can pick up at the farm in
Barre, MA. (978) 355-2853; julie@mhof.net. Julie
Rawson
1905 Modern Glenwood B: 6-Burner Cast Iron
wood cook stove w/ oven & water heater. $1000/
bo, (978)464-0019
Two acre organic CSA on Long Island looking for
a grower. Sophia Garden, thriving for nine years,
is located in Suffolk County L.I. and operates on
land owned by the Dominican Sisters of Amityville.
We have a strong core group and manager which
leaves the grower free of managerial responsibilities
while at the same time enjoying great support from
shareholders. Position available for 2006 season.
Please call 631 842-6000, ext.307 or email us at
sophiagarden@aol.com
Seeking an apprentice for a diversifed organic
farm in Vermont- Starting the end of August through
the fall. We raise produce, poultry and cattle for
market and homestead. Striving towards sustainable
farm living. Beautiful, quiet location on Lake
Champlain. Fine foods and farm living. Room,
board and small stipend provided. Possible housing/
work exchange for winter months. Contact Singing
Cedars Farmstead, Scott or Suzanne, 802-948-2062,
Scottnsuzanne@moose-mail.com.
NOFA
Exchange
Assistant growers sought: Heirloom Harvest in
Westborough, MA, seeks skilled candidates for
positions beginning April 10th, 2006. One position
lasts 29 weeks, one for 27 weeks. In October,
growers work part-time, 3 days a week. The
farmsite is open to the public, and employees are
expected to work well with volunteers and children.
Some management and direction of volunteers
is necessary. Pay: Hourly, $9.25. Some variance
in workday length (long days and short days) is
to be expected. Benefts: CSA share, workmans
comp. No housing, but plenty of apartments
around. Contact John at 508-963-7792. Check out
heirloomharvestcsa.com.
Sign up now for a 2006 workshare: Heirloom
Harvest in Westborough, MA, is hiring workshares
who work one day a week from the middle of May
through the end of October in exchange for a share
of the farms produce. All workshares must be
available across the season to fulfll their obligation,
and must make an effort to fnd a replacement on
days they cant make it. Available workdays are
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Students, parents
and teachers who are tied to school schedules
are encouraged to apply for Sunday workshares.
Contact John at 508-963-7792. Check out www.
heirloomharvestcsa.com.
Heirloom organic garlic & shallot, seed or table.
Supplying growers for 15 years. Augusts Harvest,
Inc. 1-877-272-1742 or w.ham@belnet.ca
George Hall Farm is looking for help. Live, eat, and
work on our organic farm. Excellent living quarters.
Duties include feld work, farmers markets, CSA
and other chores. For more information, call 860-
658-9297. 180 Old Farms Road, Simsbury, CT
06070
For sale: Broadfork, offered by Johnnys Seeds,
Eliot Coleman design, $50. Old wheel hoe, new
handles, with three goose foot cultivators, $25.
Contact Louis in Rhode Island, 401-253-7537 (after
8 p.m.)
Seeking frame for small hoophouse. No wider
than 14 feet, the longer the better. Call Jack
Kittredge or Julie Rawson at Many Hands Organic
Farm, 978-355-2853, or email farm@mhof.net
Hawaii Opportunity. Kealaola Farm is accepting
applications for its work trade/apprenticeship
program. Kealaola Farm is a fve acre certifed
organic farm in South Kona on the Big Island of
Hawaii. It is a family run farm owned by two
families living on the property. We specialize
in growing lettuce, coffee, and bananas. Our
apprenticeship program focuses on hard work,
education, and going to the beach. We would love
to hear from anyone interested in learning more
about organic farming in Hawaii. Our e-mail
address is kealaola@mindspring.com. You can
reach us by phone at (808) 322-4982. Thank you
very much. Ken Kotner and Barry Levine.
Childrens program coordinator wanted for
NOFA Winter Conference to be held January 21st,
2006 in Worcester, MA. Responsibilities include
creating an exciting program for children aged 3-12
that includes a variety of games, crafts and hands-on
activites. Children will also go outside if weather
permits. Pre-registration information will be
provided by the Registration Coordinator and will
include childrens names and ages. The program
runs during the keynote and workshops only. There
is a stipend of $200. To apply please contact
Jassy Bratko, Winter Conference Coordinator, at
jassyhighmeadow@yahoo.com or 978-928-5646.
Registration coordinator wanted for NOFA
Winter Conference to be held January 21st
in Worcester Ma. Responsibilities include
receiving registration forms and tracking funds in
membership, registration, membership directories,
raffe tickets and scholarship donations. Organize
attendee packages for conference distribution,
create name tags, send acknowledgement postcards
and distribute scholarship funds. Submit fnal
accounting of all registration information to
NOFA/Mass offce after the conference. Ability
to use access or excel would be helpful to manage
approximately 400 registrants. Stipend of $500.
To apply please contact Jassy Bratko, Winter
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 5
News
Notes
compiled by Jack Kittredge
USDA Finds Over 1,000 Violations of Mad Cow
Rules - Federal food safety inspectors fled 1,036
noncompliance reports since 2004 where US meat
plants cut corners or violated regulations aimed
at preventing the spread of mad cow disease. The
violations involved the removal of the brain, skull
and spinal cord of cattle aged 30 months and older.
These materials are considered to carry the highest
risk in spreading the brain-wasting disease, also
known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE). The nations second confrmed case of BSE
was discovered earlier this summer in a Texas beef
cow.
source: Reuters, Tuesday 16 August 2005
Compound in Tefon A Likely Carcinogen -
The Environmental Protection Agencys scientifc
advisory panel has identifed perfuorooctanoic acid,
a chemical compound used to make Tefon, as a
likely carcinogen. It says that animal studies have
identifed four different kinds of tumors in both male
and female rats and mice that had been exposed to
the compound, which convinced a majority of its
members that it is a likely carcinogen. The EPA is
in the midst of a major investigation into how the
compound gets into consumers blood and whether
it affects their health. It is also seeking millions
of dollars in fnes from DuPont Co., which makes
PFOA in Parkersburg, W.Va., on the grounds that
the chemical giant failed for 20 years to report
possible health and environmental problems linked
to the compound.
source: Washington Post, June 29, 2005
Half of Federal Ag Subsidies Go To Cheap
Ingredients In Processed Food - The governments
new food pyramid, unveiled in April by the
Agriculture Department, aims to improve the
nations health. It recommends that people eat
fewer calories and more fruit, vegetables, lowfat
milk and whole grains. It also tells people to
avoid foods made with partially hydrogenated oils
and sweeteners. Federal farm programs, on the
other hand, aim to maintain the fnancial health
of American agriculture. Subsidies encourage an
abundant supply of corn, wheat, rice and soybeans.
Much of the corn and soybeans is fed to livestock.
Some also is turned into nutrition-poor ingredients
in processed food for people.
Here we are as a society, talking constantly
about obesity and diets, and yet our farm policies
are not structured to encourage the kind of diet that
the food pyramid suggests we should adopt, said
Ralph Grossi, president of American Farmland
Trust.
Estimated to cost $17 billion this year, according
to the Congressional Budget Offce, the breakdown
of farm subsidies includes:
--$7.3 billion for corn and other feed grains.
--$3.5 billion for cotton.
--$1.6 billion for soybeans.
--$1.5 billion for wheat.
--$1.5 billion for tobacco.
--$686 million for dairy.
--$626 million for rice.
--$271 million for peanuts.
source: Associated Press, August 11, 2005
Lawmakers Debate Legislation to Nullify Local
Bans on GE Seeds - Bans on genetically modifed
organisms, or GMOs, currently exist in 3 California
counties: Mendocino, Marin and Trinity. Backers
of a similar ban in Sonoma County qualifed the
issue for the November 8 ballot. But none of this
will matter if legislation fled by Sen. Dean Florez,
calling for state pre-emption of local control of
agriculture, passes. Florez supports biotechnology
and contends that allowing cities and counties to
implement their own criteria on genetically modifed
crops will create confusion in the agriculture
industry.
source: The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat, July 3,
2005
US Rice High in Arsenic - Rice grown in the
United States contains an average of 1.4 to 5
times more arsenic than rice from Europe, India
and Bangladesh, according to a survey of grains
from around the world. This means that people
eating a subsistence diet of 500 grams of dry
American rice a day are probably consuming
more than the maximum intake of arsenic
provisionally recommended by the World Health
Organization (WHO). The survey team thinks that
the contamination is a legacy of cotton farming,
which relies on arsenic-based chemicals to kill boll
weevils and to remove plants leaves before harvest.
Quite a lot of land in Mississippi and Arkansas
that previously grew cotton is now used for rice
cultivation. Of the rice eaten in the United States,
the vast majority is home-grown. About half of
all US-grown rice is exported. The health effects
of arsenic in food are hard to verify. It has been
estimated that if 10,000 people were exposed to the
WHO limit over their lifetime, this would result in
an extra 92 cases of bladder cancer.
source: 2 August 2005, http://www.nature.com/
news/2005/050801/full/050801-5.html
Report Documents US Pressure to Adopt GM
Crops - A study by GRAIN, an ag policy non-proft,
has found that the US government is systematically
pressuring developing countries to accept GM
crops. The Agency for International Development,
or US AID, is a major player as much US food aid
is in the form of GM grain. But other agencies get
involved as necessary, and the report documents
the almost seamless network of agencies and
private corporations involved in pressuring for this
technology. The report can be found at www.grain.
org/go/usaid.
source: Acres, USA, June, 2005
Missouri Kills State Organic Certifcation
Program - Responding to fnancial pressures
mounting on all state governments, Missouri has
terminated the state organic certifcation program.
It leaves 99 processors and growers to an uncertain
future. Indiana Certifed Organic has offered
growers the opportunity to join their program for no
extra fees this year. The Missouri program cost the
state $129,000 per year.
source: Acres, USA, June, 2005
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 6
FDA Bans Cipro-like Antibiotic in Poultry
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Commissioner Lester Crawford has issued a
precedent-setting, fnal decision to withdraw
approval for use of Cipro-like antibiotics in poultry.
This action is the frst time the FDA has ever
withdrawn an agricultural antibiotic from the market
because of concerns about antibiotic resistance
affecting human health. Research has shown that
use of such antibiotics in poultry reduces the
effectiveness of Cipro in treating Campylobacter,
one of the most common causes of severe bacterial
food poisoning. The Union of Concerned Scientists
estimates 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the
U.S. - about 25 million pounds annually - are
routinely fed to poultry, swine, and beef cattle
not to treat illness but rather to promote slightly
faster growth and to compensate for overcrowded
and unhealthy conditions in concentrated animal
feeding operations. More than half of these drugs
are identical or similar to antibiotics that are
important in human medicine. Use of antibiotic
feed additives spurs the development and spread of
antibiotic resistant bacteria in our food supply and
the environment. The most recent data from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show
that resistance to Cipro in Campylobacter in humans
has risen to 21 percent as of 2002; when Cipro-like
drugs were frst approved for use in poultry in 1995,
such resistance was negligible.
source: Keep Antibiotics Working press release, July
28, 2005
USDA Mad Cow Testing Called into Question
The USDA recently confrmed that a cow that
died last year was infected with mad cow disease.
Although a test the agency conducted seven months
ago indicated that the animal had the disease, the
result was never publicly disclosed. The delay in
confrming the United States second case of mad
cow disease seems to underscore what critics of
the agency have said for a long time: that there
are serious and systemic problems in the way the
Agriculture Department tests animals for mad cow.
The sequence of events started in
November, when an Agriculture Department
laboratory in Ames, Iowa, performed two tests on
the animal in question. After the gold standard
test came up negative, the agency announced that
the animal had not had mad cow disease. But at
the same time, the same lab also conducted an
experimental test, with different results.
Then two weeks ago, for reasons that
are unclear, Phyllis K. Fong, the Agriculture
Departments inspector general, arranged for further
tests on specimens of the same cow. A test known as
the Western blot, which is widely used in England
and Japan but not in the United States, came up
positive. Because this result conficted with the
gold standard result from November, a specimen
from the same animal was sent to a laboratory in
Weybridge, England, that is considered pre-eminent
in its feld. Several tests were conducted there, and
all of them came up positive; it was the results of
those tests that the USDA fnally announced.
Consumer lobbyists say the fawed results show
once again that 15 years of testing has been
dangerously inadequate. Japan tests every cow,
Europe tests about one in four. When the frst US
mad cow case was found in 2003, it was testing one
in 1,700.
source: The New York Times, June 26, 2005
Iowa County Passes Organic Tax Incentive -
Iowas Woodbury County has passed a tax incentive
designed to encourage farmers to transition from
conventional to organic production. The incentive
grants $50,000 per year for 5 years as a property tax
incentive. Farmers must be certifed by the end of
the three-year period.
source: Organic Business News, July, 2005
Court Sets 2-Year Limit on Synthetics
As a result of Arthur Harveys success in suing the
NOP regarding synthetic ingredients in organic
foods, organic manufacturers must remove products
that contain non-compliant synthetics by June,
2007. The limit was set by US District Judge D.
Brock Hornby. The judge also gave dairy farmers
2 years to transition to organic from the 80/20
rule, and gave the NOP 360 days for rule making
to implement the changes ordered in the court
decision.
source: Organic Business News, June, 2005
Phyllis Fong Takes on the Beltway and Mad
Cow Disease - Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns
appears to be headed for a showdown with USDA
Inspector General Phyllis K. Fong for ordering
new tests for mad cow disease in the nations beef
supply. Since the tests Fong ordered have returned
positive, several countries have once again stopped
buying U.S. beef, provoking uproar in the cattle
industry. Reacting to industry pressure, Johanns
now claims Fong requested the tests without his
knowledge or approval and added: It caught me by
surprise, to be very honest with you. I believe the
secretary should be involved in all decisions of this
signifcance.
source: Asian Week, Jul 06, 2005
Robert Kennedy Jr. Links Vaccine Ingredient
and Autism - Evidence suggests that Thimerosal, a
mercury-based preservative in childrens vaccines,
may be responsible for the exponential growth of
autism, attention defcit disorder, speech delays,
and other childhood neurological disorders now
epidemic in the United States, says Robert Kennedy,
Jr. Prior to 1989, American infants generally
received three vaccinations (polio, measles-mumps-
rubella, and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis). In the
early 1990s, public health offcials dramatically
increased the number of Thimerosal-containing
vaccinations without considering the cumulative
impact of the mercury load on developing brains.
A decade ago the American Academy of Pediatrics
estimated the autism rate among American children
to be 1 in 2,500. Today, the CDC places the rate
at 1 in 166, or 1 in 80 boys. Additionally, one
in six children is now diagnosed with a related
neurological disorder. Most of the symptoms of
autism are similar to the symptoms of mercury
poisoning.
source: Boston Globe Op-Ed, July 1, 2005
Chinas Chicken Farmers Under Fire for
Antiviral Abuse
The much-feared H5N1 strain of bird fu has
become resistant to the amantadine family, one of
the most effective antiviral drug families against it.
It seems that Chinese farmers use of the compound
in chickens is to blame. The frst H5N1 strain
that infected humans, in Hong Kong in 1997,
was sensitive to the amantadines. But resistance
to them, discovered in 2003, has left another
more expensive family of antivirals, including
oseltamivir (sold as Tamifu) and zanamivir
(Relenza), as the only line of defence against the
virus. This leaves the poor countries of southeast
Asia without a low-cost option.
source: Nature 435, 1009 (23 June 2005)
USDA Wont Enforce Rules against Junk
Food Sales in Schools - The U.S. Department of
Agriculture has rejected a petition that it enforce its
own competitive foods rule, which prohibits public
schools from selling foods of minimal nutritional
value during mealtimes in school cafeterias. In
March, the USDA admitted in a report that it does
not know whether schools are complying with
prohibitions against the sale of foods of minimal
nutritional value during school mealtimes. The
report stated, it is unclear to what extent federal
and state regulations [against the sale of foods of
minimum nutritional value] are enforced at the local
level.
source: Common Dreams Press Release, Tuesday 14
June 2005
Sustainable Agriculture Grants for Farmers
The Northeast Region Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education program (SARE) has
recently released updated application materials for
its Farmer/Grower grant program. These grants
support Northeast farmers who want to explore
innovative sustainable practices on their farms. The
program allows farmers to conduct experiments,
try new approaches, and test emerging ideas about
agricultural sustainability. The emphasis is on new
ideas that advance good stewardship, improve farm
proftability, and strengthen rural communities.
The average grant is about $5,800, and awards are
capped at $10,000.To apply, you must be a full-
or part-time commercial farmer in the Northeast
Region. Applications can be downloaded at www.
uvm.edu/~nesare, or requested by calling 802/656-
0471 or by sending e-mail to nesare@uvm.edu. The
deadline is December 6, 2005.
source: Northeast SARE press release
Connecticut Governor Vetoes School Nutrition
Bill - Governor Rell has vetoed a bill to ban soda
and junk food from the states school vending
machines. She said in her veto, I am also
disturbed that the bill undermines the control and
responsibility of parents with school-aged children.
The task of determining and meeting the health and
dietary needs of children should, frst and foremost,
be undertaken by parents. State statutes in and of
themselves, cannot and must not replace the role of
parents. Senate Bill 1309, rather than reinforcing
parental participation, displaces parental authority.
The state Parent/Teachers Association,
however, sees it differently. Marne Usher, vice
president of the Connecticut PTA said, The PTA
recognizes that good nutrition is a key component
in creating healthy and productive individuals,
but parents cannot teach good nutrition to their
children at home without the state helping them
by having good nutrition policies in the schools as
well. Schools need to refect the healthy habits that
parents are trying to instill in their children at home.
source: Environment and Human Health press
release, June 14, 2005
Farm Bureau And Monsanto Underwrite
Americas Heartland TV Series for PBS
Stations - Sacramentos KVIE has scheduled
Americas Heartland to begin airing throughout
the United States in September. The aim is to repeat
the popularity of the long-running California
Heartland series with a typically cheerful tone
and general avoidance of controversies about the
nations food system. The new national Heartland
has a two-year fnancial commitment, station
offcials said, from the powerful voice of the
nations farming establishment, the American Farm
Bureau Federation, and St. Louis-based agribusiness
giant Monsanto Co. Critics worry that with backing
from such supporters of factory farming, the
show will not be balanced. They are particularly
concerned that the show is geared for PBS stations.
Don Lipton, spokesman for the Washington-based
Farm Bureau, said: Public TV has a very respected
brand and a very respected audience... Thats one ag
groups would be struggling to reach.
source: Sacramento Bee, June 13, 2005
Chemical Poison Level Too High For Farm
Children - The governments failure to take the
vulnerabilities of farmworkers children into
account when setting tolerance levels for pesticide
residue on food has endangered hundreds of
thousands of children, environmental and labor
groups have charged in a federal lawsuit. They are
asking the Environmental Protection Agency to base
maximum residue standards on the most exposed
and susceptible members of society: children living
on or near farms. The EPA establishes maximum
residue levels for various types of pesticides on
food sold to the public. The Food Quality Protection
Act, passed in 1996, requires the agency to take
particularly vulnerable groups into account and to
set tolerance levels that protect infants and children
from harm.
source: San Francisco Chronicle, June 8, 2005

Scientists Signing Off on Ghost-Written Studies?
It is well known that pharmaceutical companies
fnance research favorable to new drugs which is
then passed off as independent on an uncritical
FDA. Now, however, a scientist has claimed that
she was asked to sign off on an article she never
saw before. The article was presented to her with
abstract, footnotes, and her name already in place
by a British medical communications company.
Medical journal editors tacitly confrm that the
practice of ghostwritten pieces is growing.
source: Acres, USA, June, 2005
Key Food Grade Plastic Found Harmful -
Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a key building block in the
manufacture of hard, clear polycarbonate plastics
such as that used for baby bottles, water bottles, and
other food and beverage containers. Researchers at
the University of Missouri, however, have found
after reviewing over 100 studies, that the chemical
can leach from the plastic when it is exposed to
heat, harsh detergents, or acidic food or drinks.
Evidence is accumulating that BPA is a potent sex
hormone leading to decreased testosterone, an
enlarged prostate and lower sperm counts in males,
and early puberty and disrupted cycles in females.
source: In Good Tilth, June August, 2005
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 7
Global Warming: The US Contribution in
Figures
* The United States constitutes 4 per cent of the
world population.
* It is responsible for a quarter of all carbon dioxide
emissions - the highest of any country in the world,
and more than China, India and Japan combined.
* Despite having just 2 per cent of known oil
reserves, the US consumes 25 per cent of the
worlds oil production.
* 16 per cent of world oil production goes into
American cars alone.
* Around 50 million new cars roll off US assembly
lines each year.
* Only 1 per cent of American travel is on public
transport, an eighth of that in the UK and an
eighteenth of that in Japan.
* As much as 6 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted
per American per year, compared with 0.31 tons per
Indian or 0.05 tons per Bangladeshi.
* The average American produces almost three
times the quantity of municipal waste produced
annually by an Italian.
source: The Independent UK, Monday 13 June 2005
New Jersey to Ditch School Junk Foods - New
Jersey students will soon say goodbye to soda and
other lunchtime junk foods under a new school
nutrition policy, to take effect on Sept. 1, 2007,
by Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey. The Codey
administration is putting the new rules into effect
by revising the states school nutrition guidelines
and thus avoids the need for legislative approval.
Under the New Jersey plan, soda, candy and foods
listing sugar as the frst or principal ingredient will
be banned from school cafeterias. Snacks and drinks
with more than eight grams of total fat per serving
and two grams of saturated fat will be banned, and
cafeterias will have to restrict amounts of foods with
trans fats. The only beverages that can be served in
amounts of 12 ounces or more will be water or milk
with 2 percent fat or less. The policy applies to all
vending machines, school stores and snack bars,
la carte lines, fund-raisers during the school day,
and after-school programs. There are exceptions for
special events, like a classroom pizza party.
source: N Y Times, June 7, 2005
A New Way to Inherit Environmental Harm
New research shows that the environment is more
important to health than anyone had imagined.
Recent information indicates that toxic effects
on health can be inherited by children and
grandchildren, even when there are no genetic
mutations involved. The DNA molecule in a
subject gets another molecule attached to it by
environmental infuences, which changes the
behavior of the genes without changing the genes
themselves. These inherited changes may continue
to infuence the onset of diseases like diabetes,
obesity, mental illness and heart disease, from
generation to generation if they affect the germ
cells, i.e., the sperm or the egg. This new feld of
scientifc inquiry is called epigenetics.
source: Rachels Environment & Health News, June
9 2005
Ron Paul Files Hemp Bill - H.R. 3037, the
Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005 has been
fled in Congress by chief sponsor Ron Paul, (R,
Texas) as promised at the 2004 NOFA Summer
Conference debate with Ralph Nader. The bill
would turn regulation of the farming of non-
psychoactive industrial hemp over to the states.
source: Acres, USA, August, 2005
Organic Food Gains in Popularity in Hospitals
More than 2 dozen hospitals have integrated organic
food into staff and patient meals, Organic Business
News has found. The 1000-bed Pacifc Medical
Center in San Francisco plans to have organic
offerings on the regular patient menu by this fall. At
the Cancer Treatment Centers of America Southwest
Regional Center all the produce, salad dressing
and seafood served to patients is organic. The
Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, California has its
own organic herb and vegetable garden and offers
organic juices and vegetables to patients. Currently
10% of their total menu is organic.
source: Organic Business News, May, 2005
Normal Insecticide Use Poisons Farmers -
Research by the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences on 18,782 North Carolina and Iowa
farmers links normal use of insecticides to signs of
neurological damage including recurring headaches,
fatigue, insomnia, dizziness, nausea, hand tremors
and numbness. Some of the compounds tested are
now banned; some are still on the market.
source: Acres, USA, June, 2005
Impact of Fuel Price on Farmers Studied - A
study by the Leopold Center in Iowa has analyzed
the effect of fuel price increases on corn and soy
production. A 25% fuel cost increase would increase
the variable cost of corn production by 10% and
the total cost by 5 to 6%. For soy, the comparable
numbers are 6% variable cost increases, and
2% total cost rise. A 50% fuel price hike would
mean variable costs would go up 18% and 10%
respectively, with fxed costs rising 10% and 4%.
The full paper is at www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/
staff/fles/energy_impact0405.pdf.
source: Rural Action, May 2005
Wild Oats to Carry Only Cage-Free Eggs
Wild Oats Markets, out of Boulder Colorado, has
adopted a policy to carry only cage-free eggs in
all of its stores. Wild Oats is working with the
Humane Society of the US on its No Battery Eggs
campaign, which is encouraging the egg industry to
move away from caged egg production.
source: Organic Business News, June, 2005
Cooperation:
with Nature,
with Neighbors,
with Local Economies
The 24th Annual Organic Farming & Gardening
Conference of the Northeast Organic Farming
Association-NY takes place on January 27-29,
2006 in Syracuse, New York. Come to learn and
explore how interdependence and collaboration
can build a sustainable farm and community, with
over 40+ workshops on production & marketing
for dairy, livestock, feld crops, fruits & vegetables
& herbs, gardening, landscaping, and sustainable
living.
Pre-conference Schools: On-Farm Varieties
Trialing & Plant Breeding; Exploring the Farm to
School Connection; Soil Fertility Management;
Growing A Sustainable Business; Certifcation
Orientation for Farms. Fun, interactive, educational
programs for children & youth; childcare for
toddlers
Trade Show & Organic Marketplace - Be highly
visible before, during and after the Conference with
a Sponsorship, Exhibit, and Program ad. Deadline:
December 9 Contact Glenda Neff at NOFA-
NYconference@nofany.org for info and registration
packet.
Featured Speakers:
Jim & Moie Kimball Crawford, vegetable farmers
and co-founders of Tuscarora Organic Cooperative:
Reality and Ideals on a 35 Year-old Organic
Vegetable Farm
Robynn Shrader, National Cooperative Grocers
Association: Connecting Communities ~
Cooperation Locally, Regionally and Nationally to
Support Sustainable Agriculture
Mark Kastel, Organic Integrity Project at The
Cornucopia Institute: The Corporate Takeover
of Organic Agriculture ~ Who Owns the Organic
Label?
John Bunting, grass based dairy farmer, contributing
writer to The Milkweed: Beyond the Bulk Tank ~
The Use of Knowledge
The Full Program & Registration Form are available
at www.nofany.org or request a brochure (607)652-
NOFA or offce@nofany.org Register by Early
Bird deadline December 17 and be eligible for
Drawing to win FREE Conference Registration,
meals and lodging!

Pat Kane Hired to
Coordinate Accredited
Certifers Association
The Accredited Certifers Association, Inc., (ACA)
announced on June 28 that Patricia Kane has been
hired as Coordinator for the Association. Patricia
has been active with the organic certifcation
community for many years, including acting as
coordinator for the Organic Trade Associations
Organic Certifers Council Standards Consensus
Project; serving as Chair of the OTA Organic
Certifers Council; serving as Co-Chair of the
Northeast Interstate Organic Certifers Council,
and Administrator of the NOFA-NY Organic
Certifcation Program. Patricia and her husband also
operate a farm in Port Crane, NY, raising beef cattle.
The ACA was created in 2004 as a not-for-
proft association designed to expedite effective
communications among USDA-accredited
organic certifying organizations. An Interim
Steering Committee has been formed to guide the
organization. Members are:
John Cleary, Vermont Organic Farmers (VOF)
Leslie Zuck , Pennsylvania Certifed Organic (PCO)
Pete Gonzalves, Oregon Tilth Certifed Organic
(OTCO)
David Engel, Midwest Organic Services Association
(MOSA)
Don Franczyk, Baystate Organic Certifers (MICI)
Mary Yurlina, MOFGA Certifcation Services, LLC
Erich Bremer, Northeast Organic Farming
Association-NJ (NOFA-NJ)
Lisa Engelbert and Carol King, NOFA-NY Certifed
Organic, LLC
Dale Johnson, Organic Crop Improvement
Association, WI Chapter #1 (OCIA)
Marty Mesh, Quality Certifcation Services (QCS)
Members will also work together to improve
implementation of the National Organic Program.
The work will be accomplished by: developing
uniform criteria for the certifcation process;
providing training opportunities to accredited
certifers; providing a forum for discussion of issues
impacting the organic certifcation process; and
by facilitating the sharing of information among
accredited certifcation agencies.
The recent ACA meeting held in Chicago at the
All Things Organic Trade Show established the
groups working agenda. A newsletter will be
developed, as well as a discussion board and/or
listserve for members. These communication
mechanisms will provide member certifers with up
to date information and a means to discuss issues
with other member certifers. In addition the ACA
will be represented at upcoming meetings focused
on the organic industry, such as meetings of the
National Organic Standards Board and other related
meetings.
Membership in the ACA is open to all USDA
accredited certifers, including certifying
organizations based outside of the USA. For
membership information, or information on other
ACA activities, contact Patricia Kane, Coordinator,
Accredited Certifers Assoc., Inc., PO Box 472, Port
Crane, NY 13833, or phone 607.648.3259. E-mail
contact is also welcome at AccredCertifers@aol.
com.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 8
Who and What is the
International Federation
of Organic Agriculture
Movements
by Elizabeth Henderson
Is it the World Organic Regime of Dennis Averys
nightmares? Well, not quite! About the same
vintage as NOFA, IFOAM, as its name indicates,
is an international non-governmental organization
uniting over 750 organizations from over 100
countries. To qualify for full voting membership,
a group must devote at least half of its resources
and activities to organic agriculture. Businesses
and groups with mixed agendas can be associate
members. Initially, IFOAM was preponderantly
European and its headquarters are still in Germany
where the Green government of Bonn awarded it
$1 million dollars worth of free rent over 25 years.
Since Herve La Prairies presidency in the mid 90s,
Asians and South Americans have played a larger
role in IFOAM and the World Board, which governs
the organization, has allocated resources to support
the spread of organic agriculture in less developed
countries, especially in Africa.
Berward Geier was the Executive Director for most
of these years, and the only full time employee
until about 5 years ago. Since then, the staff has
swelled to over a dozen. The World Board has just
appointed a new director, Angela Caudle, who has
been the head of Florida Organic Growers organic
certifcation program, Quality Assurance Services.
Another US woman familiar to organic circles,
Diane Bowen, heads the IFOAM Organic Standards
Committee.
The IFOAM Basic Standards (IBS) have served
as the guidelines for writing organic standards
all over the world. When our little committee of
Massachusetts organic farmers decided to create
a certifcation program back in 1984, one of the
frst documents we studied was the IBS. To assure
proper implementation of organic standards,
IFOAM established an accreditation body, the
International Organic Accreditation Services,
which has won the respect of governments and
traders around the world. IFOAM has brought
organic agriculture onto the agendas of United
Nations bodies such as the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), and spoken on our behalf at the
World Summits and the Convention on Biodiversity.
With Vandana Shiva, IFOAM successfully brought
suit against the patenting of neem.
IFOAM World Board
to be Elected
by Jack Kittredge
Candidates for The IFOAM World Board will be
presented at the organizations General Assembly to
be held September 20 23 in Adelaide, Australia.
Each candidate will get about 4 minutes to present
her/himself within the GA before the election. As a
member, NOFA is entitled to vote in this election.
There are three US candidates - Sam Smith (farmer
at Caretaker Farm, MA), Brian Baker (originally
a NY farmer, did inspections for NOFA-NY while
at Cornell, now on the staff of OMRI), and Ronald
Alllbee (past aide to Senator Patrick Leahy of
Vermont, worked as VTs Commissioner of Ag and
Director of Energy).
The entire list of candidates is below:
Brendan Hoare, New Zealand
Jacqueline Haessig Alleje, Philippines
Jeong Jin Young, Korea
Dr. Mwatima Juma, Tanzania
Mette Meldgaard, Denmark
Varanashi Krishna Moorthy, India
Prabha Mahale, India
Davo Vodouhe, Benin
Bo van Elzakker, The Netherlands
Albert Pipo Lernoud, Argentina
Antonio Campagnoni, Italy
Gerald Herrmann, Germany
Johan Cejie, Sweden
Amadou Diop, Senegal
Sam Smith, USA
Ong Kung Wai, Malaysia
Claude Aubert, France
Brian Baker, USA
Ronald Allbee, USA
This year marks the 50
th
anniversary of Louise
Hatheway Gordons gift of her Lincoln, MA farm to
the Massachusetts Audubon Society. In celebration
of this beautiful land and the opportunities it has
offered to thousands of people to learn about the
land that feeds us there is a weekend reunion
planned this September 10
th
and 11
th
. Are you one
of the many who has taken classes, been an intern,
volunteered, attended camp or been a staff member
at Drumlin Farm? Want to join the fun, see old
friends, enjoy an incredible locally grown and
organic harvest supper and dance the night away
on Saturday? And/or help with farm chores and sit
down to a farmers breakfast on Sunday morning?
Go to www.massaudubon.org/drumlinfarm, email
drumlinfarm@massaudubon.org or call 781-259-
2221 for all of the details and to register.
Massachusetts Woodlands
Cooperative Announces
Program for Farmers with
Woodlots
The Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative (MWC)
has been awarded a SARE grant (Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education Program)
to recruit farmers with woodlots interested
in managing their forests sustainably and
increasing farm income through green-certifed
forestry activities. Through this grant, which
is a collaboration with Community Involved in
Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) and the University of
Massachusetts, farmers who own over 20 acres of
woodlot will learn about the benefts of sustainable
forestry and marketing their forest products through
membership in the Massachusetts Woodlands
Cooperative. Farmers interested in joining MWC
will have access to funding to develop forest
management plans that meet Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) certifcation standards or to upgrade
existing plans to this standard both of which are
prerequisites to MWC membership. Once farmers
have their FSC-certifed forest management plans
in place, they may begin marketing forest products
through MWC at a 10% increase over prevailing
stumpage prices.
As a group of landowners working together, the
MWC has access to product markets that would
not otherwise be available to the small landowner,
says Jay Healy, the Cooperatives executive director
and a member. Before the Cooperative, wood from
harvests on well-managed woodlots was typically
sold to the highest bidder, explained Healy. The
result of this process was that the logs were usually
exported to Canada, with our local economy losing
opportunities to add jobs and value through the
processing and sale of more value-added forest
products. Now landowner members can choose to
support the local economy, protect the health and
value of their woodlots, and increase their income
from management activities. We want members to
maintain ownership of their woods into the future
and this increased income can help. As members of
MWC, farmers will become part of a business that
is interested in promoting long-term forest health
and providing a fair return to landowners for their
forest materials.
The Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative
is a management, processing, and marketing
cooperative founded in 2001 by and on behalf of
forest landowners in western Massachusetts. The
mission of MWC is to maintain the environment
and character of western Massachusetts through
the protection, enhancement, and careful economic
development of the regions forests. All of MWC
member properties are FSC-certifed, which is the
highest standard of forestry in the world. Members
agree to manage their woods to this high standard,
which ensures the future health and increasing
value of their woodlots. Harvest activities focus
on trees that should be removed in order to allow
the stronger, more vigorous trees to grow until
fnal harvest time. Through this process, MWC
helps members improve the quality and value of
their woodlots. MWC then contracts with local
businesses to add value to the forest material,
turning it into rough or planed grade lumber,
character fooring, and post and beam timbers,
which are marketed under the HomeGrown Wood
brand name. Profts from sales of HomeGrown
Wood products are returned to the members in
proportion to their use of the Cooperative.
If you are a farmer with at least 20 acres of woodlot
and are interested in being part of a new, innovative
business, please contact Kristina Ferrare at the
Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative at (413) 397-
8800 or email kristina@masswoodlands.coop for
more information.
Massachusetts Audubons
DRUMLIN FARM
Hosts 50
th
Birthday Reunion
ph. 231/889-3216
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Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 9
Special Supplement on
On-Farm Renewable Energy
by Don Campbell
Before I get started with a discussion of the place
for various types and scales of renewable energy
on a farm, or in any other application I want to give
you a two-word lecture. Conservation First!
There, I have done my renewable energy trade
colleagues proud, because intelligent conservation
practices can save huge amounts of money in
certain circumstances, and so can the common,
small, individual efforts when taken in aggregate.
I will assume that the reader has been working on
conservation all along.
I grew up in a country area and while we did not
farm, I was often on neighbors farms in the barns
and felds. My dad was an electrical engineer
and the combination seems to have taken hold.
Renewable Energy seemed a no-brainer when I
heard about it. When my wife and I had a chance to
live off-grid in Northfeld, MA, we jumped on it.
Renewable Energy on the Farm:
Are you ready?
Boy, was that an education. I generally learn best
by using something and then getting help or the
manual when something goes wrong, which usually
translates to a dumb move on my part. It took a year
or so to get on top of things, but we did. By then I
was hooked.
I went on to develop the initiative that became
Pioneer Valley PhotoVoltaics, a worker-owned
installation business in Greenfeld. I became one
of the founding members but left when it became
clear that I was better at starting the business than
growing it. They are now doing well, and I am
working as an independent consultant getting a
piece of introducing folks to a renewable future.
Types of Renewable Energy
By renewable energy we mean sources of energy
that, when used, are replaced or renewed in a short,
active time frame. It could be that oil is being made
under the earth somewhere, but the time frame here
is measured in millions of years. Sun, wind, fowing
water are perpetually renewed on a daily basis.
Biomass, trees, manure, wood chips and switch
grass have an annual or longer cycle, but still visible
to us in our own lives. (Just think of the work
needed to keep the forest from reinvading some
garden or patch of pasture!)
In the northeast our indigenous energy sources are
pretty much limited to sun, wind, fowing water,
and biomass. Coal is present in PA, where oil and
gas were once major sources of energy. In terms
of regionally produced energy in the northeast
renewable energy is really all we have to work with
as we look ahead. Fortunately there is an active
renewable energy community in the region working
in solar, wind and micro-hydro applications. There
is sophisticated work being done on large-scale
biomass in a bid to add value to forestland and help
people stay on the land. Many people use wood
for heat. In Vermont a 250-cow dairy farm is now
making methane from their manure lagoon, running
a generator and selling power back to the grid. In
this article I will be concentrating primarily on solar
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 10
and to a lesser extent wind. Micro-hydro is up and
coming so I will have a few comments on that.
Solar
What most people think of as solar refers to two
completely different technologies, often referred
to as Solar Domestic Hot Water (SDHW) and
photovoltaics (PV), which produces electricity.
Both of these perform best when oriented less
than 15 away from true south. If you do this,
please remember that the compass reads magnetic
north (and south) that varies from true south
geographically and over time. Fortunately no one
needs to be surveyor specifc. Since your installer
will also check, you can safely use a compass to
self-evaluate your potential site. All solar has greater
output in the bright months.
There are two types of solar collectors used in
SDHW presently available. Flat-plate collectors
have been used for years and are probably what
comes to mind for most people. Evacuated tubes
arrived on the scene about 5 years ago. They have
been gaining steadily in market share.
There is a small difference between the two. The fat
plate collectors are like your car in a sunny parking
lot with the windows rolled up. Hot! Pipes run
through the collector carrying water or propylene
glycol, an antifreeze that is actually found in some
non-organic foods.
Evacuated tubes are vacuums with a very small
amount of water inside and a copper pipe that
connects only to the manifold on the top of the tube.
In the vacuum, heat is transferred to the copper pipe
and in the manifold the fuid picks up the heat.
In the northeast propylene glycol closed loop
systems are the norm. This means that whether it
gets hot running through the fat plate collectors
or through the manifold of the evacuated tube set
it will go to a heat exchanger, usually set inside a
pre-heat tank, also called a tempering tank. There it
heats domestic water that runs to the hot water tank
where it is heated to the set temperature if necessary.
These systems can save 60% to 80% of the energy
used to heat domestic water. Typically they will cost
$6,000 to $8,000 for a family of 4, somewhat more
for evacuated tubes. Add about $1,000 per extra
person.
Because some of the heat escapes through the glass
of fat-plate panels, they shed snow. The tubes do
not. The tubes perform better in less than full sun
so can provide additional heat in the darker months.
Should there be any chance of breakage, it is
cheaper to replace an evacuated tube than drain and
replace a fat-plate panel.
A photovoltaic module, or PV, produces
electricity. To really get it, you need to have some
understanding of power and energy and what a
kilowatt (power) is versus a kilowatt-hour (kWh).
The kWh is what the utility bills you for. As an
example a typical residence (non-farm) in the
northeast uses between 500 and 600 kWh per month
and 6000 to 7200 per year.
PV makes electricity from sunlight. In our region
PV produces about 80% the annual production in
the bright half of the year, It is a good match to
summer demand, often associated with refrigeration.
PV can be roof mounted, pole mounted, or ground
mounted.
Wind
Small wind can be a fabulous addition to a farm
energy budget. Except for high ridges and the
coastline, however, the annual production is not as
high as some other areas. Nevertheless, a windmill
can produce regular, steady energy. Like PV, there is
a seasonality to wind. Fortunately it runs opposite to
PV, that is, it produces more in winter as a general
rule. Many towns have a hard time accepting the
towers and windmills. Before getting into a wind
project you should get your ducks in a row and talk
to people well before applying for a permit.

Small scale hydro
Small-scale hydro can be a very inexpensive source
of electricity. There are now available small, reliable
wheels that allow you to borrow water from a
stream, run it through a pipe, turn the wheel, and
then put it back into the stream. The problem has
been that Conservation Commissions and Planning
Boards have little or no experience with this kind
of micro-hydro. The result is a lot of meetings to
educate your fellow citizens. In MA people at the
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said
they know about this kind of micro-hydro facility
and would probably have no problem with it if the
Conservation Commission would pass it up for DEP
review.

Loads and Phantom Loads
To plan a renewable energy installation at any site, it
is important to know the load the system is required
to meet. Load simply means the energy draw. There
are two important numbers. The most important is
total kWh used in a given period, by month for a
year, or just annually. The other number is important
depending on the situation. That is the highest
momentary demand.
Speaking of loads, the most important loads to get
rid of before sizing a system are phantom loads.
A phantom load is anything drawing power when
not doing anything useful for you. Phantom loads
include TVs when they are off (they arent really
and can draw as much power in 22 hours off as 2
hours on), appliance clocks if you dont really use
them, transformers for portable radios, cordless
phones and the like. These draw power even if
plugged in and unattached on the business end.
Computers these days should be off when not in
use unless you use them for work, then at least they
should be off when you are sleeping.
Changing light bulbs to compact fuorescents (CFs)
is also a big energy saver. There are more and more
shapes and sizes than even a few years ago and the
light is much better. I once did a calculation for a
restaurant. If they had replaced every light bulb in
the dining room with CFs they would have made
an 800% return on investment! A friend of mine
changed all the most used lights in his home from
incandescent to CFs and saved over $20 a month.
There are outdoor rated CFs that give plenty of light
that would be great in barns.
My guess is that most readers already have done the
light bit, but you can sometimes get similar savings
if you work reducing the phantom loads.
Choosing Your Renewable Energy System

If you are serious about a renewable system for your
home and farm there are some questions you need
to answer. Like farming, renewable energy system
design is site specifc. Are you thinking of bringing
electricity to a new area? How far away is it? And
so on (more later).
The simplest systems are designed to interact with
the utility provided power (the grid). These are
called grid-tied systems. Their effect is to reduce
the number of kWh you buy through the meter
the system is connected to. If you are not trying to
power a remote area of the farm, this is usually the
most affordable way to go. However, if the grid
goes down, you will lose power. This is a required
feature so that linemen repairing the power lines do
not get electrocuted by electricity from your system.
The next category of systems is remote battery
systems (PV remote). These can provide AC or DC
power at any site. There is usually less incentive
money for these systems and there is more expense
in batteries and inverter for the AC. However, how
far is remote? You need to consider the extra cost
of trenching and permits bringing grid power to a
remote site to come to a fair comparison of costs.
Remote battery-less systems (PV direct) are
especially good for water pumping. With no
batteries or grid connection, when the sun goes
down, there is no electricity. With a storage tank,
however, that is no problem. We are in the process
of installing one of these systems for stock watering
using a recycled plastic pickle barrel as a holding
tank.
Multimode systems (PV multimode) are those that
can switch from grid power to battery power when
the grid goes down. This technology is proven. The
same switch that keeps your system from sending
power out into the grid when grid power fails
switches, instead, to a battery bank. The switch
trips in of a cycle (120
th
of a second). This is fast
enough for computers to keep working. Because of
the battery bank and a more sophisticated inverter
these systems are more expensive than simple grid-
tied systems.
When more than one kind of renewable energy is
providing power to the same load or house, the term
used is hybrid. An example of this is using wind
and PV together so that there is a more even power
supply with winter production largely from the wind
and summer production largely from the solar.
Applications
In order to get your imagination working, I hope
some applications in the real world will give you
fodder for thought. I have already mentioned
pumping for a stock tank. This pump system can
also be used for drip line irrigation, pond aeration,
and so on.
We have DC lighting in our barn. Three used golf
cart batteries (8V) make a 24 volt system for lights.
photo courtesy Don Campbell
Example 1
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 11
Two 20 watt PV modules keep the batteries topped
off. No rocket science here. It is important to get
DC lights rated for the voltage of the system or you
will get exploding lights or almost no light at all.
Any application that uses an electric motor might be
suitable for a PV direct or PV remote system. The
total cost, including labor came to $500.
Where farms have a large power demand for
ventilation, refrigeration, or pumping, where there
is already a generator on site, and where it is easy
to connect to the grid, the PV grid-tied system is
usually best. In this case a barn roof (see Example
1) becomes a perfect mounting structure for the PV
array and extra money is available if you make the
PV BE the roof, and not put it ON the roof. Since
fnish work that would be required for a house is not
necessary in this case, there can be real savings. Or,
if the load is more winter based, then a windmill can
be installed with a similar electrical hook-up.
PV can be mounted on single poles (see Example
2) or on a structure in a shed roof style. This can
provide shade for animals or a sheltered area for
farm visitors or customers.
Helpful programs
Net Metering: Net Metering is the law in many
states, though it is applied differently state by state.
Net metering allows a renewable energy system
owner to get full retail credit for energy produced
up to the even Steven point where no one owes
anyone. If you go over the 0 point so the utility
owes you for surplus based on the reset cycle,
you either wont get paid at all, or at the lowest
wholesale value. This is generally considered to
help ISO New England manage the grid safely.
The limits on this program have to do with size
of system on the customers side of the meter, the
reset to zero cycle, and rules for interconnection
agreements.
The reset cycle can be signifcant. In Maine there
is an annual reset. This means that surplus energy
produced is carried over to the next bill. This means
that you can essentially bank summer sun for
use in the winter. In New Hampshire the surplus
is simply carried forward. There is virtually no
difference to a customer in the values involved. In
Massachusetts, the reset is monthly. Practically, that
means that PV systems are designed to touch zero
for the brightest months, June and July. Unusual
load patterns may alter that to a degree. Annual
net metering for domestic use would increase the
designed size of PV systems in Massachusetts by a
factor of about 3.

Money: If you are planning a renewable energy
system, the good news is that USDA wants to help.
Through their Rural Development program, there
is a program that will pay 25% of the cost of a
renewable energy installation. You must live in a
USDA determined rural community. That means
those living near cities might not qualify but check
frst.
The new energy bill gives a 30% tax credit for rural
businesses. The same is available for residential but
with a $2000 cap. An accelerated depreciation is
also allowed for business.
Many states also have tax and other incentive
programs, all of which are unique in structure and
value. Installers and designers working in your state
should be knowledgeable about these programs and
help you determine the real value of any system you
purchase.
Energy Audit
In most cases to qualify for funding you will have
to have had an energy audit. It is amazing how
much that can uncover. Your utility may have a
program that does the audit for free and there are
other qualifed energy auditors around. On one
farm I visited that has a retail operation, and hence
refrigerators and freezers, the auditor caught one of
the freezers operating at a temperature 15 below
what it needed to. One change of the thermostat
started saving money. We also discussed capturing
heat from the compressors for hot water in the
kitchen. Once they get the new compressors and that
system set up, the savings will mount. Please get
your audit early!
Examples
A few more examples of farms I am working with
follow. An organic vegetable CSA will be putting
up a BIPV (building integrated PV) awning so
their customers can be protected from the elements
while they are waiting at their pick up, rain or shine.
This received an extra $1.50 per watt from the
Renewable Energy Trust in Massachusetts because
of the BIPV. For a 3.3 kW system, that amounts to
$4,950. Now customers can be shaded and travelers
headed north on the road in front will see the PV
right there. Certainly good education, and we hope,
good marketing.
In another situation, a pick-your-own orchard
with an event building is looking at both PV and
wind. In this case, the load profle is diffcult to
plan for. There is very little demand in spring and
early summer until the picking starts in earnest. A
windmill on that farms very open and high location
could help a lot to meet their refrigeration demands
through the winter. The late summer and early fall
could be met with PV, but enough to help in August
through October would be overkill in May and June.
One of the ideas the farm has is to really push the
use of their event barn in the less busy spring and
early summer, in order to boost demand and make a
quality PV installation on the perfectly oriented and
pitched roof sensible. As a pick-your-own operation,
the opportunity for education will probably net
some extra incentive money.
Biodiesel
I cannot end this article without mentioning
biodiesel. This is a fuel that has some promise
in a modest way. I am especially excited about
CoopPowers (cooppower.coop) biodiesel initiative
in Greenfeld, MA, which should be selling fuel in
spring 2006. This cooperative effort expects to pay
patronage refunds to members based on use. The
feedstock will be used grease. They have a contract
with a company that picks up restaurant grease in
NYC. Some people argue that virgin soy oil makes
the best biodiesel. The chemists I have spoken to
who are knowledgeable say there is no difference
in the end product. Further, something bugs me
about using a virgin feedstock that could be food for
people or livestock.
The DPW in Keene, NH uses B20, a 20% mix of
biodiesel with petroleum diesel, in their feet. They
have had no gelling problems and, anecdotally,
I have been told that there are noticeably fewer
sick days because people feel better. The manager
reported having severe headaches if he spent more
than a short time in the garage before the shift. No
more.
As a replacement for home heating oil, biodiesel
is a smart choice. The burner does need tweaking,
however, so be sure not to get ahead of yourself.
You can burn up to B100 (100% biodiesel) in
your oil furnace if you get it adjusted correctly. I
recommend starting with more available B3 or B5
so the tweaking is minimal. In a year or two, the oil
burner technicians and the industry will have caught
up.
Closing
In this article I have tried to give you an overview of
what is out there as far as renewable energy options
for you and your farm. Because of my experience,
it is certainly slanted towards solar. There are some
general principles, however.

1) Conserve First!
2) Learn how to read your utility bills.
3) The right system for you is site specifc. The
physical opportunity that exists and the demand
placed on it by your use will determine the best
system. It is not a case of what worked for your
neighbor, friend, or colleague will work for you.
4) Work with reputable installers who wont try
to force you into one or another type of system
without explaining why.
5) Talk to your towns building and wire inspectors
early to get a sense of any obstacles you might
have to overcome. The installer will do most of
the heavy lifting in this regard, but you can help
by asking for input from these folks. Mostly they
are curious, but just havent seen any systems yet.
6) Educate yourself by going on the NESEA tour
on October 1 this year. At www.nesea.org, you
will be able to see all the renewable energy/green
facilities that will be open for a visit and tour.
Remember, Renewable Energy is to energy as
Organic is to food!
photo courtesy Don Campbell
Example 2
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 12
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 13
by Jack Kittredge
Much of upstate New York is incorporated in
the Adirondack Forest Preserve, a vast expanse
of relatively unspoiled land surrounding the
Adirondack Mountains. Development is somewhat
restricted there, in the interests of preserving the
areas natural beauty. On the western edge of the
Preserve, an hour north of Utica in the town of
Lyons Falls, Edwin and Pamela Falk have built a
homestead fueled only by renewable energy.
In 1975 they bought 48 acres on the side of a large
hill. Most of it was forested, but there was a 5 acre
meadow which was open. So they cut down 100
trees on the property and built a log home there,
making the foundations with slipforms and cement.
They planted apple trees and started a large garden.
For awhile they even had livestock chickens,
rabbits and a pig until Edwin saw how much feed
they ate and decided to cut out the middleman and
become a vegetarian.
Falk says he stuck his hand in the back of a
television set at a young age and got a great store
of knowledge. He went on to study electronics, got
a diploma from a school for radio and TV work,
and worked various jobs in TV and video for over
20 years. But his real love is fnding ways to live
without having to use fossil fuels.
The property he and Pam bought was not on the
grid, and they would have had to pay about $3000
to have poles brought in. I wasnt interested, said
Edwin. I had no requirement for it immediately, so
I got involved in making my own. And he has been
making it ever since frst with generators charging
a battery bank, then gradually moving to renewable
energy. Ten years ago he quit work and started
Suntric, a business which installs renewable
energy systems.
Now we have an integrated system here, Falk
beams. There are the photovoltaic modules, the
windmill, and the little hydro plant. Between all
three I have enough power to do complete shop
work including electric welding. If you are starting
out fresh it is possible to proceed slowly and
achieve what you want in stages. Thats how we did
this system. But theres a big word in there called
sacrifce!
Leading the Way Off the Grid
Initially, the Falks had a hand water pump which
needed a couple hundred strokes every morning to
start gushing. They did without a refrigerator for 15
years. So they know about sacrifce.
The core of Pam and Edwins energy independence
is the battery bank in their basement. The house
works on a couple of kilowatts per day and there is a
15 day supply of power when they are fully charged.
The batteries are 12 volt industrial deep cycle ones
used in foor scrubbers, which Falk uses because
there is a supplier nearby in Utica who will deliver.
He is careful to consider what happens if you have
too much power being generated. You cant give
your batteries too much voltage, he warns. In
most photovoltaic systems they just shut down when
there is too much power. But we need to rethink that
and fnd ways to use that power through diversions.
So if too much power is coming in, Edwin can
divert it to the heating element in his hot water
heater or into electric heaters in his basement.
The Falks installed a small photovoltaic array which
provides 480 watts in full sun. It is mounted on
a pole in their yard and is moved by a tracker to
follow the sun and maximize output.
Photovoltaics dont want to be on a roof, Edwin
asserts, because of the thermal runaway. The panel
itself absorbs a lot of sunlight. Unless you get rid of
that heat your module wont produce peak power.
They need air circulation behind them so if you put
them on a roof you have to mount them up a ways.
Also we have a lot of snow here so the modules we
supply are on a free-standing rack and in the winter
they park vertical. Snow doesnt stay on them plus
you get an increased output from the refected light
hitting them. A tracker allows you to produce 40%
more power in the summer, maybe 10% in the
winter. But you need to be careful about lightning.
The wind generator they installed is a 1000 watt, 24
volt machine. Of course to make that 1000 watts one
would need 25 to 28 miles per hour of wind. Edwin
says he has received as much as 1600 watts in a
high wind. The generator is designed to withstand
140 mile per hour winds without any load. The
center post is offset from the center of the unit,
which causes it to fold in half at too high a wind
speed so that the blade is offering no resistance to
the wind.
Edwin installed the windmill 25 years ago, and
built the 60 foot tower then. The trees were all a
lot shorter then, he sighs. Now its too short and
I either have to get out a chain saw and trim all the
trees, or make the tower taller. It needs to be 100
feet. It should be 30 feet over anything within 500
feet.
Overall, he says, the wind generator produces only a
quarter of the power of the PV array. If it were on a
100 foot tower, he feels it would be more like half.
The third, and perhaps most unusual, aspect of the
Falks power generation is the small hydro plant
Edwin set up on the stream in their woods.
Its really a pasture creek, he says. I run about
30 gallons a minute through a 3/8 inch nozzle into
the turbine. Thats really just a series of clamshell-
shaped bronze fns. The water pipe which feeds the
turbine is 1850 feet long and the water drops 90 feet
in that third of a mile. It spins the turbine 800 to 900
revolutions per minute when that water hits those
fns.
From this system he gets 5 amps at 25 volts, which
is 125 watts steady, 24 hours a day. Edwin used a
2 inch pipe when he put the system in years ago
because that was what he could afford. But the
stream is capable of delivering much more water
and he is in the process of installing another input
line, this one 3 inches in diameter feeding a 5/8
inch nozzle. It can attach to the same turbine, and
together the two lines ought to generate about 400
watts.
An average home, he says, using standard fare
appliances and motors, should be able to get by on
that. Thats a lot of power.
The power generated by the turbine is high voltage
alternating current (AC). That is the kind of power
supplied by the grid because it moves easily over
long distances. Edwin sends it to the house over
a simple 10 gauge wire. But at the house it must
be rectifed into direct current (DC) which can
be stored in batteries. Previous to buying this
new turbine, however, Falk had built his own. It
generated DC power.
This is an old Pelton wheel that I got at a garage
sale for $20. Its an 1898 design, a foot in diameter.
It was called a Pelton water motor, and was
originally used to run a meat saw and grinder in
a butcher shop up here in Constableville. It ran
photo by Jack Kittredge
Falk stands by the greenhouse on the south
of his log home. In the background is his
1000 watt wind generator.
photo by Jack Kittredge
Falk at the site of his small hydro plant. The black pipe brings water from 90 feet above to
spray against a spinning turbine to generate 110 AC electricity. The water sprays out the
bottom of the turbine after spinning it. Behind Edwin is a shut-off for power to the batteries.
There is also a shut-off on the inlet pipe. The white pipe is an unfnished second inlet line
which will bring the turbines capacity to 400 watts from the present 125 watts.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 14
for 50 years. It was on the village main line. The
butcher would just open up the water valve and it
would spin and grind meat. They had 60 pounds of
pressure there, no problem to run that motor!
Edwin attached that wheel to a foorscrubber motor.
The motor was designed to run on 36 volt DC
power, but he made it into a generator by spinning
the shaft with water power.
You make a motor into a generator just by
overturning it, he explains. This is a permanent
magnet DC motor. It doesnt need any feld
excitation because the felds are already there from
the magnets. So you just turn the shaft and it makes
power. As long as it is rated at a higher voltage
than what you are using, it wont act as a motor.
Itll act as a generator! If I turned the water off
this wheel would keep turning, although slower,
because it would be acting as a motor driven from
the batteries. If I put the water back to it, itll over-
spin and become a generator again. Thats it. It ran
for years.
One of the main reasons Falk upgraded his turbine
was to get one which generated AC power. I was
losing a third of the DC power as heat in the wire up
to the house, he says. I could either install a much
bigger and more expensive wire, or reclaim that
power with an AC turbine.
In the winter the spray of the water falling after
propelling the turbine freezes and makes a frozen
skirt. The water in the pipe doesnt freeze because
there is so much friction from the water fow. Edwin
built a self-cleaning trash rack at the point where
the pipe takes up water upstream. The rack prevents
particles larger than a quarter-inch from getting into
the pipe and clogging the nozzle.
One of the things Falk does with his electricity is
power vehicles. He has a 36 volt, 100 watt feed go
directly from his PV array to his workshop to charge
up his electric tractor.
That tractor we use quite a bit, he asserts. We
harvest all our frewood with that tractor. We have
electric chainsaws with 50 foot cords that we can
plug into it, and an electric buzz rig that mounts
on the cart so you just hold the branches up to the
spinning blade and the wood drops into the cart.
We can pull about a face cord back to the house at a
time, and I usually get two loads per charge.
It has regular golf cart batteries, he continues.
Its a 1969 General Electric Elec Trak model. I just
keep it plugged in here when Im not using it. I have
a separate line to this because its 36 volts. I have
an inverter mounted on top to give me 110 AC so I
can power a regular Stihl electric chain saw. I blow
my snow with it in the wintertime, and use a rotary
mower attachment to mow. They quit making them
in 1974 and sold the rights. Now I want to convert
my Allis to electric. Small 5 acre operations could
do wonders with something like that. And there
would be no noise!
The couple has a Prius hybrid, but it has no plug-in
capability. It has an onboard generator that runs on
gas. The batteries, however, are nickle metal hydride
and are guaranteed for 100,000 miles.
You could fll that trunk with batteries and drive it
electrically, says Edwin. Someday, when it is fully
out of warranty, Ill do that.
Once you get into an electric vehicle, he
continues, theres no going back. You want to see
an electric pick-up truck, too. My next plan is to
increase my hydro output and drive around on the
extra power! I have a service van already that has
been converted to electric power. The battery pack
alone will be $2500 36 golf cart batteries! But I
have a couple dozen customers within reach of that
mileage and Id use that van for them.
Currently Falk drives a gasoline fueled van for
work. It has a complete welding and machine shop
inside and he has retroftted it with an extra battery
pack and a solar charger on the hood.
We cover quite a territory in it, he says. The
photovoltaic array on it charges both the vehicle and
the house batteries. The house battery gives me AC
power for tools and lights. We can work all day and
power it from here. Sometimes well go to a site and
there will be a couple of carpenters working there.
Well ask them to turn off their generator and plug
into the truck. Its much quieter. We charge from
the sun all day and then on the way home I throw a
switch and charge up from the truck generator. Im
using all that gas anyway.
For hot water, Edwin characteristically has
redundant systems. A homemade collector mounted
on the greenhouse heats the water in the tank
directly. But a heating loop from a water jacket
on the stove also runs hot water through a heat
exchanger in the tank. Finally, every time there is
photo by Jack Kittredge
Falk with his electric tractor. It mows, snow
blows, and hauls a cart for cordwood.
Edwin installed an inverter on the hood
which brings the tractors 36 volt DC power
to 110 volts of AC. Thus he can plug in an
electric chainsaw.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 15
excess solar, wind, or hydro power coming into the
system and the batteries are fully charged, a diverter
dumps the electricity into the heating element in the
tank.
We dump a couple of kilowatts a day into that
tank, exudes Falk. Thats good news to dirty
bodies!
The stove itself is a Finnish designed masonry
stove. The couple has a fre there once a day for
one hour and the brickwork stores that heat and
radiates it all day. The house doesnt fuctuate 3
degrees in a day, claims Edwin. A little cook oven
in the masonry chimney stays at 375 degrees all day
during the winter.
One of the most unusual things about the Falks
energy systems is that they dont use any electricity
for their water supply. A hydraulic ram pump
delivers all their water, set up on its own spring
with its own drop. It moves about 1400 gallons of
water a day up to the house.
The water originates in a spring on the side of a
hill. Edwin sunk a bathtub in the spring, covered
with a quarter-inch mesh screen to keep twigs and
other large things out. A pipe from the tub goes
slightly downhill to a six-foot standpipe 60 feet
from the ram pump. The water flls and overfows
the standpipe, guaranteeing six feet of pressure.
Then a two-inch metal pipe carries water from the
standpipe to the ram.
The design of this ram, explains Falk, requires
that for every 10 feet of pipe bringing water to
the ram, there be one foot of drop. If I had on my
land enough dynamics to do this in one operation,
I would have. But I didnt have enough drop in a
short area, my property would only give me 20 to
1. So I put in a standpipe 60 feet away to give me
the drop nearby. Without the standpipe the ram
wouldnt be tuned, and at the house you would have
short cycles with water spurting about every second
rather than fowing. But when its properly tuned,
the cushion of air evens out the fow. You cant
see the pulsing at the house. It just comes out as a
steady stream.
At the ram pump itself, when he starts the cycling
by opening a waste valve, the water comes rushing
down the two inch pipe and up into a dome. In just
a moment the rush of water pulls the valve shut
and the water comes up into the body of the pump.
There it compresses air against a dome until the
pressure in the dome reaches a point where it sends
a spurt of water through another valve into a one-
inch plastic pipe leading to the house. Then the
cycle starts again with the excess water in the dome
draining away through the waste valve and new
water entering and pressurizing the system.
The thing about rams, Edwin says, is that they
consume more than they pump. Were running
6 gallons a minute here into the ram, but only
2 gallons goes up to the house. The other 4 are
dumped here. Their weight gives us the power to
get the two gallons through an 800 foot pipe which
rises 45 feet up to the house. Normally this comes
to the house under 60 pounds of pressure. I keep my
tank at 40 pounds, so it flls right up. Another thing
about rams, of course, is that you cant shut a ram
right off. Ill just keep building up pressure until
something gives. So I divert excess water to a little
fountain which looks pretty and people can drink
from, but drains the water away.
Since the spring fows year round, Falk buried
all the pipes in this system 4 feet underground
to prevent winter freeze-up. Besides using it for
household purposes, he uses this water system to
provide his irrigation water and even has used it for
cooling!
Its 40 degree water all the time, he points out.
Well, a few years ago we had a real scorcher spell
here, real dog days. I took two car radiators, ran this
water through them, and used a fan to blow the cold
air throughout the house. It cooled it right down!
Edwin bought his hydraulic ram at a county fair
years ago for $50. He proceeded to read everything
he could on the technology before setting it up,
and then experimented with it. He found that with
three feet of drop he could get only about 2 quarts
a minute at the house. He wanted more so put the
standpipe in to get more pressure into the ram.
His bladder-style pressure tank at the house holds
only 15 gallons, so it sometimes runs short during
irrigation. Falk plans on putting a big plastic tank
in the yard and pumping his excess water into that
for irrigation. The fexibility, power and economy of
hydraulic ram pumps excite him.
Ill bet that that 60 feet of water in the two inch
pipe weighs at least 350 pounds, he calculates.
Picture a slave standing here with a 350 pound
sledgehammer forcing water up a one inch pipe
every second. Its that dynamic. Of course you
waste four gallons a minute here to get two gallons
a minute at the house. But that whole six would be
wasted otherwise. Its just a wonderful device. There
are some nice new ones on the market now which
use modern materials and need less maintenance,
but theyre a bit pricey. I think they have some
synthetic ones which are around $400, but cast
ones like mine are running $1200. Theyre mostly a
Lehmans catalog item the Amish and other people
who want that technology will buy them.
A year ago Edwin convinced Pam to quit her library
job and join him in the renewable energy business.
I had to have help to install the systems in a
timely fashion, he asserts, and also physically.
Its demanding work. I did it all alone until then.
Right now we spend probably 20 or 25 hours on the
business, on the average. Its seasonal. It lasts for
maybe 9 months. We dont do a lot when the ground
is frozen, from New Years to the end of March. We
rest and relax in the winter, ski around our place
here. There are two ways to go at this. One is to
work to fulfll all your needs. The other is to work
on your needs and get them as small as possible.
They have 50 or so customers, almost all of them off
the grid and 30 of them who have built new homes.
Some are as much as three or four hours away, but
most are within an hour or two. The business mostly
does photovoltaics. Falk says that most people dont
have a site for hydro, and wind is primarily a rich
mans device at this point. Its hard to get payback
on wind generators. But he is very interested in
other new ideas being developed.
Theres a guy in Canada, he enthuses, who is
developing an outdoor wood furnace that also runs
a steam generator that powers your electrical needs.
You get heat in your house and the waste heat
from that also heats your hot water and provides
electricity. Then there is this hot water circulating
pump. It has a revolutionary electronic motor that
only draws 10 watts but pumps 10 gallons a minute.
In a baseboard system one of these will do the
whole house!
So you can get your heat and power directly from
the sun for 9 or 10 months, he continues, then
for the other 2 or 3 you fre up your outdoor wood
furnace, pump the heat into your house for a quarter
of a kilowatt a day and get the power for that
generated from a little boiler on the furnace.
The Falks are pretty forceful about getting their
customers to minimize their use of energy.
The most cost effective thing people can do is
conservation, insists Edwin. Get rid of the bad
refrigerators and other devices, one by one. Weed
them out. When you get your bill down to about
$30 a month, call us. We can handle the rest. But
if youre wanting to use $200 a month, we cant
help you. The cut off right now is about $50 a
month. If you can get down there, we can help you.
Refrigerators, freezers, automatic heating systems,
things that come on day or night without your
control are the worst.
When the Falks propose a makeover for a typical
house, the photovoltaic system may be $15,000, but
itll be another $10,000 to make all the changes in
the house so that they can power it with a $15,000
system.
Whenever you have a system in a house that is
automatic, Edwin says, where you set the dial
and walk away like in heating or refrigeration,
you better make sure you have the best system. It
will eat you out of house and home when it comes
to electricity. The last thing you want is an old
oil burner that takes 300 or 400 watts. With a lot
of these oil burners there are two or three motors
going. You have to pressurize the oil, you have to
blow air for the intake, and you have to circulate the
heat through the house. Freezers are no different.
We use SunFrost models. We love them. You buy
the unit, two PV modules, and you have cold beer
for 25 years. One way to look at it is you can buy
an $800 refrigerator and over its 20-year life its
going to cost you $8000 in modules and batteries
to keep that refrigerator going. It takes 4 times as
many modules and batteries as a $2500 Sun Frost
one, which will cost you $2000 in infrastructure.
Its really a deal to buy a super effcient refrigerator.
If youre on the grid, its even a better deal. Youre
paying $40 a month to run that cheap refrigerator
when you could be paying $6.
The Falks run their house on an incredible 2
kilowatts per day. Thats less than leaving a 100-
watt light bulb burning day and night. The secret
is in super effcient refrigerators, water pumps,
fuorescent lights, and other devices. Power tools
photo by Jack Kittredge
Falks hydraulic ram pump in operation. Air compressed by infowing dropping water
drives a portion of that water uphill to fll the domestic water system. You can see the unused
waste water splashing out of the waste valve at the bottom of the pump after its weight has
been used to supply the rest to the house.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 16
are intermittent and dont take much load. The same
for washing machines and kitchen appliances. Heat
needs to come from wood or another source which
doesnt draw much power to run the burner.
Electricians are pretty skeptical about this, Edwin
remarks. They say: You mean youre running your
whole place on a 30 amp circuit? But 30 amps is a
lot of kick. Fifty years ago every house was running
on that or less. I can do welding with that, and Pam
can probably do laundry while Im welding. Those
are my two biggest loads.
Im not sure what those subsidized programs
pushing solar are trying to achieve, he continues.
Theyre not addressing the issues of conservation
or waste. Theyre just addressing the issue of
cost. Thats one of the reasons Suntric has been
successful were addressing conservation. If you
build a house that uses more than 2 kilowatt hours a
day youre going to be sorry. A big gold medallion
home will use more than 40! The average is between
ten and twenty kilowatt hours.
But if you do it right you can have everything you
want and burn less power, he concludes. If you
have one of our systems, we make sure your inverter
goes to sleep when you dont need it. We cant
afford to waste that power just keeping our wires
hot, especially in the wintertime. A sleeping inverter
will sense when there is demand and kick on right
away. Also, if you have a TV plugged in, even if its
off, its on. They keep a heater on the picture tube
so that it doesnt need to warm up. So we use power
strips in the homes we power so you can kill all that
stuff. Think of power the same as water. A little leak
can cause a problem. You want to contain it all.
photo by Jack Kittredge
Pam and Edwin Falk stand outside the New York homestead where they have lived
comfortably off the grid for almost 30 years.
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Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 17
by Jonathan von Ranson
Commonfarm, Wendell
Our subsistence homestead in Western
Massachusetts got less simple, more elegantand
winter became a bit more excitingwhen we
began collecting and storing ice in order to chill our
goats milk and cheese during hot weather. The root
cellar, which proved so simple and effective in fall,
winter and spring, became too warm in summer,
usually reaching 60 degrees. Electricity didnt exist
at remote Stoneoak except in the batteries for the
radio and fashlight. Propane didnt either. One of
our objectives in building the homestead and living
there as Susan and I did for 19 years, sometimes
with our respective children, was to learn the work/
play tradeoffs of earlier, gentler technologies.
The two main things I learned about icehouses and
ice boxes during the roughly seven years we honed
our system were 1) it takes a certain critical mass
of ice to prevent runaway melting and have any
left by the end of the summer, and 2) except for
the excitementice gathering livened the winter
calendar in a big waythe cost/beneft ratio might
have been questionable. Absent the mystique, if you
were to look at ice gathering coldly, so to speak, I
can hear Henry David Thoreau grumping that the
gain in convenience for summer barely matched the
effort in winterespecially rough, snowy ones. Ice
gathering, even by hand, and even falling neatly into
the calendar before maple syruping, takes a lot of
energy per unit of gain, and can divert a person
from prim contemplation on industrial folly. We
made yogurt but didnt like the taste of goats milk
that had started to sour. So for us dairying and ice-
gathering were inextricably linked.
Our system worked, and it became an annual event.
At startup in 1985 it took perhaps a $600-700 initial
outlay for building materials and hired mechanics
labor, along with a couple of weeks of post-and-
beam ice house construction. (We designed ours in
combination with a new woodshed). Thereafter, two
or three days of hard work a year suffced to be able
to keep meat, milk and leftovers fresh (not ice cream
frozen; this system wont freeze things). The system
is perfectly replicable. We moved later to a little
farm in the center of town and now use electricity
and a refrigerator. Meanwhile, the icehouse still
stands; the icebox is being used as a blanket chest.
The pond, untended, is gradually flling with
pondweed.
Ice-Gathering Day
Gathering ice fascinated our teenage children,
so wed pick a day when they could be part of it.
Earlier in the fall Id have stockpiled about four
cubic yards of softwood sawdust in the icehouse.
I would now shovel most of it out, leaving about a
foot on the foor to serve as the base for the ice mass
wed be building there.
If the snow wasnt too deep, wed drive the old Jeep
and plywood-sided trailer up the circuitous trail to
the ridge and back it up to the edge of the pond.
(The fact that the pond was 150 ft. higher than the
homestead would make the later 250-yd. return trip
an easy downhill one).
When the snowpack was too deep for our 47
Willys, as it was twice out of those seven years, we
pulled plastic sleds up the path to the pond.
Wed get busy shoveling the snow off the pond,
then snap two chalk lines on the ice, parallel to
each other and usually 12 in. apart, and a third at
right angles. I never got an ice augur, so I used my
chainsaw (emptied of bar and chain oil and cleaned
up) to start the cuts for the long blocks (as opposed
to short, storage blocks they would be cut into once
out of the water). The melting ice itself lubricated
the bar as it cut through. Once the bar penetrates
to the water beneath, the chain throws a plume of
water and gets everything and everybody wet, so the
next step was to put that aside and grab the ice saw.
This is a 5-ft.-long, large-toothed handsaw operated
standing up, holding it by a T shaped handle
with both hands, pushing and pulling it at about a
45-degree angle in the ice. It took me probably a
minute to make a foot-long cut in 1-ft.-thick ice.
Id stand with one foot in front of the other, shifting
my weight from one to the other, bobbing from the
waist, hips and knees. There is no hurrying it by
pressing beyond the saws own weight. It is aerobic
Ice-Powered Refrigeration
from Scratch
photo courtesy Jonathan von Ranson
Pulling out a long block.
Note rope to friends on bank.
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Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 18
to cut ice; it puts that winter layer of fat on notice.
I found if I pushed the frst long block underwater,
I could get it to bob back up in a way that I could
set the ice tongs on one end and pull it out of its
cut. Especially for the frst course, its important
to keep the cuts vertical or you may fnd you
cant get the blocks out. Square-cut blocks and
regular dimensions are important for good storage.
Commercial icehouses in the earlier days often ran
blocks through a planer to shave them true.
Our frst long block was dragged out to be cut into
short blocks with the chain saw. They were then set
into the trailer (or onto a sled) and the cutting would
continue. After the entire frst course was out, only
longitudinal cuts had to be started with the chain
saw; the lateral ones could be started with the hand
saw from the open water.
Even well into the job, it was always a challenge to
get the heavy long blocks of ice out; it seems theyd
rather pull you in. Often somebody would have to
help the tongs-person with a rope pulled from solid
ground. We never lost a member of our crew to the
black water, though, because we linked hands and
together got enough traction to keep things going in
the right direction.
One twilit early afternoon on the pond, with large
fakes of snow sifting down, a fgure materialized,
walking toward us from the woods. We paused
in our ice gathering to greet this person; nobody
ever just showed up on this ridge! Especially in
the dead of winter. It turned out he was a forester
marking trees on a lot on the steep side, where only
porcupines and bears denned. He made some low-
key, neutral greeting, we spoke a bit and he left. I
got the impression we were more surprised to see
him than he was to come upon our Swiss Family
Robinson-type enterprise on a mountaintop in the
middle of 10,000 uninhabited acres!
Loading the Icehouse
When sleds were the designated mode of
transportation, we pulled them, loaded, along a
pathgetting behind on the steep downhill sections
to hold them back and steering them with the reins
of the sled rope. We unloaded the block onto a chute
from the end of the path just above the icehouse and
slid it down to the icehouse door where the stacker
yanked it in. When we used the Jeep trailer, it could
be backed right up to the door.
Through trial and error we learned that its best to
create a solid structure of tightly-stacked blocks in
the center of the icehouse, with snow stuffed into
any signifcant cracks and at least a foot of sawdust
under, around and on top of the mass. Earlier,
following lore as we understood it, wed tried using
a layer of sawdust between the layers (and earlier
still wed put sawdust around the individual ice
blocks, which the frst year were plastic milk
jugs left out to freeze. That frst experiment was
a dismal failure, and even the second and third
produced shrunken heads for blocks). Using the
block-against-block system, with the whole mass
approximately 5 ft. on a side, by mid-September,
when we pulled out the last block at the bottom of
the icehouse, it was still maybe half the size itd
been when we put it inenough to cool the icebox
for three or four days.
Constructing the Icehouse (and Icebox)
The icehouse was 7 ft. x 8 ft. with a 7-ft. ceiling,
located at one end of a post-and-beam woodshed. I
hung fberglass insulation between 2 x 4 studs and
paneled the roomfoor, walls and ceilingwith
2 of rigid blue Styrofoam. The heavily reinforced
foor (to hold the mass of ice) sloped toward the
center with a screened hole left for a drain.
The icebox was 28 x 28 x 32 of 3/4 red oak
with mortised corners. Inside it I ftted a liner of
2 Styrofoam, and inside that went a hinged box
of stainless steel I had fabricated from a piece I
fshed out of the river. Inside the stainless steel
compartment hung a stainless steel tray, equipped
with a drain, for the ice block. Below that, in the
stainless steel box proper, went the food. The tray
took up only part of the upper space; you could
reach alongside it, or slide it to the other side to
reach down over there.
The lid of the wooden outer part was equally
insulated. We kept the icebox in the northeast corner
of the kitchen. It worked fne: a good block of ice
would last fve days in the dead of summer, keep
milk sweet and tasty, berries from molding, and
leftovers like Henry David wouldve liked them!
photo courtesy Jonathan von Ranson
Sawing a long block into short storage blocks using dry chain saw.
photo courtesy Jonathan von Ranson
Arthurs daughter, Kristin, lowers a block on
a rope down the slide to the ice house door.
photo courtesy Jonathan von Ranson
Ice house has a Dutch door to hold in
sawdust while the ice is going in.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 19
by Bill Nelson
Nelson Farms
Nelson Farms started as a certifed organic farm in
1994, supplying our Portsmouth health food retail
store. We began production with an unheated tunnel,
then built a greenhouse warmed by regular heating
oil, using wood as an auxiliary. The boiler fed a
radiant hot water system to distribute the heat. The
system worked well.
In 2002 we purchased our frst clean burn furnace.
This we fred with used cooking oil, heating
seedlings. In 2005 we built a 30 by 96 foot
greenhouse with a head house to contain the burner
and tank. This feeds hot water into the ground where
the foor is warmed by radiant heat. We use only
fltered, used cooking oil in this setup. The one
problem has been that to keep the oil temperature
up and ensure proper fow, the foor must be held at
86F.
The hot water boiler is very expensive to purchase
and needs expert installation to get the plumbing
right. This leads to a much more expensive
system than others. However I fnd myself more
comfortable in a room heated with hot water, rather
than hot air. I also see plants doing better by not
having hot air blowing and drying out the leaves.
Applying 100F circulating water to the piping in
the ground leads to a 70 to 80soil temperature,
which is ideal according to Professor John W.
Bartok. The plan for these two greenhouses is to
alternate a year of tomatoes and a year of greens.
We hope that will lead to better cash fows.
Our vegetable operation is quite diversifed, with
about 5 acres in production supplying a CSA in
Concord, NH, a farmers market in Portsmouth and
some at the farm. Our primary outlet, however, is
still the Portsmouth health food store. You cant beat
the value of organic foods minerals and vitamins.
Plus the taste!
Bea Baker and Bill Nelson have been NOFA-NH
members for years and on the board of directors
for two years. Steve Blood is the farm manager and
also takes care of selling and delivering.
Heating the
Greenhouse
with
Cooking Oil
photo courtesy Bill Nelson
The furnace in the Nelson greenhouse.
photo courtesy Bill Nelson
Tomatoes in the Nelson greenhouse.
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01341-0179
413-369-4044
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Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 20
by Jim Coate
I have long been a proponent of electric vehicles,
tools, and machinery. Using electricity as a
power source means that can you refuel with a
variety of energy sources, such as solar, wind, or
hydro, something you just cant do with internal
combustion engines. In some vehicles, electric
motors can even recycle the power by storing
power from braking on down hills and saving it for
use the next time you accelerate. Electric motors
produce no pollution (at least at the point of use)
and so are great for those with chemical sensitivities
(MCS), are quiet, give off little waste heat, and are
low maintenance.
Im also interested in bio-diesel as an alternative
fuel source. Although it still requires an internal
combustion engine with the resulting noise and
(limited) pollution, the ability to use a locally
produced fuel makes it attractive. A few farms such
as Hawthorne Valley, in Columbia County of New
York, are now using a still to refne used vegetable
oil from local restaurants into diesel fuel to power
their tractors and delivery trucks. On a small scale
this can work well, but on a large scale I remain
skeptical as The Big Guys would like to market
bio-diesel produced directly from crops such as
soy beans. Land for growing these crops would
compete with land needed for food. The growing
would likely be done using genetically modifed
seed, using major pesticide applications, and using
synthetic fertilizers likely derived from natural
gas, all of which makes it a very ineffcient way to
extract the energy that is otherwise directly available
from the natural gas.
Over the past decade or so I have tinkered frst with
making an electric bicycle (much better versions
of which can now be bought commercially from
many retailers), and have owned and driven on a
daily basis an S-10 pickup truck converted to run
as battery electric. I am now trying out one of the
few factory-made all-electric S-10s, which offers
more creature comforts and better performance but
is harder to work on as it is a large black box. I
have also amassed a small collection of Elec-Trak
battery-electric garden tractors. These were made by
GE about 30 years ago and can still be found around
the country, especially in the Northeast. My hope is
to fnd the time to produce some of the parts needed
for upkeep, and restore some for those looking for
ready-to-use tractors.
I have been living near Boston, and as such my
outdoor experience has been limited to upkeep on
an urban yard. I have used an Elec-Trak with a
roto-tiller on back to break up old sod and then a
plow blade on front to grade the back yard. I have
also used the Elec-Trak to mow, but the space is too
small for it to be a practical method. Instead I have
been using a Husqvarna cordless battery electric
push mower which, although no longer made, works
nicely for a smaller yard. Ryobi made a slightly
larger cordless push mower which Ive been told
is also good for yard mowing. Both models can be
found used, often broken but really just in need of
new batteries. As my entire yard is within 150 of an
outlet, I found a 16 corded electric chain saw to be
great for removing a couple of medium sized trees.
It is also handy for upkeep as it can sit for a year
and still be ready to go immediately when I turn it
on.
Im now in the process of moving to upstate New
York where I will have several acres to keep mowed
and will be putting the Elec-Traks to the real test,
and may eventually have the opportunity to try some
more of the agriculture related tools. I have talked
with a variety of other people who have glowing
things to say about their Elec-Traks, and one person
who has converted a larger G tractor to battery
electric for use with his CSA based farm.
I spoke to Bella Kaldera at Cauldron Farm in central
Massachusetts, who has an Elec-Trak and a smaller
electric golf cart. She was fortunate to come into
these for the cost of repairs to get them running
and now simply loves the electric vehicles. Her
biggest use at the moment is for cargo carrying and
towing. In the winter she mounts a blade on front
for plowing the driveways. GE sold the Elec-Traks
with typical mowing decks, but Bella has plans to
convert a used sickle-bar mower to ft, so as to be
able to save the cut grass as hay. Ideally Bella would
like to have a front end loader for the Elec-Trak, but
factory original versions are extremely rare so this
may be a home built project some day. Her main
goal is to build up a collection of photovoltaic (PV)
solar panels and be able to charge both vehicles
from the sun. This fts in with the goal of the farm
to provide a model of sustainable living for those
living there, as they raise their own animals and
vegetables and take advantage of everything the
land has to offer.
Another Elec-Trak user regularly uses his tractor
pulling a roto-tiller (powered by a separate motor) to
weed between the rows of his strawberries. A used
Elec-Trak can run anywhere from $50, needing a lot
of work, up to $800 or so in decent condition. The
electric roto-tiller attachment was made by Brinly
Hardy for GE, but can be a bit hard to fnd now. An
alternative is to add a sleeve-hitch receiver to the
Elec-Trak and then pull a variety of attachments
behind the tractor. Brinly Hardy, Craftsmen, and
various other makes of sleeve hitch plows can be
found used for $50-$100. Such a set up could be
great for a market gardener wanting to use it for
primary cultivation.
The low end torque of electric motors makes them a
great power source for pulling and towing. In larger
sizes, an avid electric vehicle builder and racer in
Oregon tells tales of using his electric pickup truck
to tow his race car, another large truck in need of
repair, and another trailer all at once as a small
Electric Traction Vehicles Can Bring
Renewable Energy to the Field
photo by Jim Coate
Ron Khosla uses his electric G to weed the beans
photo by Jim Coate
A hydraulic pump mounted under the seat provides power to lift the tool bar.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 21
train. Elec-Trak users also like to brag about the
thousands of pounds towed, moving various wagons
and machinery. One person in North Carolina had
his 1956 Allis Chalmers WD-45 with bush hog
break down in the feld and used his Elec-Trak to
tow the 5000 pound rig back to the barn for repair.
I too have seen this power using my Elec-Trak to
push mounds of dirt around. The tires are the limit
as they always slip long before the motor runs out of
power.
The Elec-Traks are a great match to any farm for
moving people and materials (as could a golf cart)
and it works well for mowing and snow plowing,
and doing feld work on smaller operations. For
a somewhat larger grower, a bigger tractor with
more ground clearance and bigger tools is needed.
It turns out that the classic Allis Chalmers G
cultivating tractor is a great match to this task. It
has the advantage of having the tools mount under
the belly, where the driver can easily see what is
happening, and the mechanical layout of the tractor
with the engine hanging off the back makes it a
great candidate to convert to battery electric power.
Ron Khosla of the Huguenot Street Farm in upstate
New York has done just this, and I recently had the
pleasure of visiting him to see the results frst hand.
As I toured the farm, it was obvious that Ron is a bit
of an inventor. He has rigged a standard window air
conditioner to regulate to refrigerator temperatures
for storing produce on CSA pick-up days. And using
simple plastic tubing from solar collectors, he has
made an ingenious radiant heating system for the
greenhouse. Water heated by a small gas-fred heater
fows though the tubing which is under the fats of
seedlings, with a layer of reclaimed foam insulation
board under the tubing, and ends up costing 1/10
of what it would cost to heat the entire space. His
house is also an ongoing experiment, using SIPS
(structural insulated Panels) that provide high R-
value for the exterior walls and roof, with radiant
tubing installed in the concrete slab foor. Ron
has found that the insulation is so good that just a
small space heater keeps the house warm most days
without even using the radiant system.
Ron has heard about bio-diesel conversions for
Gs as being the latest rage but feels that its not
worth the effort as a fair bit of skill with internal
combustion engines is required and the converted
engine will still suffer from long term costs and
ongoing maintenance issues. For comparison, he
emphasizes that the electric conversion can be done
by anyone without specialized skills in a weekend
or so of work, and requires little upkeep.
Huguenot Street Farm provides CSA shares to 230
families and supplies three restaurant accounts,
using about 8 acres for growing (out of 24 acres
in rotation). With the equivalent of only about
two and a half full time people working the farm,
Ron feels that their success is due in large part to
the effciency that comes from using the electric
G. He says the local folks around town, the local
papers, and the restaurants he supplies all love the
crazy hippies with the electric tractor.
Ron initially converted one G to electric on a true
shoestring budget, making things up as he went. He
learned a few hard lessons about battery care and
the importance of a good charger, but absolutely
loved the tractor. Since then he has converted a
second tractor as part of a SARE grant to help show
others how it is done, and documented the project
at http://www.fyingbeet.com/electricg. In addition
to the two electrics, he maintains one larger diesel
tractor for opening up new felds and other heavy
work. Ron estimates that 65% of the tractor work is
done with the electric Gs.
When using the tractor in the felds, Ron fnds
that it is good all day on one battery charge, as he
has a diversifed operation and the tractor is not in
continuous use. When the tractor is in a remote feld,
it is often connected to a solar panel to recharge
and be ready the next time they need to use it, or if
working near the house it is simply plugged in to
a regular outlet during lunch or overnight. The G I
got to see in action is set up with Cub tires which
are wider and provide more traction than original G
tires. It has also been equipped with a homemade
tool bar that allows him to use commonly available
(thus inexpensive) tools. After a few moments to
set the spacing on the shoes, Ron was off cleaning
out the weeds amongst his beans. As promised, the
tractor was very quiet in operation; I was able to
walk along a row or two away and easily talk with
Ron as he drove.
When converting the G, Ron selected a gear ratio
for the new motor such that it easily runs at very low
speeds. Combined with the massive low end torque
of electric motors, this makes it a very powerful
tractor. As Ron says, I have way more power now,
and perhaps most importantly for organic farmers
they go much much slower. I can creep along at
100 feet an hour... and thats awesome! If we had
a transplanter, it would be essential. He also fnds
that he is much more likely to take a moment to stop
the tractor and re-adjust the tools for better results as
the electric motor is fully off when stopped.
The conversion parts are very similar to the system
used in an electric golf cart. A 48-volt battery
back powers a series-wound DC motor, with an
electronic controller connected in between to set
the speed. Other components such as a contactor
provide a safe way to turn the system on and off,
and a pot box sends a signal from the throttle
lever to the controller to tell it how fast to go. The
48-volt battery pack is made up of four 12-volt
batteries connected in series. These are deep cycle
batteries that, unlike regular car starter batteries,
are designed to be repeatedly discharged and
recharged. Alternatively, a set of eight 6-volt deep
cycle batteries (golf cart batteries) could be used
for longer running times. Ron replaced the original
hydraulic pump with an electric unit which was
used to operate snow plow blades. It is connected
to 12 volts rather than the full 48 volts that the
drive motor uses. As I got to see, the electric pump
version works quite well, and lifts the tool bar faster
than the original. The conversion parts, including
drive motor, adapter plates, batteries, controller, and
miscellaneous widgets will total about $3,000.
photo by Jim Coate
The batteries, motor, and controller all mount on the rear of the tractor, along with an
extension rack to carry tools and cargo.
photo by Jim Coate
The motor is mounted to an adapter plate which
then fts on the rear of the tractor.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 22
Finding a used tractor to convert can require a bit
of searching. Used Gs with working engines often
go for over $3,000 while one with a bad or missing
engine can be had for $1,000 - $1,200. Orange
County in New York historically had a large number
of the Gs and may be a good place to look. Ron
has found that word of mouth is the best way to fnd
a good frame left in someones feld, and suggests
asking old-time farmers and placing want ads. In
total, the tractor plus conversion parts cost $4,000
- $5,000 for the complete, ready to use electric G.
Ron is quite clear that we absolutely couldnt farm
without the two Gs, and as electric vehicles they
are cheaper to run, quieter and more powerful.
This echoes the experience of Bella and others with
the smaller Elec-Traks. Electric tractors are not just
another tool, but something their users truly believe
in. I remain happily biased that electric vehicles
of all sorts, with a variety of alternative power
sources used for recharging, will play an important
role in the years to come. More information on my
developing electric vehicle projects can be found at
www.eeevee.com or I can be contacted at 617-539-
0906 or by e-mail at eeevee@coate.org.
photo by Jim Coate
The new bio-diesel still at Hawthorne Valley Farm is used to process used vegetable oil
into fuel to power tractors, a pick-up and a delivery truck. The process begins with waste
vegetable oil collected from restaurants, which is heated and fltered. It is then combined
with methanol and lye. These extra ingredients react to produce the catalyst needed to
separate the esters from the glycerin to refne the oil into usable fuel. The resulting bio-diesel
is then used in an unmodifed diesel vehicle, although some regular (petroleum based) diesel
may need to be mixed in to keep it from getting too thick, particularly in cold weather. The
farm is presently using this small still as an educational tool. Once issues of waste by-product
disposal have been resolved and the process is streamlined, the long term goal is to develop a
concrete business plan for implementing a larger still and ramp up production.
EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS
FOR VEGETABLE
FARMERS
Each video features a variety of
farmers from the Northeast describing
their strategies.
Vegetable Farmers and Their
Weed-Control Machines (75 min)
Farmers and Their Horticultural
Marketing Strategies (50 min)
Farmers and Their Ecological
Sweet Corn Production (42 min)
Farmers and Their Innovative
Cover Cropping Techniques
(70 min)
To order, send
your name,
mailing address,
and phone or e-
mail along with
$15 per video
(check or money
order, sorry no
credit cards) to:
University of Vermont Extension
Center for Sustainable Agriculture
63 Carrigan Dr.
Burlington, VT 05405
802-656-5459
sustainable.agriculture@uvm.edu
www.uvm.edu/sustainableagriculture
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 23
by James T. Brandt Jr.
Green Power on the farm works! The following is
a list of ideas and thoughts about how to make solar
and wind power work on your farm. Whether or
not you are an organic farmer with environmental
issues like I am, I fnd organic farmers as a group
love independence. And what is better than energy
independence!
If we had to pay someone every time something
broke, wed be broke! So most of us are mechanical
by necessity, and have a good idea about how things
work. But before I installed my 10k Bergey wind
mill and my photovoltaic solar array, or my solar hot
water collectors, I had no idea how they worked. So I
educated myself. And what better way to learn than to
read! The most valuable resource for me was the Real
Goods Solar Living Sourcebook. Once I found this
book my understanding of these technologies really
started to come into focus. As I read on, I realized
there were a lot of ways to set up these systems.
Wanting to have some ability to have backup power,
that is, power during a space of time when the power
grids fails, I had to select an inverter, the brains of an
alternative energy system, that made this capability
as seamless as possible.
Because Id be installing the frst parts of my green
energy system by myself I chose an inverter called
a power panel. It had all the bells and whistles that
I would need basically preassembled, with all the
components to make my system safe both for myself
and the power grid. By law your system must have
a grid-tie interface system to insure your system is
isolated from the main power grid. This insures the
safety for those who maintain the power grid, the men
and women who work at your local power company.
Remember working with electricity is no joke. I had
plenty of training in the Army, and when I worked for
a well driller who also installed ground water source
heating and cooling systems. For my windmill I also
did the wiring, which was also fairly simple. I think
they design them that way. Im in the process of
putting up another one, my fnal photovoltaic array.
I love power from the sun! I may have someone else
install this one. I dont know about the state you
live in, but in New Jersey with 70% of the project
subsidized by our board of public utilities and a 25%
federal rebate available if you are a farmer, let some
young person do it! If you are unsure how to install
a system hire a contractor because the rebates are so
good here in N.J.
So my frst installation with a battery bank for a
limited amount of backup electricity went well. I did
my homework and it paid off. To get the rebate you
frst have to satisfy your local building code folks so
you have to draw out diagrams, with specifcations of
your system and install them. I was fortunate that my
building code people seemed interested in the project,
probably because they dont see them that much, and
were great to work with. I picked an area free of trees
Green
Power
photo courtesy of James Brandt
Brandt is proud of using the sun to conserve energy via this PV array, installed in 2002.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 24
and the panels are on a 41 degree angle facing the
south to get maximum output from the sun.
You must fll out the application before the project is
started in N.J. to get approval. For my 10k Bergey
wind mill, I employed the services of a local green
energy equipment installer. With a thousand plus
pound wind generator on top of a 120 ft. tower, I
thought it would be a great idea to get some help (and
a good insurance policy) to help me. The company
I used was LBI Solar Inc. and the companys owner,
Mike Cafero, has a lot of the same ideologies as me
about the pollution caused by conventional power
systems and how it affects ecosystems and the health
of our beautiful planet. It made the project pure joy,
although quite a challenge.
Wind can be tricky with the amount of output you get,
so again do your homework. I knew my wind average
in miles per hour was at least 10. I was hoping the
output would be higher than that because the tower
would be substantially higher than the trees, two miles
from a river and ten miles away from the ocean but
it wasnt. Looking at it from the monetary standpoint
(payback time) having a precise wind average
can better help with this calculation. My township
required a certifed plan from an engineering frm
because we had to pour four concrete pads for the
tower. I worked with LBI Solar in doing the concrete
pads and wiring the wind mill. The wind mill also
has its own separate inverter and feeds right into the
power grid. Its wonderful to see your electric meter
spin backwards on a sunny windy day.
Believe me, when people look up at the windmill they
usually say, and in this order, How much did that
cost? then, How high is that? My frst thoughts
I had about the windmill were more like Will this
lower the amount of pollution I make?, and Will
my investment in this type of energy equipment
excite local interest in alternative energy technology,
and trigger people to invest in it also? My out of
pocket expenses for the windmill was $25,000. A lot
of cash for sure but my wife is a school teacher and
does well in the money category, and the farm does
pretty well (relative to farming, not relative to what a
teacher makes after 15 years). Most of the folks who
live around us have 15 grand in a boat, 25 grand in a
monster truck to pull the boat on its 12 hundred dollar
trailer, then burn 10 bucks each trip in oil and gas to
get 15 bucks worth of fsh. So looking at all things
relative, as I usually do, 25 grand to cut pollution is a
pretty good investment in my brain. Also the cost of
pollution is not now nor has it ever been included in
your electric bill.
As of this writing my fnal photovoltaic array is only
in the preliminary stages. We just received approval
from the board of public utilities of N.J. Its still only
July, so theres a lot of farming left to do. I probably
wont get it started until September if all goes well,
and will be working with the same contractor that did
the windmill. Living in a house thats all electric,
with geo-thermal (ground water source) heating and
cooling system for the house, with a commercial
cooler for the farm stand and submersible well pumps
for irrigation, we surely use a lot of electricity. But
were on our way to energy independence.
P
e
r
m
a
c
u
l
t
u
r
e
Epworth is 160 acres
of nat ur al beaut y
located only 90 miles
from NYC and only 10
mi l es from the NYS
Thruway, yet situated
i n an oxbow of t he
Rondout Creek such
that from most places
on the camp, no sign
of any nei ghbor i s
vi si bl e. For mor e
information, go to
www.epworthcenter.com
Permaculture
Design Certificate Course
with Geoff Lawton
Oct. 31 Nov.12, 2005
Epworth Conference Center
High Falls, New York
Registration information:
www.hancockpermaculture.org
or
Green Phoenix
Sustainable Communities
212-996-1830
718-859-6495
archiduck@verizon.net
Geoff Lawton directs
the Permacul ture
Research Institute on the
147 acre Tagari Farm,
Austral i a, previ ousl y
devel oped by Bi l l
Mollison. Since 1985,
Geoff Lawton has
undertaken 1,000s of
j obs consul ti ng,
designing, teaching and
i mpl ementi ng i n
seventeen di fferent
countries around the
worl d. Cl i ents have
i ncl uded pri vate
i ndi vi dual s, groups,
c o m m u n i t i e s ,
governments, ai d
organizations. For more
i nformati on. go to
www.permaculture.org.au/
Epworth Conference Center near
High Falls, NY
photo courtesy of James Brandt
Brandt shows the PV arrays and wind generator which turn his meter backward!
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 25
by Jack Kittredge
Central Massachusetts, like much of New England,
has many small wild areas. Actively farmed
many generations ago, the land was abandoned in
the early nineteenth century as more productive
Midwestern soils drove the price of food below
the cost of producing it here. These areas are now
heavily forested and only the stone walls and an
occasional cellar hole testify to their firtation with
agriculture.
One spot like this, 30 acres in the town of Orange,
runs downhill from a dirt road. At the bottom it
levels out enough for a house site and gardens. On
this site Ricky Baruc and Deb Habib have carved
out a homestead for themselves and their 6 year-
old son Levi, and an educational farm -- Seeds of
Solidarity -- which doesnt use fossil fuel and is
instead powered by solar energy.
Deb and Ricky met 20 years ago at New Alchemy
Institute on Cape Cod. That turned our heads
around, says Ricky. There was so much happening
there, new ideas, experiments. Now, as educators,
we think about what are turning points for kids.
What is the epiphany for people to make changes in
their lives? That was such a turning point for us.
After meeting at New Alchemy, Deb and Ricky
went their separate ways. She got a doctorate
in education at UMass while he and a friend he
met at the Institute started a farm in upstate New
York. We farmed in the Ithaca area for 7 years,
he recalls. But it was crazy! We were driving
down to New York City to sell our stuff. It was
unsustainable. You have tons of energy and are
doing neat things, but you cant keep a relationship.
Finally I quit. Then Deb and I got back together
again 12 years ago and decided to get married.
One of the early things they did as a couple was go
on a Pilgrimage for Peace and Life, commemorating
the 50
th
anniversary of the end of World War II. It
was organized by the Peace Pagoda in Leverett,
Massachusetts and consisted of a Peace Walk from
Auschwitz to Hiroshima. One of the places they
visited was Iraq.
We saw a bomb shelter, Ricky says, shaking his
head, which had been penetrated by a special bomb
designed to blow apart bomb shelters. A bomb
shelter is where people hide to get away from the
bombs, but we have designed bombs to bust through
the concrete and rebar and kill everyone inside.
Our excuse was we thought maybe the military was
hiding out there.
Where New Alchemy was an environmental
epiphany for the pair, the Peace Walk was a political
one. We had already talked about going solar,
Ricky says, but the biodiesel defnitely came out
of our trip to Iraq 10 years ago. We came back and
said: Theres no way we can continue to be driving
around, burning gas, knowing what were really
causing in the world.
While on the Peace and Life trip the pair agreed
they wanted to do some sort of education and
farming. On their return they started looking for
land and got in touch with the Mount Grace Land
Trust, which operates in the North Quabbin area.
At the time the land trust was negotiating to buy
a large piece of land in Orange. Rick and Debs
interest helped cement the deal, and they ended
up buying 30 acres of the parcel with the right to
develop their own home, sell off a second house lot
if necessary, while putting a conservation restriction
on development of the rest. Massachusetts Audubon
bought the extra acres, so they will be preserved as
well.
We fnalized the land deal 8 years ago, Ricky
recalls. We got out here all excited. I knew it was
getting cold so I poured the piers for a little house
before we even closed on the land. The next spring
we built the little house, Levi was born, and we
lived there three years.
Doing it All From the Sun
photo by Jack Kittredge
Ricky Baruc shows the array of eight 120-watt photovoltaic panels which provide all the
electricity for their house and farm.
photo by Jack Kittredge
Here are the batteries and inverter and controls for the couples PV system.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 26
The house site was too far from power, so when
they frst moved there the couple hooked up a small
solar system and got a small DC refrigerator. Four
years ago they poured the slab for a larger house,
put it up, and put up a greenhouse. Now the little
house is used for apprentice housing.
Basically we came out here and were thinking
that we could both make our living through grants
and education, sighs Ricky. But it wasnt my
personality, and fnancially we couldnt do it. I
couldnt write a grant and 8 months later fnd out
whether I could do it or not. So I fgured I could go
back into carpentry, or back into farming.
I chose farming, he continues. But I found out
theres no soil down here. Everything you see we
brought in. We cleared the land it was all woods
and brought sand in as a bottom layer, then fresh
cow manure as a bottom base, then compost for the
top.
Right now the family earns half its income from the
farm, and the other half from education programs.
That enables them to be on the farm full time.
The house Ricky and Deb built is thoughtfully
designed. Its a super insulated house with stick-
framed double wall construction. A load bearing 2
X 4 outside wall supports the roof, and a separate
inner wall then just holds up the sheetrock and
keeps the cellulose insulation in. Large windows
on the south side let in lots of light and winter sun,
but it stays cool in summer. It is heated with a wood
stove which Ricky says needs to be fred just once a
day even in the coldest part of the winter.
Build it square, says Ricky about the outer walls.
Its easy to go up and its easy to insulate. Then
your interior wall can be 2 X 3s or even 2 X 2s, and
you can do curves and fares on the inside and make
things interesting.
One of the other interesting things about the house
is that Ricky is applying stucco to the outer walls.
Where I am at as a builder, he explains, is that I
dont want to do things twice. Wood is going to rot.
The concept of stucco is ancient. Back in England
those buildings have been there forever. Its very,
very, very low maintenance.
The couple also has a composting toilet, and is
installing a system so that all their grey water will
be fltered to take out particulate matter, then go
through fsh tanks in the greenhouse. The tanks
will be flled with gravel and planted with wetland
plants. Microbes that hang out in the wetland plants
will purify that water and then it will evaporate.
In keeping with their desire to not consume fossil
fuels, Deb and Ricky designed their larger house to
be off the grid as well.
Were so far from power, Ricky explains, that
it would have cost us $10,000 to tie in. We built
everything here with cordless tools. We would just
recharge them on the cigarette lighter in our car!
Ricky spent some time evaluating their options for
power. He swears by Home Power, the renewable
energy trade journal. He would have loved to use
hydro, he says. Falling water is the cheapest form
of renewable energy since it runs day and night. But
there was no available stream that was suitable. So
he decided to get his electricity directly from the
sun.
Eight 120-watt photovoltaic panels mounted on
a manually oriented array provide electricity for
the house and farm. They power a refrigerator,
dishwasher, washing machine, well pump, irrigation,
power tools, computers, and lights. The array sends
DC power to a battery bank, and an inverter makes
AC as needed. The only things that run on DC are
the things that run all the time -- refrigerator, some
electrical outlets, and the answering machine. At
night Ricky shuts down the inverter.
Even for those who are on the grid, Baruc is an
apostle of generating ones own power. We tell
people to get a few panels and an inverter, he says.
Thats all you need to start. Over a three or four
year period get rid of all your ineffcient appliances.
Then add some batteries (for when the grid goes
down) and more panels, and basically all your
power is coming from the sun. From the beginning
to the end youre selling any excess electricity
back to the grid. The beautiful thing about the grid
inter-tie is that you dont have to go cold turkey
all of a sudden. It gives you lead time to buy new
appliances and adjust yourself.
Crucial to converting to PV are energy effcient
light bulbs such as compact fuorescents, and energy
effcient refrigerators like the couples Sun Frost.
Even so, theyre going to add 4 more panels to get
additional power. With all the irrigation needed in
the greenhouses, the pump sometimes runs them out
of power.
One thing people have to realize, stresses Ricky,
is that if they go off the grid they are their power
company. If lightening hits, you cant call the power
company. Right now if my inverter got it Id have
to take it off the wall, drive it to New Jersey to get
it fxed, and bring it back. That is not sustainable.
We need to develop more electricians trained in this.
We need people doing it, fnding the problems, and
working them out.
Right now batteries are still a weak link in PV,
he continues. Were hoping that with the surge
in hybrid cars that will get the battery industry to
improve their product. In Germany and Japan they
now have subsidies to encourage photovoltaics.
They know were running out of oil. Theyre
investing in solar electricity. If we dont get going
here, were going to lose out.
Up until recently the farm used a propane-fred on-
demand hot water heater. But they have just recently
installed solar hot water, in part with a grant from
the states Department of Ag Resources to help them
heat seedlings in the spring and keep their micromix
harvest going into the winter.
Were going to use solar hot water pumped
through pipes buried in insulated growing boxes
in the greenhouse, explains Baruc. It will be just
like radiant foor heat for the seedlings. Now that
we have solar hot water Im sold on it. Id install
radiant foor heat from solar hot water in any future
house.
photo by Jack Kittredge
Deb Habib stands beneath their recently installed solar hot water system. The small PV
panel between the two large hot water panels powers the pump which circulates the warmed
fuid to a heat exchanger in their hot water tank.
photo by Jack Kittredge
This is their regulation hot water tank which
is plumbed with a solar heat exchange loop.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 27
Two big panels on the south-facing roof heat a
glycol fuid and every time the sun comes out
a small PV panel between them kicks on a low
wattage DC pump. The fuid is pumped through a
heat exchanger in a 120 gallon super-insulated water
tank and heats up the water.
We hardly ever need our on-demand water heater
any more! exclaims Ricky. We can get water
to 180 just using the sun. The ramifcations for
dairy operations and other farms in the northeast
are unbelievable. Hot water is the most inexpensive
form of solar -- there arent that many moving
parts!
The system cost the couple about $6000. The panels
on the roof are oriented for spring and fall, rather
than a summer sun angle, because of the season-
extension uses to which they will put much of the
water. In the winter Ricky fgures there will be
increased sun because so much light will refect off
the snow onto the panels.
A few years ago Deb and Ricky bought a Mercedes
diesel and started pioneering the use of biodiesel
in the area. Using vegetable oil as fuel seemed to
the couple to be a reasonable alternative to relying
on Mideastern oil, with all the ramifcation of that
dependency.
Any diesel vehicle can run on biodiesel, Ricky
explains. With biodiesel they have taken the
glycerin out of vegetable oil and made it one-third
thinner so that it is the same viscosity as diesel.
We buy a virgin biodiesel in Vermont made from
soybeans. Right now we run our truck, our van, and
Debs Volkswagon on that. Weve been doing it
for 6 or 7 years. Yes, the fuel is made by corporate
America. But the truth is that the big guys have this
technology down, and Id rather run on that than
buy from Iraq!
Right now commercial biodiesel is about 40 to
50 more per gallon than traditional diesel. Spring,
summer, and fall the farm runs 100% biodiesel, but
in winter all oils become thicker. Truckers then mix
their diesel with kerosene, but Deb and Ricky mix
theirs to about 30% biodiesel, 70% diesel.
But another way to get the thinner viscosity of
diesel, Ricky adds, is just to heat vegetable oil up.
At 180 vegetable oil has the viscosity that diesel
fuel does at room temperature. So you can run on
waste restaurant cooking grease if you have a heat
exchanger coming from your vehicles radiator
which heats up the grease tank.
Debs VW and the farm van both are equipped to
run on grease. They start up on regular diesel or
biodiesel, and once the engine heats up they switch
to the grease tank and run on that. The only problem
with this system is that you dont want to shut down
with grease in the line. Once it is cool it will thicken
and clog the injectors. So you need to switch back to
the other tank before shutting off the engine.
For picking up grease, Ricky says, we have a
simple flter called Mr. Funnel, which we got out of
a farm catalog. It is originally from the aeronautics
industry -- they really need to avoid contaminants in
their fuel! The grease comes in 5 gallon containers
and we pass it through this flter to take out water
and particles.
I know there are those, he continues, who say the
grease car will have problems down the road with
injectors and other engine parts. But we havent
seen any problems in the year weve been doing
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hosted by the long hungry creek farm
Join us for a very special event on the weekend of October 1416, 2005 when the
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association and Long Hungry Creek Farm present
a Gardening Conference in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee.
Held during the farms Tenth Annual Harvest Festival, all of the meals will be home-
grown and biodynamic, fresh from the beautiful gardens you will be seeing. Help us
celebrate the joys of gardening with folks who make their livelihood from it, as we place
the human being in the heart of the garden.
Enjoy a peaceful weekend on a working farm, with plenty of time for personal dis-
cussions with workshop leaders gathered from across the country. Speakers will discuss
the growing of all of the major fruit and vegetable crops, and offer workshops on raising
cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, and bees. There will also be talks on compost and com-
post tea; presentations on Rudolf Steiners work in the fields of medicine, education
and meditation; and workshops on fermenting vegetables, CSA, Spatial Dynamics,
working with elementals, biodynamic certification, and much more. A special pre-con-
ference workshop, Demystifying Biodynamics, will offer a hands-on opportunity to
make and learn how to apply all of the biodynamic preparations. Speakers include Sarah
Cherry, Sarah Flack, Luke Frey, Jim Fullmer, Trauger Groh, Gnther Hauk, Sandor Katz,
Bill Keener, Harvey Lisle, Phillip Lyvers, Eric Smith, Vinnie McKinney, Lloyd and Harold
Nelson, Shep Smith, Steve Storch, Hugh Williams, and Hanna Bail. A wide variety of
organic products and books will also be available.
Other activities will include demonstrations of a stirring machine, compost tea brewers,
and an Italian spading machine; tours of the gardens and nearby biodynamic farms; and
pony rides, goat-milking, art and other activities for all the kids. Rounding out the festiv-
ities will be a talent show, bonfire and biodynamic music on Saturday evening.
We offer plenty of beautiful camping spaces and a barn loft, and the historic Donoho
Hotel in Red Boiling Springs also offers accommodations at reasonable rates.
Come feel the difference wholesome produce makes in your body, and learn how to
grow it. Genuine health begins in the soil. Dont miss this rare opportunity to mingle
with professional biodynamic gardeners, and experience firsthand the relationship
between soil health and really good food. The conference cost of $175 covers all work-
shops and nine biodynamic meals; one- and two-day rates are also available.
For more information, or to register for the conference, please contact:
October 1416, 2005 in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association
Annual Conference
Gardening: A Biodynamic Celebration
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association
25844 Butler Rd Junction City, OR 97448 888-516-7797
biodynamic@aol.com www.biodynamics.com
photo by Jack Kittredge
Ricky stands in front of their house and PV array.
Note the stucco fnish he is applying to the exterior of the house.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 28
it. The problem people should know about is with
commercial biodiesel. Most of it in this country is
made with methanol, not enthanol. And methanol
will eat rubber. So make sure your fuel line is a
synthetic. If you have a European vehicle, you
dont have to worry about it. But some American
manufacturers still use rubber.
Ricky is anxious for the biodiesel industry to
grow and get more technologically sophisticated.
Right now, he says, federal emission rules require
than anyone with a feet of vehicles use a certain
percentage of alternative fuel. That can be natural
gas or electric, but it can also be biodiesel. Its
a lot easier for feets to use B20 (which is 20%
biodiesel) than B100 (which is 100%) since they
dont have to change anything in their engines. So
in the case of feets, using biodiesel is the cheapest
way of meeting the regulation. That is why there
is a commercial market for biodiesel. Similarly, he
suggest, in the northeast we use a lot of heating oil,
which is virtually the same as diesel. If 2% of that
had to be biodiesel, that would motivate a lot of new
production.
In Germany, he points out, there is 5% biodiesel
in every gallon of diesel, and in Minnesota by
state law it is 2%. We buy from a company called
Renewable Lubricants, which is an Ohio-based farm
that makes any kind of lubricant from non-GMO
soy-based oil. They have motor oils; theyre price
competitive. I get it mail order, but they are looking
for distributors. Their number is 330-877-9082.
We need more smart characters out there who are
fguring this stuff out!
As part of their effort to educate people about
biodiesel and renewable energy, Deb and Ricky
have created the SOL Van. It is a van which runs
on biodiesel, can switch over to grease, and is
ftted with a collapsible photovoltaic panel to
generate power. When I visited they had just gotten
back from taking youth to a farmers market in
Cambridge. There the teens sold black bean burritos
and basil pasta that they made from crops raised on
the farm and cooked on-site with electricity from
the solar panels on the roof. When not making
educational visits, the van provides power to run
an irrigation pump on a section of the farm that is
distant from the house.
Although Ricky and Deb raise their crops
organically, they dont use that word.
Ricky explains: We call our stuff Oranganically
grown because were in the town of Orange! We
also use a label PRANA. It stands for Pesticide free,
Renewable, Always fresh and local, Not genetically
modifed, and from A living soil. We have that
written on the side of the truck.
He feels strongly that the organic movement should
not have allowed control of the name go to the US
government.
Here we have one of the few examples of a grass
roots movement that was doing well economically,
he says, and it got hijacked. We had the organic
industry under wraps. We did not need the
photo by Jack Kittredge
Ricky shows the PV array on the SOL Van. Standing by the van are Annie, an intern who is
in the environmental education graduate program at Antioch New England, and Rob, a local
17 year-old who would like to be a chef and has been working at the farm for two years.
photo by Jack Kittredge
Ricky holds a 5 gallon container of cooking grease similar to the ones they pick up at
restaurants. Rob and Annie show how they pump it through a flter into the heated fuel tank
using a small solar powered pump. Rob holds the suction nozzle while Annie operates the
fller nozzle.
government to get involved with that. Now that
were lost it, all our power is gone. There were a lot
of nave people at the Organic Trade Association.
When we buy from Heinz, Heinz is voting for Bush.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 29
by Nate Hausman
Farm & Wilderness Camps
On a February weekend dozens of families and
friends gather ice-side by a remote pond in the
Vermont woods. These warm-blooded souls are
using centuries-old tools and techniques to cut
and store blocks of ice for use during the summer
months to refrigerate food for Flying Cloud, the
most remote camp of Farm & Wilderness, a group
of summer camps located in Plymouth, Vermont.
Each summer, Flying Cloud campers lives slow
down as they learn to cook over open fres, tell time
by reading the sun and stars, pump fresh spring
water to drink or carve a fute using a knife theyve
made themselves. Cutting the ice in the winter is
essential for the rustic Flying Cloud community to
live off the grid for the entire summer.
Like New Englanders have done for centuries
before electric refrigeration became commonplace,
participants use authentic old-time ice cutting tools
to score, drill, cut and sheer the ice into huge blocks.
With giant tongs, small groups of people hoist the
150-200 pound blocks onto the shore, where runners
with sleds pull them to the ice house to store for the
next summer.
The icehouse itself is a rectangular wooden
building, approximately 20 ft by 30 ft with
insulation in the walls and a cement foor. The house
is divided into two sections along the longer axis,
making two rooms with dimensions of 10 x 15.
We store the ice in the larger room. When we store
the ice in the winter we put it in through a large side
panel that gets sealed up and remains closed through
the summer. Although the walls are insulated, the
ice remains frozen primarily because of the sawdust
that gets loaded in with the ice and completely
covers and surrounds all the ice chunks. The
sawdust serves most directly as the insulation for the
ice. Each chunk is about two feet x one and half feet
x one foot, and the room is completely flled up to a
height of about 6 feet with these chunks.
We access the icehouse through a door in the
smaller room. The smaller room remains cool
through the summer months and we keep fruit and
vegetables there. The actual refrigeration occurs
in a large 5x10 stainless steel compartment. The
doors of this refrigerator open in the smaller room,
but the compartment extends backward through the
dividing wall into the room where the ice is stored.
This large compartment is actually divided into two
sections. The front section contains the food that
we access through the doors, but the back section
(which is in the ice storage room) is separated from
the food compartment by a stainless steel wall.
Every morning that camp is in session campers
and counselors participate in chores, one of which
involves flling this back compartment (called the
hopper) with ice that we break off from the large
chunks in the ice storage room. (We call the chore
ice mining.) After cleaning the sawdust off these
chunks we dump them in the hopper. At the bottom
Storing Ice for Summer Cold
photo courtesy of Nate Hausman
The ice on the pond is initially penetrated by using picks.
The ice will be sawn along the lines marked in the snow.
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56 Farm Equipment
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of the hopper is a drain allowing the water to empty
out as the ice inevitably melts over time.
The refrigerator stays below 40 degrees the entire
summer and averages in the upper thirties. Food
is usually cooled at a similar rate to an electric
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Foundations of Herbalism 2005
Three Month Herbal Program
Taught by Annie McCleary with George Lisi
Nature Adventures
Plant-Spirit Communication
Wild Edibles Make Herbal Remedies
Lincoln, Vermont
802-453-6764 anniemc@gmavt.net
www.purpleconeflowerherbals.com
www.cottonfieldusa.com call 888.954.1551 for a brochure
Organic Cotton Apparel for Men & Women
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 30
refrigerator. We use our ice refrigeration system
regularly throughout the summer, storing food that
we buy, as well as a small amount of fruits and
vegetables from our own garden. (The whole camp
participates in carrying in most of our food on our
backs about a quarter mile since no motor vehicles
travel up to Flying Cloud during the summer
months.) Although the ice supply dwindles as the
summer goes on, we almost always have extra ice at
the end of the summer.
photo courtesy of Nate Hausman
The ice is cut using a long saw thrust directly up and down.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 31
photo courtesy of Nate Hausman
The ice blocks are dragged on sleds to the ice house.
photo courtesy of Nate Hausman
Storage of the ice is via a side panel in the house,
which is then closed and sealed for the season.
NOFA Video Project, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005
NOFA Videos
The Entire Pre-Conference on:
Biodiesel & Grease
Intro with Panel, Biodiesel and Grease
Production with Larry Union
Please send me this video, #0511, for $15.
Vegetable Oil in Vehicles with Lee Briante,
Biodiesel Basics with Joe Lambert
Please send me this video, #0512, for $15.
Biodiesel on the Farm with Ricky Baruc,
Peak Oil with Michael Klare
Please send me this video, #0513, for $15.
I enclose the total in a check to NOFA Video Project.
For each video I return in 30 days, rewound and in
good shape, youll refund me $10.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 32
by Jack Kittredge
South Hampton, New Hampshire is a typical
New England town, nestled on the Mass/NH state
line just north of Amesbury, Massachusetts. Old
farms are more and more being crowded out by
comfortable homes, but there is still open land and
agriculture in some places. Not too far from the
town common, and right across from the ball feld,
sits one of these: Far Acres Farm.
James VanBokkelens grandparents bought the place
in 1919, when it was a six-cow dairy selling butter,
milk and eggs. Now one cant support a family that
way any more, and James works in high tech. But he
and his wife, Jocelyn, still raise animals and crops
there.
They make quite a lot of hay for their herd of
Dexters and the stable Jocelyn operates for local
horse owners. They also keep a sow and bring in
a boar to visit her every year, selling the resulting
piglets and full-grown hogs. Batches of turkeys and
chickens are raised for sale as meat and Jocelyn
sells eggs to neighbors.
The pair grow wheat and rye every year as a way of
using some of their land and keeping it in rotation.
They have an old combine to harvest the grain, but
dont have much of a market for wheat.
Not many farmers around here want it as seed,
says James, and we cant supply enough on a
regular basis for a bakery. We could sell smaller
amounts but the buyers would want it milled.
They grind 5 or 10 pounds at a time for themselves
for bread and four, but use a small home mill not
suitable for commercial production.
What is most remarkable about Far Acres farm,
however, is how far the VanBokkelens have pushed
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Potential suppliers are invited to contact
John Weaver at jweaver@fairfieldfarmkitchens.com
or 508-584-9300, ext. 301.
www.fairfieldfarmkitchens.com
Brockton, MA
photo by Jack Kittredge
James stands in the base of his wind generator, with his photovoltaic panel array on the
barns south-facing roof behind him.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 33
the envelope on providing for the farms energy
independence.
I have a lot going on here, James sighs. I have to
heat the house. I have refrigeration and freezers. We
use brooder lights for the chicks early to keep them
warm. I couldnt just go and do a cabin in the woods
on a 12 volt system.
While deciding they couldnt go off the grid
entirely, the family is getting most of its heat, hot
water, and electricity from renewable sources. As
pioneers moving toward energy independence, they
have made some mistakes and it hasnt been cheap.
Fortunately, for them price is not an issue.
The way things worked out, explains
VanBokkelen, I founded a software company and
in the early nineties I had vastly more money than I
needed.
Besides buying up about 1200 acres of farmland
and putting much of it in land preservations trusts,
he also invested in on-farm energy generation. The
house itself was built in 1799 and ran along a north/
south axis, so it wasnt suitable for the simplest
upgrade: passive solar. The roof, facing east and
west, wasnt suitable for mounting solar collectors,
either. So the frst step James took, in 1992, was to
build a new barn and face it almost directly solar
south.
For solar panels you want an angle of about your
latitude, 40 or 45 degrees here, he says. The lower
part of a gambrel roof is about the right angle for
the sun, so I fat-mounted the panels on the barn
roof. You can get almost twice as much power in
the summer if you use a tracker to keep the panels
directly facing the sun, but I was after peak power in
the winter, when the sun rises low and stays low in
the sky. When I built this I couldnt tie in to the grid
in New Hampshire so I didnt have any need for
excess power in the summer.
The panels he installed create about two and a half
kilowatts at peak generation. Since VanBokkelen
wanted to run the house on alternating current and
not have to rewire it for direct current appliances, he
has an inverter which converts DC to AC.
All the house loads are wired to a switch panel that
lets him bring grid or solar power to the loads (but
not both). The solar system he installed is about
a $30,000 system, but James points out that solar
energy is scalable. If you had only $10,000 you
could get a system that would run your lights, your
TV, and your computer, but not your refrigerator or
your well pump (which require large power surges
when the motors switch on). You would have to split
the wiring in your house to run some solar, some
grid, but you could switch the grid to the solar loads
to run them if your solar was down for some reason.
James keeps one outlet in the basement just wired
to the grid so he can run a trouble-light if he has a
problem while running solar.
Its also handy, he laughs, to check to see if
the grid power is on! One night, when my wife
was in labor with our daughter Alice, a neighbor
gave me a call to check up on her. He said he was
concerned about us because the power had been
out all evening. I said, Oh, the power is out? That
convenience is why I spent all that money!
Although New Hampshire now allows small power
producers to tie in to the grid to sell excess power,
it is not made very attractive. In Massachusetts,
VanBokkelen relates, the way you do that is to run
your electric meter backwards. You sell power at
the same rate that you buy power. Here in NH they
dont net meter. You can buy at 10 a kilowatt hour
but you have to sell back at 2.5. And I have to put
on a second electric meter to measure that sale!
Then you have to have a safety switch, he
continues, that automatically cuts off your power
when the grid goes down. Otherwise you are
feeding power back up the line to your neighbors
and perhaps electrocuting a repairman somewhere.
Of course not tying in to the grid means the solar
power has to be stored somewhere to be available
when needed. This explains VanBokkelens 2000
amp battery bank, situated in a room in the barn just
beneath the panels. It contains 48 2-volt lead/acid
cells, wired in parallel to make two 48 volt strings.
He uses 2-volt batteries because they are standard
equipment in the back-up industry since two volts is
photo by Jack Kittredge
VanBokkelen shows the array of batteries which hold the power for his farm operation. The
box is insulated to help retain heat and function better during winter months.
photo by Jack Kittredge
The pigs, who are watered by the solar-powered DC pump in the barn,
enjoy a refreshing moment in the mud!
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 34
the natural voltage of a lead/acid cell.
The batteries are rated for ten years and require
minimal maintenance, mostly being reflled twice a
year with 5 or 6 gallons of distilled water. Batteries
dont normally freeze unless their charge gets very
low. But storage is better if they are warm, so the
farms battery box is insulated and James designed a
small solar heating collector which can hang on the
south wall of the barn to heat air and cycle it into the
battery bank room.
In 1993 the barn was complete and the photovoltaic
system was up and running. Where the barn was
located, however, it would have been diffcult to
bring in house water. The line would have to be
trenched under the house and through the yard,
driveway and parking area. Instead, VanBokkelen
decided to use the PV system to power a pump in
the barn.
During that summer, he recalls, we drilled a
new well for irrigation and animal water, which
we run off a low voltage DC pump. It has a drain
back system so that when the pump shuts down
the water drains back down the well and the pump
doesnt freeze. That way we dont have to have that
awful web of heat tape that so many farmers in New
England have who raise animals in the winter.
The DC pump is not very powerful, but James
wonders why you need a high pressure system to
water animals. You have to wait half a minute for
the water to fow, he admits about the barn system,
but thats not a problem when youre doing chores.
The fow rate is pretty well matched for soaker hose,
too. A conventional pump will go on, off, on, off
when you attach it to soaker hose, and eventually
you will burn out your pump. But the fow here is
just right for soaker hose. Its about a gallon and a
half a minute.
In that summer of 1993 they also replaced the house
water pump, going from a three-quarter horsepower
AC centrifugal pump to a one-quarter horsepower
DC lift pump. The current has to be returned to DC
via a rectifer, but VanBokkelen feels its worth it as
the DC pump is far more effcient.
It is only a 14 foot lift, he explains. This one-
quarter horse motor will pressurize the tank in a
quarter of the time that the three-quarter horse AC
motor took. Also, we got a big pressure tank so
that we would need to start the pump less often.
Whenever you have a motor which is accelerating,
it is much less effcient than when it is running at its
balancing speed.
James notes that the water pump setup that he has
could be done anywhere. If you have a pasture with
a water supply but dont want the animals polluting
it, you could bring some batteries and a solar panel
out to a pasture and let them power the pump to
water the animals from a well, spring, or pond. You
could probably do without batteries if you had a big
tank and just let it fll when the sun is shining. A
simple foat valve could shut it off if it gets too full.
The farm also uses solar energy to power its fences.
With cattle on land at a distance, portable solar
fencers make sense. James likes a Parker McCrory
model, made in Kansas City, with a self-contained
battery. Jocelyn prefers a lighter but more expensive
model made by Stafx which she bought from
Kencove Fence in Pennsylvania. It has a slot in the
case for mounting it on a T-post.
We use it to power a 300 foot electro-net for the
turkeys, she says, or to introduce the piglets to
fences. It gives off 7 or 8 kilovolts per smack. They
claim it will last 21 days in the dark. Of course if the
fence has wet weeds against it and is shorting out it
will run down the battery fast whether it is sunny or
not.
The couple also has a power trailer thats useful
where you want 110 volt power two miles back in
the woods. You park the power trailer and face the
sun with a small 700 watt panel. The trick is that is
also has a 4 kilowatt inverter and a big battery bank.
Often your load is sporadic, James explains, like
for power tools or an amp for a band. So you can get
4 kilowatts by drawing off the batteries and slowly
recharging them. Weve rented it to contractors
for remote building jobs, as well as to friends for
parties.
For hot water, the family has mounted a collector
on a shed roof which heats a fuid in the collectors
pipes. That heat is pumped down to the basement
and is dumped into a water tank via a heat
exchanger plumbed into it.
photo by Jack Kittredge
This is the solar collection device for the preheat tank the VanBokkelens use for hot water.
photo by Jack Kittredge
In the center of the picture, behind the pressure tank, is the DC pump which delivers the
VanBokkelens water.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 35
We use the solar heat to preheat the water in
the tank, VanBokkelen says. The fnal heat is
provided by a tankless propane unit which heats
the water to the fnal temperature on demand. In
the summer I get 80 or 90% of our hot water from
solar. On a typical June morning the temperature in
this tank is above 100 degrees, all from solar. In the
winter the tank temperature might go down to 60
degrees, but still thats 20 degrees above the well
water temperature.
The lay of the farmhouse is such that the collector
sits about 75 feet from the water tank, so there are
some losses of heat even through the insulation.
Nevertheless, says James, if you are trying to do a
dollar payback the surest renewable energy use is
for solar hot water. It will pay for itself in about 3
years.
You wonder why there isnt more solar hot water
being installed, he muses. But when you get two
trades involved in building a system like a roofer
and a solar energy person -- it vastly complicates
things. They have to coordinate and time their work
for each other. Thats very hard for most tradesmen
to manage.
In the fall of 1994 the family replaced their old oil
furnace with a much more energy effcient set-up - a
dual fuel burner that could take oil or wood. It has
a forced hot water heat transfer system, but James
uses propylene glycol antifreeze in the lines instead
of water so there is no chance of them freezing.
He also got more energy savings by modifying the
controls so that they werent wasting power holding
breakers closed all the time.
Additionally, the wood burner is a gasifer. The
wood converts to charcoal in the upper chamber, he
explains, then when the sensors call for heat a fan
comes on and blows the gases down into the lower
chamber where they ignite. The only problem is you
have to lay the fre upside down the kindling goes
on top!
Another problem is that, since you cant shut down
a wood furnace like an oil one, there has to be a
dump zone. When the furnace creates enough heat
that the oil would shut off, the wood is still burning.
Boiler heat created then is dumped into the solar
hot water tank until the furnace cools down. It just
draws tank water into the furnace and sends it back
out hotter.
But perhaps the most visible device VanBokkelen
has installed is a wind generator.
I put it in because I was trying to be a fanatic
and money was not an issue, he sighs. I thought
maybe I would get a synergy the weather is bad,
cloudy, youre not getting any solar power, but
the wind is blowing. I was offered a deal of 60
feet of free tower as a result of a job taking down
another wind generator. I thought suppose I just
add another 40 feet and see what a 1.5 kilowatt
generator can do at 100 feet up. So I did that.
But I have a lousy wind regime, he continues.
Were near the coast, but not on the coast. Were
not that high, were in a sort of a valley. I went up a
hundred feet, but even so its not high enough. The
lesson is it makes sense to get an anemometer and
measure the wind where you want to put the tower.
The whole set-up probably cost $20,000, James
estimates. He has a rigid tower and says you could
do it for half that using a tilt-up tower. But a tilt
up is held up by guy wires that get in the way of
equipment and animals.
A wind generator is rated for the power it makes in
winds of about 25 miles per hour (it doesnt make
any power until about 9 miles per hour). In a good
wind regime a wind generator will make its rated
power 5 to 10% of the time. VanBokkelen says his
makes its rated power about 1% of the time.
Another problem with his set-up was that the tower
was struck by lightening! It cost me $5000 to
$6000 in electronics, he recalls. I should have had
metal conduit to carry the wires, grounded it every
ten feet, buried the conduit in the ground, and run a
separate ground from the tower to my well casing.
Then I might have had a chance of saving the
electronics. But lightening will eventually strike a
wind generator if it is in a good, exposed location.
Because there are moving parts, he continues,
you have to check it every once in a while. Bolts
come loose, things like that. I dont mind climbing
the tower, so I check it that way. But everytime you
have a real problem you have to take it down to fx
it. It takes a crane to get the generator down and put
it up again. Thats not cheap.
James notes that photovoltaics and grid inter-tie
you can treat with a level of maintenance like an
oil furnace or solar hot water. You put it in place
and dont have to mess with it. You take a look at it
every once in awhile. But, he says, a wind generator
is more like a wood stove. You have to pay attention
to it. It can cause serious problems.
The wind generator is not in my favor right now,
he sums up. I get vastly more power per dollar
from the solar cells than the wind generator.
Besides installing renewable energy systems when
possible, the VanBokkelens try to conserve what
energy they do use. Their refrigerator is a Sunfrost,
which EnergyStar (www.energystar.gov) rated as
using a third of the energy of its nearest competitor
when they bought it. It has two compressors - one
for the freezer and one for the fridge - where most
units use just one. That results in temperature
compromises and frosting problems.
They have a Stanley wood cookstove that they cook
on when its cool. The furnace only runs December
through February, replaced by a wood stove for
space heat in the fall and spring. Also, they have a
small sugar shack they use as a summer kitchen, a
blacksmith shop and a chicken processing shed.
As the perceptive reader will have gathered by
now, VanBokkelen is an inveterate tinkerer. Besides
the smithy, he has a machine shop for making
the occasional spare part. He loves Home Power
Magazine (www.homepower.com), which he says
is produced by a bunch of ex-hippies who live ten
miles past the end of the power lines on the Oregon-
California border.
He also is a fan of Real Goods, which got bought
by Gaiam (Gaiam.com) but whose website is still
there as RealGoods.com, for prepackaged solar
items. For something more complicated that you
want to design yourself, he suggests talking to a
solar contractor. A list of these is available through
the New England Sustainable Energy Association
(NESEA.org).
As you might guess, VanBokkelen has a website
with a lot of information on the farm, his hobbies,
and his energy systems. Its at http://jbvb.ex.com/
photo by Jack Kittredge
Jocelyn shows the Stafx solar fencer charger which she swears by.
Many Hands Organic Farm
Julie Rawson, Jack & Dan Kittredge
411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005 (978) 355-2853
www.mhof.net, farm@mhof.net
Organic Garlic Seed
Free-range Pork
Organic, Free-range Chickens
Certifed by Baystate Organic Certifers
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 36
Biodynamic Gardening
Gardening in Education
Organic Beekeeping
Environmental Education
and Outreach
Courses, Workshops
Part-Time
Training
Learn Biodynamics
hands-on from leading
experts in eight week-
end sessions in the
place where bio-dynam-
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and gardening got their
start in North Amer-
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Seed, Squash and Song
A New England Harvest Celebration
and
Seed Conference
Oct 29th at Bramble Hill Farm, RT 116 S, Amherst, Mass.
See <growseed.org> to register.
Ever wonder how generations of farmers without any degrees grew their own
seed and developed the foods of today? Restoring Our Seed, funded by
NESARE, is a network of organic farmers and gardeners, cooperative exten-
sion and plant breeders working together to renew seed-saving and ecological
plant breeding in New England.
We invite you to join us for our annual seed exchange, learn how integrate seed-
saving into your farm or garden, bring your seed crops to clean, and share prac-
tical tips with a circle of experienced seed-savers and plant breeders. Teachers
and kids are invited to bring displays of school seed-saving projects. Potluck
lunch with a Squash Tasting of rare heirloom varieties with succulent recipes
by regional chefs.
Call CR Lawn and Eli Rogosa: 207 872 9093
growseed@yahoo.com
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 37
by Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko

Our fve-and-a-half-acre market garden and
agritourism enterprise Inn Serendipity Bed &
Breakfast seems to resemble many operations
of similar size: small and diversifed. It features an
integrated blend of some livestock, with a fock of
free-range hens and two llamas, and varied crops
of vegetables and small fruit in three small growing
felds. But the electrical meter spinning backwards
during several months of the year, not to mention
the 120-foot tower with a wind turbine atop and a
greenhouse growing produce in a Wisconsin winter,
suggests otherwise. Departing from the largely
fossil-fuel based family farms that surround ours,
we have largely severed our dependency on non-
renewable fuels for electricity, heating water, and
keeping warm in the winter.
Located outside Monroe, Wisconsin, about an hour
south of Madison, our farm embodies sustainable
food systems, energy systems, living systems and
livelihoods. We moved to the farm in November
1996, leaving behind our suburban and urban
upbringing and brief stint in corporate America. We
possessed no farming or gardening experience, and
were equally green when it came to renewable
energy and the practical knowledge many of our
neighboring farmers readily had.
Energy Conservation and Effciency
Weve learned that fexibility and creativity are
essential to incorporating green products and
appliances into a more sustainable lifestyle. Its
important, for example, to examine the cost of an
appliance or system over its expected lifespan. In
many cases, the reduced energy use, time spent
replacing items (like light bulbs) and other factors
translate to fnancial savings even if the product
might have an initially steep price tag.

Conservation means using less. Effciency means
using the energy we need as carefully and optimally
as possible. Implementing energy conservation and
effciency makes adding renewable energy systems
more easily adopted and less costly.
***************
Our Investment Tip
What $10 investment provides a guaranteed return
of 120 percent per year, tax-free?
Switching one incandescent light bulb to a compact
fuorescent bulb.
***************
Energy conservation remains the most cost-effective
means to become less wasteful and more self-
reliant. Many of our conservation efforts took the
form of lifestyle changes: line-drying laundry;
dressing for the season; turning off lights when not
in a room. Other efforts involved simple changes to
the things we already used, like adding aerators and
low-fow faucets to showers and sinks to cut down
on water use. Some common American needs,
like a clothes dryer, were altogether eliminated since
the appliance used so much electricity. If many
people in Scotland, known for its rainy weather,
could live without dryers, so could we.
What energy we do use, we try to use as effciently
as possible. Selecting energy effcient appliances
immediately helped reduce the amount of energy we
used, which saved us money and reduced our impact
on the environment.
Among the changes include:
Adding or retroftting fuorescent lights into
existing sockets. About ninety percent of the energy
used by an incandescent bulb is given off as heat,
not as the light that we actually want.
Using the EPAs Energy Star label to guide our
decisions regarding appliances. This logo identifes
products that have been evaluated and qualify for
the Energy Star seal for energy effciency.
Only using a clothes washer. Our front-loading
Maytag clothes washer uses 50 percent less water
than the average top-loading machine and about 37
percent less electricity per year.
Replacing our old refrigerator. A refrigerators
electricity needs make up 12 percent of an average
electricity bill, so the Sun Frost we purchased
reduces our bill by about $50 per year. Energy Star
refrigerators now available are also cost-effective
options.
Adjusting how we keep cool in the summer. For
our home offce space, an Energy Star Panasonic
room air conditioner with the an Energy Effciency
Ratio (EER) of 10.0 (the highest rating). For the
rest of the house, we usually do what worked before
the advent of air conditioning: open the windows at
night when its cool and close them during the day.
Replacing old windows. With our low
Emissivity double-pane Andersen windows, the
cool nighttime air is trapped in the house and heat
kept out.
Cooking with a woodstove cooktop and
convection oven. By replacing our oven with a
KitchenAid convection oven, we could reduce our
cooking times (and energy use). Our woodstove
when fred up in the winter is now regularly used to
cook soups, fry eggs and boil potatoes, helping us
reduce our use of our electric range.
Domestic Hot Water Heated by the Sun

Nature is our model. It guides us in our organic
kitchen garden, from which we harvest enough
food to meet about seventy percent of our personal
and Bed & Breakfast needs. Our decisions
related to employing renewable energy systems
were no different. All our systems were added
incrementally, as budgets permitted.
Our frst entry into renewable energy systems,
paralleling our energy conservation efforts, was to
add a solar thermal system in our 80-year-old, 1,969
square foot farmhouse for domestic hot water and,
two years later, a woodstove for heat in the winter.
Recognizing that about 10-15% of an average
homes energy use goes toward heating hot water,
in the spring of 1997 we added three 4-foot by 8-
foot fat-plate solar collectors for a domestic solar
hot water system, placed on our south facing roof at
about a 45-degree angle, optimized for spring and
fall solar gain.
A non-toxic and stable inhibited propylene glycol,
or RV anti-freeze, is used in our closed-loop
active solar thermal systems. A differential
photo courtesy John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist
Photovoltaic system panels to the left and wind turbine above generate signifcant power for
the couples operation.
Powering the Farm with Renewable Energy
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 38
temperature controller senses when the collector
fuid is hotter than the water in the basement storage
tank. A 1/12 hp pump circulates the fuid through
a heat exchanger where the heat is transferred to
our domestic water. The hot water is stored in a
standard 80-gallon water tank that is connected to
our existing 65-gallon electric water heater and tank.
The installed cost (including our labor) was $4,264,
less a utility rebate at the time of $1,500. Based on
estimated energy savings, this solar thermal system
likely paid for itself within six years.
Had we to do it over, we would have mounted the
collectors on the ground for easier installation,
winter access (to knock off snow), and greater ease
in replacing pipe insulation that often blows off in
windy storms. Other than occasionally checking
the system to bleed off any air build-up in the
closed-loop system, solar thermal systems tend to be
relatively maintenance free.
Active Solar Thermal System to Heat the
Greenhouse
For the 1,200 square foot greenhouse, heat from
the sunlight is collected with ten 4-foot by 10-
foot collectors. Like the solar thermal system for
domestic hot water, the glycol solution is pumped
through the closed loop system using two pumps
through underground insulated piping into a heat
exchanging coil of 120 feet of 3/4-inch copper
piping, allowing the heat to be transferred and
stored in 780 gallons of water in several fberglass
tanks inside the greenhouse. The stored heat is then
transferred to the air inside the greenhouse through a
liquid-to-air heat exchanger in a way similar to how
an automobiles radiator-cooling system cools the
engine, except we are heating the greenhouse.
In the middle of the winter, the collectors angled
about 52-degrees for optimal winter solar gain
capture about 240,000 BTUs on each sunny day. So
when its a frigid, but sunny, 10-degrees Fahrenheit
outside, the collectors will heat up the water tanks
inside to more than 90-degrees Fahrenheit. For
strings of cloudy days in the winter, well be using
an oil furnace or portable space heater that readily
burns our home-processed biodiesel to keep the
greenhouse heated.
The installed cost (including our labor) in the fall of
2001 was about $19,000, less a utility rebate at the
time of $1,500. The only modifcation made to the
system was a fexible expansion joint for the closed
loop solar thermal system, placed at the base of
the collectors located about eighty feet south of the
greenhouse. This permits movement to the buried
pipes as the ground freezes and thaws, a recurring
problem during the frst two years that caused a leak
at one of the connections.
Photovoltaic (PV) System
The generation of electricity using renewable energy
for our farm came in two phases. First, we added
a 480 Watt PV system in May of 2002 which is
estimated to generate about 536 kWh/year based
on about 15-percent line and inverter loss and a
Wisconsin .60 solar gain ratio. Four PV panels
were attached to a fxed rack which we cantilevered
off the south-facing wall of an existing equipment
shed. The rack is adjusted four times a year, roughly
midway between the equinoxes and solstices.
Other than these straight forward adjustments,
taking about fve minutes each time, the PV system
requires no other maintenance. We receive regular
enough rainfall to keep the modules clean and dust
free.
The installed cost (including in-kind labor) was
$8,352, less two statewide grants of $3,000 and
$536.
photo courtesy John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist
John and Lisa pose in their barn window.
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gcncrotc rcncwoblc cncrgy. it ond thc outhnrs n this bnnk orc
hclping cncrgizc ond givc o grcotcr vnicc tn o mnvcmcnt n pcnplc
scorching nr mnrc sustoinoblc woys tn livc.
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Powering the
Good Life.
w w w. r u r a l r e n a i s s a n c e . o r g
RURAL RENAISSANCE
by John Ivanko & Lisa Kivirist
!his bnnk is jompockcd with hnwtns ond rcsnurccs in cosc ynuvc
bccn thinking n moking ynur nwn jnurncy intn Amcricos rurol
rcnoissoncc. 3im Hightnwcr, outhnr n 1heves n uqh r/aces
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Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 39
Wind Turbine System
Sitting high on the ridge where we can see for many
unobstructed miles in every direction, our farm
bids well for electricity generation with a wind
turbine our second phase of renewable energy
production. After a site assessment completed
during the fall of 2002, it was estimated that a 10
kW Bergey XL-S system, with an annual wind
speed of 13 mph at the tower height of 120-feet,
would generate about 1,130 kWh/month, or 13,560
kWh/year.
Our most signifcant investment in renewable energy
generation was completed in May, 2003 when we
added the suggested wind turbine system on a 120-
foot guyed lattice tower. Its critical to place the
turbine as high as possible, budgets permitting, for
consistently higher wind speeds. Going from a
wind speed of 10 mph to 12 mph can almost double
the turbine output. The tower, purchased used, was
placed about 300 feet southeast of the house, well
within the fall lines of our rectangular shaped
property. We needed to upgrade our electric service
to the farmstead to a 200 amp service.

The installed cost (including signifcant in-kind
labor) was $39,465, less a statewide grant of
$15,595.
With respect to our grid intertie electric systems,
our public utility, Alliant Energy, required a simple
contract, certifcate of liability insurance in excess
of $300,000, equipment specifcation sheets, and
a lockable external AC disconnect (to allow our
utility to isolate our system when needed). Our
local Alliant Energy representative was supportive
of the project throughout the entire process. Farmer
neighbors, many retirees, were contacted in advance
of the project but had no objections, many stopping
by when the tower and turbine were raised with a
crane.
We have a parallel meter in which the meter spins
either frontwards or backwards depending on how
much electricity were using versus how much
were producing. We bank (and get a credit
for) our excess electricity generation at Alliant
Energys retail rate (presently $.08/kWh), though
what utilities pay for the surplus electricity varies
by utility; some utilities, especially rural electric
cooperatives, do not pay anything should you have
a surplus.
***********
Practical Steps for Harvesting the Wind & Sun
(1) Exhaust Energy Conservation & Effciency
Options: According to the Midwest Renewable
Energy Association, for about every $1 spent on
conservation or effciency, its equivalent to $3 spent
(or saved) on renewable energy generation systems.
(2) Investigate Renewable Energy System Options
& Funding: Renewable energy fairs, workshops,
books and websites provide the tools and know-
how.
(3) Site Assessment: This will help determine your
renewable energy resources, usually conducted by
experienced professionals whose opinions often
help in the fnal determination of possible grants and
rebates.
(4) Apply for Funding Support: Secure funding if
available.
(5) Connect with Community: Talking with
neighbors about the familiar windmills once used to
pump water breaks the ice; little or no electric bill
tends to hold their interest.
(6) Secure Zoning Permits & Hold Public Hearing
(if applicable): Usually for larger systems or towers
higher than 100 feet, the county and city/township
requirements vary widely by county. Knowledge
of other systems in your area (see Windustry in
photo courtesy John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist
Solar heat collector transfers signifcant heat to the greenhouse via underground pipes.
Subscriptions & Back Issues!
A limited number of back issues of are available for sale.
The current issue and the last three issues cost $3.00 postpaid. Earlier
issues (collectors copies) cost $5.00 and are subject to availability.
Subscriptions are $10 per year (or $18/yr. if to a foreign address).
55 Beginning Farmers
54 Organic Berries
53 On-Farm Research
51 Farming & Families
48 Home Gardening
47 Can Organic Feed the World?
46 Transition to Organic
45 Bees
43 Food Safety
42 Clever Implements
41 Benefcial Insects
Yes, I would like a subscription or back issue of , or both
as indicated below. I have included the total as a check made out to
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Current issues ($3) :
65 Organic Cucurbits
64 Youth & Agriculture
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60 Access to Land
59 The NOP After 1 Year
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56 Farm Equipment
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 40
resources) and state statues (if available) related
to solar and wind energy helps address questions
should they come up.
(7) Order Equipment: Allow as much time as
possible and sort out alternatives to shipping costs.
(8) Sign Grid Interconnect Contract with Utility (as
needed): Avoid costly surprises by making sure
the utility is involved.
(9) Pour Foundations (as needed): Given all the
cell towers going up, choose contractors with related
experience.
(10) Installation of System: If possible, hire those
who have the know-how to troubleshoot problems.
Welcome helping hands or host educational
workshops.
(11) Monitor System: Routine maintenance and
visual monitoring is needed, much like your
vehicle. Many issues can often be resolved by
simply pushing a reset button on inverters, in the
rare event problems occur.
(12) Take Advantage of Tax Breaks at Tax Time:
If youre running a business, dont miss out on the
possible tax credit and accelerated depreciation.
Cash in on the Federal renewable energy tax credit
of $1.8 cents per kWh generated for wind (or 10
percent tax credit for solar energy equipment), if
available.
Powering the Good Life
The good life is about living more self-reliantly,
simply, mindfully, and meaningfully. After
exhausting all the possible energy conservation and
effciency changes to save energy costs, adding our
renewable energy system headed off, or completely
eliminated, annual energy expenses for our farm.
Instead of costing $450 a winter to heat our home-
based business, it now costs almost nothing. The
hybrid wind-solar electric system should offset
about $1,000 in electric bills paid each year.
Generating our own electricity and better meeting
our energy needs locally is an important part of our
ability to achieve a sense of the good life and return
to a time when farms and farming was largely local,
self-reliant and energy independent.
Resources

Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the
Good Life, by Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko (New
Society, 2004)
The Homeowners Guide to Renewable Energy:
Achieving Energy Independence through Solar,
Wind, Biomass, and Hydropower, by Dan Chiras
(New Society, 2005)

Renewing the Countryside
Website: www.renewingthecountryside.org
The non-proft organization, Renewing the
Countryside, builds awareness, support
and resources for farmers, artists, activists,
entrepreneurs, educators and others whose work is
helping create healthy, diverse and sustainable rural
communities. Features inspiring case stories and
practical resources.
Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy
(DSIRE)
Website: www.dsireusa.org
Locate what incentives or renewable energy rebates
might be available in your state.
Windustry
Website: www.windustry.org
From large-scale to small residential wind turbine
systems, this nonproft program offers extensive
wind turbine information and the ability to locate
systems throughout the US.
Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA)
Website: www.the-mrea.org
Hosting the worlds largest renewable energy and
sustainable living fair, the MREA also features
the ReNew the Earth Institute headquarters which
demonstrates how energy independence is viable
today with a hybrid system incorporating solar
electric, solar thermal, wind and woodstove heat to
meet energy needs.
National Tour of Solar Homes
Website: www.ases.org
Coordinated by the American Solar Energy Society,
this annual national tour held early October
offers the opportunity to visit and tour homes and
businesses that incorporate a myriad of renewable
energy, energy conservation products, and green
design elements into their homes or offces.
Co-op Americas Green Pages
Website: www.greenpages.org
The non-proft Co-op America harnesses economic
powerthe strength of consumers, investors,
businesses, and the marketplaceto create a
socially just and environmentally sustainable
society. Their National Green Pages lists products
from a wide selection of green businesses.
Gaiam Real Goods
Website: solar.realgoods.com
From inverters to compact fuorescent bulbs, their
renewable energy experts can address questions or
help you locate effcient appliances you might not
easily fnd.
Appropriate Technology Transfer to Rural Areas
(ATTRA)
Website: attra.ncat.org
Offers a variety of resources and helpful factsheets
for managing farm operations and marketing
agricultural products, including harvesting
renewable energy and starting agritourism
operations.
Redefning Progress
Website: www.rprogress.org
Examine your ecological footprint through this
interactive and informative website.
Sustainable Sources
Website: www.greenbuilder.com
From a straw bale directory to green building
resources, this site has it all.
US Department of Energy: Energy Effciency and
Renewable Energy Portal
Website: www.eere.energy.gov
A gateway to online documents and resources for
energy effciency and renewable energy.
Home Power Magazine: The Hands-On Journal of
Home-Made Power
A comprehensive and practical magazine for those
who want to generate their own renewable energy.
The Serendipity story is captured in the pages of
Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the
Good Life. John and Lindas work with the non-
proft organization, Renewing the Countryside
(www.renewingthecountryside.org) helps showcase
other individuals, farmers, rural entrepreneurs and
organizations that have joined in the celebration of
Americas rural renaissance, with many doing so via
renewable energy.
photo courtesy John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist
The crew collects to erect the wind turbine tower.
NOFA Videos 0501 Organic Turkeys Lynda Simkins
0502 Year Round High Tunnels Rusty & Claire Omer
0503 Keynote Talk Satish Kumar
0504 Plant Varieties/Disease Control Becky Grube
0505 Strawberries fromAto Z Dan Kaplan
0506 Organic Gardening Principles Chip Shepherd
0507 Renewable Energy: At What Price? Debate
0508 Work Horses in the Market Garden David Fisher
0509 Growing Great Lettuce Frank Albani
0510 Tour of Red Fire Farm Ryan Voiland
$15 each
Please send me the circled videos. I enclose $15 for
each in the form of a check to NOFA Video Project
NOFA Video Project, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005
New from the 2005 NOFA Summer Conference:
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 41
discussion and resolution of problems. We got a
lot of insight from his metaphors about dealing
with people and minimizing the importance of
the ego. He reminded me of Wendell Berry in his
concern for the Earth, his openness of new ideas
and people of all persuasion, said Kittredge.
Kumar related the miracles of life inherent in
apple seeds proliferation, and the wisdom of
honeybees imparted to him by his mother, a
farmer in India.
My mother said the honeybees are great
teachers, even greater than the Buddha, and that
is saying something in India, he smiled. Learn
from the honeybee. It goes from fower to fower
to fower collecting nectar. Never ever a fower
complained that a honeybee took too much
nectar. That nectar becomes honey. How many
humans can do that? In nature, there is no waste.
We fll our landflls with our waste. That is the
beauty of nature how to transfer something into
something even more delicious.
Kumar said that work itself is a meditation,
a service to the land and to the soil, and when
youre serving the land and soil, youre serving
God.
God is sacred, and the divine is in everything
in the soil, in the rivers, in the mountains,
in the rivers, in you and me, in everything.
Theres nothing in the universe that is not in
you and me, he said. That identity transcends
religion and it transcends labels and it transcends
characteristics. The true identity of yourself is
universal. When you are aware of that identity,
you see yourself in the universe in the proper
context and all of your actions become spiritual
actions.
Peoples actions in choosing to use 100 percent
biodiesel to fuel their vehicles were called
saintly by Joe Lambert of Global E Industries
in Swanzey, N.H. during his workshop on
Biodiesel Production and Economics during
the NOFA Pre-Conference. He stressed that
getting four people to fll their diesel fuel tanks
with B20, comprised of 20 percent biodiesel and
80 percent petroleum diesel, is better in the long
run in decreasing toxic emissions pollution for
instance than having one person using B100.
Theres no magic bullet, he said, an idea
imparted by several of the Pre-Conference
presenters.
Overall, 115 alternative energy enthusiasts gained
tankfuls of useful information about biodiesel
and recycled grease during the Pre-Conference,
which proved lively and informative with group
presentations speckled with break-out sessions,
as well as state-by-state networking forums and a
hands-on biodiesel production session.
Following a pointed presentation on peak
oil by Hampshire College Professor Michael
Klare, author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers
and Consequences of Americas Growing
Dependency on Imported Petroleum, which
fueled the minds of attendees with Energy
Department fgures and the future, the pre-
conference ended with upbeat messages from the
experts in attendance.
We must put more energy, positive energy and
money into this. Lets just create a whole other
way. Think positive. Feel good. Do it. Change the
system, said Ricky Baruc of Seeds of Solidarity
Farm in Orange, Mass., his signature broad grin
wide below his twinkling eyes.
Go visit your neighbors, with coffee, an apple
pie and a gallon of biodiesel, advised Lambert
during the wrap-up session. Keep it simple. Find
the most conservative guy you know and go for
it. Rock on folks, rock on.
Go forth and prosper, everybody -- for another
fun-flled year! And if youre interested in getting
involved with NOFA, visit www.nofa.org and
learn about your states chapter.
The Summer Conference Committee is also
always looking for new members. If you are
interested in joining the Summer Conference
committee, please contact Julie Rawson at
978-355-2853 or email Julie@nofamass.org.
The frst meeting of the year will be October
30, 2005. There are six meetings annually.
In addition to helping a fun group of people
make decisions about the conference, several
jobs (which receive a stipend) may be opening
up on the committee this year. Members
receive free conference registration, two free
meals and housing during the conference for
the year they serve.
Do you have a topic youd like to see explored
at a workshop during the Summer Conference,
or one youd like to present, or the name
of a speaker/presenter you fnd inspiring
and think others would also enjoy? We are
always on the lookout for new and exciting
people to bring into the circle of the Summer
Conference. Please send the persons name,
address, telephone number, email address and
the workshop topic by December 31, 2005 to
Julie Rawson at the above email address or to:
411 Sheldon Road, Barre, MA 01005.
Likewise, if you have topics youd like to see
debated at the Summer Conference during the
Saturday evening slot slated for discussion and
the always eye-opening exchange of ideas,
please contact Jack Kittredge at the above
address or call him at 978-355-2853.
LOGO/THEME CONTEST
Each year the NOFA Summer Conference
Committee solicits logo designs and theme
ideas from the general public for next years
Summer Conference. Send your logo/theme
ideas (designed in color and/or black and white
please) by October 15, 2005 to: Julie Rawson, 411
Sheldon Road, Barre, MA 01005 or send email
to Julie@nofamass.org. Questions? Call Julie
Rawson at 978-355-2853. Summer Conference
Committee members will select the winner of
the logo/theme contest on October 30, 2005. The
winner will receive either $100 OR full conference
registration, including six meals and housing for
the 2006 event.
Certined Organic
Vegetable-Herb
Ldible Ilowering Plants
Gorgeous 8 Unusual
Annuals-Perennials
Ilowering Shrubs
Gins tor Gardeners
M
H
YBY THY CCCD TH1CS CBC
M
1800 Scituate Ave. Hope, RI
goodearthcox.net
401-826-3130
photo by Jack Kittredge
Bill Duesing, Interstate NOFA Council President, presents Julie Rawson,
conference coordinator, with NOFAs Person of the Year Award for 2005.
(continued from page 1)
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 42
Spirituality in Everyday Life
You have opened this conference with great
humor and great spirit. This humor and spirit
is the only real inspiration that we have which
is going to take us through the diffcult times
that we are passing through. Without humor,
and without spirit, we cannot move in the right
direction. Even when you are gardening, you
are farming, you are taking care of your family,
you are taking care of your communities, please
remember, all that has to be done, not as a duty,
not as a chore, not as to earn a living, not as to
make ends meet, not as to pay the bills, not as
to pay the mortgage. But for Joy. Whatever you
do, do it with joy. When you are gardening with
joy, the gardening becomes a spiritual practice.
When you are taking care of the soil, you are
taking care of the soul as well. Care of the soil
and care of the soul are not two separate things.
When I was a monk at age 18, I came
across a book by Mahatma Gandhi: it was
his autobiography. In the book Mahatma
Gandhi says that there are some people who
leave the world and become monks. They
live in monasteries. They live in caves in the
Himalayas. And they see the world as a dirty
place. For them the politics is dirty, the business
is dirty, the industry is dirty, and they think that
they should not make their hands dirty in the
world. And so they live in a monastic order of
spirituality. And the people who are living in
the world think that spirituality is only for the
saints. We cannot practice spirituality in the
world. We have to pay the bills, we have to pay
the mortgage.
Gandhi said this division must come to an end.
We must bring spirituality in everyday life.
Spirituality is not reserved for somebody who
worships in a church. Spirituality is not in
the temples and mosques. We have to practice
spirituality in politics, in industry, in business,
in farming, in gardening, in raising children,
in bringing up a family. When you can bring
spirituality in everyday life, then it is true
spirituality. So when I read that book as a monk,
I was shaken, I said what Mahatma Gandhi is
saying, it totally makes sense, and what I am
doing is totally the opposite of it. But once you
are a Jain monk, you are a monk forever; you
are not allowed to leave the monastic order. But
I could not sleep that night. I kept turning and
tossing and keeping awake. And, after midnight,
when all the people were asleep, I escaped
from the monastery. And I joined the Ghandian
Ashram. I said now, I must try to practice what
Gandhi is trying to say. How can I practice
spirituality in everyday life?
One of the things people in the Gandhian
Ashram do is to do manual work. Physical
bread labor. Now, in the modern world, we
have been turned into consumers. Not makers,
but consumers. We consume everything.
But making anything by hand is considered
backward. Like making bread (holds up round
loaf of bread given to him by Eron Sandler,
who introduced him). Eron gave me this bread,
baked by her own hands. This is a simple
example of spirituality in everyday life. If we
dont know how to bake bread, we dont know
how to live. And people say, I have no time
to make bread, I say to them, if you have no
time to bake bread, you have no time to live.
In Christian society, if people dont know how
to bake bread, how can they be Christians?
When Jesus Christ, at his Last Supper, gave the
bread to his disciples, he said this bread is my
body, I am the bread. Now sometimes we go
to Christian churches and there we get a wafer,
that white, factory made, mass produced, wafer!
Wafer to celebrate the Mass! Is wafer the body
of Jesus Christ? And sometimes Im told instead
of wine, now people are celebrating Mass with
Coca-Cola! So how can you be a Christian if
you dont know how to bake bread?
When you bake bread, then you know where the
wheat came from. You know whether the wheat
was GM-produced or organically-produced.
Whether it is whole grain four, or factory
produced, bleached white four. You know it.
When you knead the bread you have spiritual
connection with the soil. When you are baking
the bread, and waiting for the dough to rise,
you are in meditation. Thats a true spiritual
practice. And when the beautiful delicious smell
comes from a kitchen, and your children say,
Mommy, Mommy, is the bread ready? You say
yes it is. That is a time of family. That baking
of bread is a symbol of home, family, the care,
the awareness, and spirituality.
At Gandhis Ashram, I learned that baking
bread and tending the soil, not just to produce
more food, that of course will happen, but
to serve the earth. Gardening is hard work,
farming is hard work, making bread is also hard
work. Sometimes people say, Oh Satish, you
say, bake bread, so I will buy a bread-baking
machine. I say no, thats cheating, you have
to go through the physical process. So its hard
work, but in our modern society we have come
to believe that making anything, producing
anything, or doing hard work is bad and a
chore. Everything should be done by machine.
And when you become addicted to a machine
you end up with the war, with climate change,
with oil running out, and with society breaking
down. Therefore, what I learned by cultivating
the land, baking bread and making things with
my hands, is that you do all this not only to
produce the vegetables, or eat the bread, or
use the cloth you have spun or woven, or wear
the shoes you have made, but as a creative
expression of your imagination. In other words,
it is a spiritual practice. The work in itself is
an education. Work in itself is a service to land,
service to the soil. And when you are serving
the land and the soil, you are serving God.
God is not a person. God is not somebody in
the sky looking down on us. God or the divine
is in everything. In bread, in the soil, in the
mountains, in the universe, in everything. When
you can see the life as sacred, earth as sacred,
and land as sacred then you are flled with awe
and wonder; what I call an ecological humility.
In our modern, western, scientifc, humanistic
way of thinking, we think that human beings
are somehow in charge of the earth. All the
land is created for human use. All the trees and
the forests are there for our beneft. But in the
Gandhian way of thinking, we are not in charge
of the earth. We are part of the earth. We are not
the rulers or the governors or the managers. We
are servants of the earth. Earth is sacred. Life is
sacred. And therefore, with gratitude, we thank
the earth, the soil, the trees, the fruit that we
receive from earth. The earth is a gift.
When I sit down to eat my meal, I thank the
gardener, I thank the cook, I thank everyone,
and then I say also thanks to the earthworms.
However good a gardener may be and
sometimes some gardeners claim to have green
fngers whatever they touch grows, but if the
earthworms were not working under the soil
day and night, twenty-four hours, without any
payment, without any wages, I would not have
any food on the table. And therefore, I say long
live the worms!
Transcript of Satish
Kumar Keynote
The bi-monthly magazine edited by Satish Kumar
Resurgence will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year!
Browse the website at www.Resurgence.org
Subscriptions $66 airmail, $53 surface
(subscribers also receive 3 back issues of Resurgence free)
Subscribe on the website or via mail to:
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Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 43
At the Gandhian Ashram I learned that nature
is our greatest teacher. Nature is not there for
consumption. Nature is there to learn from. I
am an apple grower. I have an apple orchard.
And I planted seedlings about twenty-fve years
ago. Seed is a wonderful metaphor. That little
seed, you see, that quarter inch thing that when
you are eating an apple, and the pip comes out
in your mouth and its bitter, and you dont like
it, so you spit it. That seed, goes into the soil
and comes out as a plant, that seed sacrifces
itself, it lets go of its own life, its own body, its
own ego, its separate self, its completely gone,
dead, biodegraded, becomes part of the soil,
but out of that sacrifce of the self or the seed,
grows the tree. And in a few years time, you get
apples. You may not believe in reincarnation,
but just observe the apple. Eat that apple which
you have grown. That seed which went into
the soil and died is now in that apple. The seed
is reborn. Thats reincarnation. And not one,
but two or three or four seeds are reborn. From
one seed, hundreds even thousands of apples.
Can you imagine the abundance of life and of
the natural gifts that we have? That one apple
seed went into the soil, and died for us. You say
Jesus Christ died for the salvation of humanity.
That seed has died for the beneft not only of
humanity, but of all creatures.
Look at the unconditional love and generosity
of that apple. Anyone can go to that apple tree
and have apples free. The apple tree will never
ask you, have you come with your American
Express card? Or with your wallet with money?
Otherwise you cannot have the apple. The apple
is so unconditionally generous and loving.
That spirituality you can learn from the apple
tree. It never discriminates; you are a saint or
a sinner. You are educated or uneducated. You
are a man or a woman, old or young, black
or white, Christian or Muslim or whatever
you are, whether you are human or a bird or a
wasp, whoever you are, have it, help yourself.
President Reagan used to say, Theres no such
thing as free lunch. In the market economy,
no such thing as free lunch. But in the world of
nature, the only thing is free lunch!
It is because human beings see everything
monetized, everything commodifed, everything
bought and sold, land is bought is sold, even
water is bought and sold. Everything we have
is valued in terms of money. But in nature,
99.9 percent of the creatures on this planet are
getting free lunch everyday. They dont buy
or sell, they dont need any supermarket, they
dont need companies like Monsanto or Cargil.
All creatures are fed and watered and sheltered
without any monetary exchange. So that is the
self-organising spirituality that we can observe
and learn from nature.
My mother was a farmer, and in those days
there was no distinction between an organic
farmer and a chemical farmer. In my mothers
days, there were no chemicals, so all farming
was organic. My mother also loved bees. She
would say to me that bees are the greatest
teachers. Even greater teachers than the
Buddha. And that is saying something in India.
Because Buddha was the greatest teacher for
us. Mother would say, if you want to learn the
lessons of transformation, and the lessons of
restraint, you can learn from the honeybee.
What does the honeybee do? It goes from
fower to fower collecting a little nectar here,
a little there. Never too much. Never ever a
fower has complained that the honeybee came
and took too much nectar away. And what do
we humans do? We humans go to a place for
mining or oil, and we take, and take, and take
until it is completely depleted and destroyed
and fnished. But honeybees never do that.
Then what do honeybees do with that nectar?
transform that nectar into sweet, delicious,
healing honey. How many humans can do
that? If we can take something from nature
and transform it into something better, then
that would be something. We will say then
humans have eco-intelligence, they have that
spirituality, that generosity. But we dont. We
are the greatest waste-makers upon the earth.
We are flling landflls with our waste. Waste
is a sign against nature. In nature there is no
waste. Even those apples that dont get eaten
either by humans or by birds or by wasps
fall back into the soil and become compost
and nourish the soil. That is the beauty of
nature. And while honeybees are taking nectar
from fowers they pollinate. They are the
true networkers, they are the matchmakers.
You want to fnd a matchmaker? Look for
honeybees.
When you are able to look around and practice
ecological humility, then your gardening, your
farming, your baking bread becomes a spiritual
practice. Spirituality in the heart, it is in the
consciousness, but, just in your heart and just
in your consciousness is not enough. It has
to manifest through our hands in everyday
ordinary activities, and those ordinary activities
are transformed into extraordinary activities
because of your spirit in your heart and in your
consciousness.
Spirituality can manifest through hands but
also through our feet. Yes, walking is my
passion. And walking is a very noble way
to get around. The Buddha walked, Gandhi
walked, my mother walked long distances. I
was inspired by Bertrand Russell to walk for
peace, because he walked for peace. He also
went to jail for peace in the world, he was
protesting against nuclear weapons. One day, I
photo by Jack Kittredge
Dale Perkins gives conference workshop on sheep
photo by Jack Kittredge
Conference goers celebrate after hours at the Red Barn
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 44
read in the newspaper that Bertrand Russell, a
90-year-old philosopher in England, had been
imprisoned, because of peace actions. I read
about him and I said, heres a man of 90 going
to jail for peace in the world? What am I doing,
a young man sitting here drinking coffee? And
so that was the inspiration. And with a friend
of mine, we started to walk for peace. And we
said we will join the movement for peace and
nuclear disarmament led by Bertrand Russell.
We will go to Moscow, to Paris, to London and
to Washington; the four nuclear capitals at that
time.
Our teacher, Vinoba Bhave said, you are
walking for peace, where does peace start?
And where does war star? It starts in the mind.
When you have fear of the other, that is the
beginning of war. And when you have trust in
your heart, that is the beginning of peace. And
so I will say to you that you walk around the
world for peace, but go without any money in
your pockets. I said to him, not any money?
He said, not a single cent, not a single dime
because if you have money in your pockets, you
will think that when you are tired you will sleep
in a guest house, or you will eat in a restaurant,
then you will meet nobody. But when you have
no money in your pockets you will be forced
to fnd someone kind and hospitable to give
you the hospitality for the night. And you are
vegetarian, so when they give you food you will
say that you are vegetarian, and they will say,
why vegetarian? Then you can talk about non-
violence, you can talk about making peace with
nature. Because peace with just humans is not
enough, you have to make peace with nature,
you have to make peace with animals.
With that advice, we took no money and
we started to walk from Mahatma Gandhis
grave in New Delhi. We went through India
and Pakistan. Then we came to Khyber Pass.
Khyber Pass is a 4,000-feet high pass in the
Himalayas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
We were going slowly with our rucksacks
on our backs and walking up a narrow road.
Walking up and up. Suddenly a car passed by
us and after about 50 or 100 yards, the car
stopped, and reversed. The man opened the
window of the car and said, gentlemen, do
you want a lift? I said, no thank you, we are
walking. Walking! Arent you glad that in this
wilderness of the Khyber Pass we are offering
you a lift? Where are you walking? We will
take you wherever you are going -- we are
going that way. I said, as a matter of fact, we
are walking to the United States of America.
The man was very puzzled. He opened the door,
came out, and said, gentlemen, do you know
where the United States of America is? I said,
we have never been there, but we believe that
it exists because we have seen it on the map.
(By the way, these two people in the car were
U.S citizens and thats why I was making a
joke.) The man came out of the car and said
I dont know if you will make it to America
but if you ever do here is my card. Give me a
ring. His name was Dr. Scarf and he lived in
Philadelphia.
And so after walking through Afghanistan, Iran,
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Moscow,
Berlin, Paris and London we met Bertrand
Russell. He helped us to get across the Atlantic
with two tickets on the Queen Mary and we
arrived in New York and from New York,
through walking, we came to Philadelphia. And
I remembered Dr. Scarf. I had kept the card
very safely. When you are walking and have no
money the address is very valuable! I phoned
him and said, Dr. Scarf, do you remember
you met two Indians in Khyber Pass. He said,
yes I do where are they? I said, we are right
here in your city and we have made it. After
two and a half years when he received our call
he was absolutely surprised. He came and met
us and took us to his home and he invited his
friends and gave us a big dinner and we had a
wonderful time.
So walking is spiritual practice, even if it takes
you two years, because while walking you
touch the earth. When you are sitting in the car,
the journey is no longer important for you you
are obsessed with the arrival, with the outcome.
Like gardening and making bread is a spiritual
activity, walking on the earth and touching the
earth and saying that Mother Earth, its you,
you hold me and you hold the whole life, you
are and therefore I am.
Rene Descartes, the French philosopher who is
the father of western philosophy and science,
said, I think therefore I am, Corgito ergo sum,
and that is the beginning of the dualistic and
separational thinking where nature is out there,
separate and the mind is here separate. You
are therefore I am, is a relational and holistic
philosophy -- earth is, air is, fre is, water is,
food is, my parents were, my ancestors were
therefore I am. Who am I? Am I just an Indian,
a writer, a man? Or something greater? I am
made of the entire evolution of the earth. You
and I are microcosm of the macrocosm. There
is nothing in the universe that is not in you and
me. The entire universe is encapsulated in us
like the whole tree is encapsulated in one seed.
The whole universe is encapsulated in one
body. There is nothing out there in the universe,
which is not here in you and me. Earth, air, fre,
water, time, history, consciousness. Everything
is in you. You. In the beginning of time, in the
beginning of the earth, the frst moment of the
photo by Jonathan von Ransom
Pie eating winner Bayo Owolewa of Boston exults over his win.
photo by Jack Kittredge
The Childrens Conference reading hour fnds a mesmerized audience.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 45
Book
Reviews
Monsanto vs. U.S. Farmers
published by the Center for Food Safety
660 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, #302
Washington, DC 20003
$5.00 postpaid, or download for free at http://www.
centerforfoodsafety.org/Monsantovsusfarmersreport.
cfm
80 pages, paperback
reviewed by Jack Kittredge
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) is one of the most
active pro-consumer and pro-farmer organizations
in America. They have been consistently involved
in the right fghts -- for tough organic standards,
suing the FDA to prevent a total sellout to corporate
interests, examining new technologies as they come
on-line with an eye to our health and safety. (I admit
I may be biased because my daughter Ellen works
there, but I held them in high regard before they
returned the favor toward her.)
One of the more heart-breaking research projects
CFS has undertaken recently is an examination
of the way Monsanto has persecuted American
farmers for infringing on the chemical companys
seed patents. This little booklet is all you need to
understand the technical, legal, political, and moral
dimensions of this unfolding tragedy.
Chapter One explains the companys dominance in
ag biotech because of its successful research into
genetic engineering in plants, an ambitious pursuit
of patents on the resulting crops, an aggressive
acquisition of seed companies, and its development
of technology agreements, which farmers must
sign when purchasing patented seed.
Chapter Two focuses on those complex agreements.
When signing one, a farmer gives the company
enormous powers. The company can access any
document the farmer possesses, or a third party
possesses, which the company feels may be
relevant to farmers upholding the agreement. In
addition the company may inspect any or all of the
farmers felds for evidence. The company refuses
responsibility for any unwanted contamination of
neighboring felds, but holds the farmer responsible
for any production of unlicensed patented crops
in future years, however innocent and whether
resulting from mechanical contamination, pollen
drift, volunteering from past years, or any other
cause.
Chapter Three details the companys shameful
history of legal harassment of farmers it suspects
of violating the agreements. From a toll-free
number for generation of anonymous tips
to agents disguised as surveyors entering and
photographing felds, Monsanto pulls no punches
in its investigations. In at least half of these cases
the farmers are cowed by the threatening letters,
constant surveillance, and the companys $10
million per year legal team of 75 specialist attorneys
into settling out of court. Although forced to sign
confdentiality agreements in such circumstances,
one settlement deal is known to have obliged a
farmer to pay 1.5 million dollars to get the frm off
his back. If the case goes to court, Monsanto often
wins legal costs and in many cases investigatory
costs as part of the judgment. Resulting farm
bankruptcies are not uncommon.
Chapter Four recounts several actual cases of
farmers willing to tell their stories, including Percy
Schmeiser and Rodney Nelson. Common are forged
signatures on technology agreements, presumably
done by the seed dealer after the sale. While proof
of such forgery exempts the farmer from the
enforcement provisions of the agreement, it does not
obviate the license itself, or the responsibility to pay
the penalty for saving and replanting the seed.
The fnal chapter addresses policy options, which
need to be adopted to correct the situation. Besides
a fat ban on genetically engineering crops, one
would be to exclude plants and other life forms from
protection under our patent laws. Another would be
to legislate a seed saving exemption for farmers,
or to prohibit a seed company from shifting liability
for its product onto farmers. One could also prohibit
intrusive investigations of farmers, or negate the
right Monsanto inserts into its agreements that
jurisdiction and venue for disputes lies with its
hometown Missouri courts.
An extensive appendix lists the lawsuits Monsanto
has fled against American farmers. It gives the
defendants names, the state in which they farmed,
whether they were represented by attorneys (a
surprising number were not), the date and case
number, the court district and presiding judge,
the fnal outcome and amount of any payment
to Monsanto. Reading it puts one in mind of
hearing the names of the war dead on Memorial
Day innocents of all nationalities, caught up in
something larger than themselves and paying a
heavy price for their naivet.
This booklet is a sobering read, unfortunately not
unlike much in our news today. We can only hope
that Americans will awaken to the stranglehold this
technology is getting on our farms, and act soon.
Perhaps we can yet avoid the goal of Don Westfall,
biotech consultant as stated in 2001: The hope
of the industry is that over time the market is so
fooded that theres nothing you can do about it. You
just sort of surrender.
Big Bang, you were present there at that time.
So you carry the entire evolution of the earth
in you. And you carry the billions of years
of evolution to come. So you are past and
future. Our identity is not that narrow identity
of, I am an American, I am an Indian, I
am Christian, I am Muslim, I am Hindu,
I am Buddhist, I am this, I am that.
Those identities are only a shorthand. For a
convenience. Our true identity is universal. It
is cosmic. When you are aware of that cosmic
identity then you see your place in the universe
in the proper context. And then your every
action becomes a cosmic action, a spiritual
action.
When you are an organic gardener, when you
are baking bread, you are manifesting that
beauty, that enormity and that abundance of
the universe. And you are like the honeybee.
You are transforming something which was
just inedible wheat into bread. This is honey!
When bee makes honey, Eron makes this bread.
And every one of us has that possibility, that
imagination, that creativity which our industrial,
mechanized, chemicalized, centralized system
has destroyed. If you want to awaken that
creativity, that imagination, that human spirit,
then you have to become a baker of bread, a
grower in the garden, a maker of sculptures, a
writer of poems, a painter of paintings, a maker
of pots. Move from being a mere consumer to
a creative maker. Bring the joy into what you
make.
In India the word for joy is ananda. When
you become a Hindu monk you are given a
new name which always ends with ananda.
Yogananda, Muktananada, Shivananda. Why
Yogananda? You are doing yoga everyday
morning, evening, weekend, yoga day after day,
but you are miserable. Whats good about doing
such yoga? So yoga must come with ananda
-- with joy. The same goes with gardening,
with farming, with baking bread. Whatever you
are making, make it with joy, with pleasure,
with love, with creativity. You cant be a good
painter if you do not enjoy painting. You cannot
be a good poet if you do not enjoy the writing
of poetry. Baking of bread is a poem, and
growing of fowers and vegetables is a painting.
We need to transform our day-to-day work into
a work of art, and a work of spirit.
There was a great artist from Sri Lanka, called
Coomaraswami. He said, an artist is not a
special kind of person, but every person is a
special kind of artist. So whatever industrial,
mechanized system does, it takes away our
creativity, our artistry and our spirit. So we
need to return to our daily lives in which we
can transform ourselves and our work, into a
work of art, and of poetry. Work in poetry and
poetry in work. So gardening, baking, walking
- all of that has two dimensions, the physical
dimension and the spiritual dimension. Those
two dimensions should come together.
Satish Kumar is the editor of Resurgence
www.resurgence.org. His autobiography No
Destination is distributed by Chelsea Green.
photo by Jack Kittredge
Leslie Cox discusses the fne points
of keeping a cow.
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 46
Connecticut
CT NOFA Offce: P O Box 164, Stevenson, CT
06491, phone (203) 888-5146, FAX (203) 888-
9280, Email: ctnofa@ctnofa.org, website: www.
ctnofa.org
President: Peter Rothenberg, 53 Lanes Pond
Rd., Northford, CT 06472-1125 (203) 484-9570
(home), Northfordy@aol.com
Vice President: Kimberly A. Stoner, 498 Oak
Ave. #27, Cheshire, CT 06410-3021, (203) 271-
1732 (home), Email: kastoner@juno.com
Treasurer: Ron Capozzi, 69R Meetinghouse
Hill Rd., Durham, CT 06422-2808, (860) 349-
1417, ronsraspberries@hotmail.com
Secretary: Mary Tyrrell, 124 Mather St.
Hamden, CT 06517, (203) 287-0368, Email:
mary.tyrrell@yale.edu
Newsletter: Rob Durgy, P.O. Box 17, Chaplin
CT 06235-0288, (860) 455-0881, Email:
RDurgy@uconn.edu
Executive Coordinator: Bill Duesing, Box 135,
Stevenson, CT, 06491, (203) 888-5146, fax,
(203) 888- 9280, bduesing@cs.com
Massachusetts
President: Frank Albani Jr., 17 Vinal Avenue,
Plymouth, MA 02360, (508) 224-3088, email:
plymouthrockmusic@msn.com
Vice President: Sharon Gensler, 87b Bullard
Pasture Rd. Wendell, MA 01379, (978) 544-
6347, email: wildbrowse@yahoo.com
Secretary: Leslie Chaison, 84 Lockes Village
Rd. Wendell, MA 01379, (978) 544-2590,
email: lesliechaison@hotmail.com
Treasurer and Executive Coordinator: Julie
Rawson, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005
(978) 355-2853, Fax: (978) 355-4046, Email:
Julie@nofamass.org
Administrative Assistant/Fiscal Manager:
Kathleen Geary, 411 Sheldon Rd, Barre, MA
01005 (Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:00 am - 4:00
pm), email: info@nofamass.org
Webmaster: Brian Schroeher, 21 Tamarack
Court, Newtown, PA 18940, (215) 825-2140,
cell (908) 268-7059, Email: schroeher@yahoo.
com
Baystate Organic Certifers Administrator: Don
Franczyk, 683 River St., Winchendon, MA
01475, (978) 297- 4171, Email: dfranczyk@
starpower.net
Extension Educator: Ed Stockman, 131 Summit
St. Plainfeld, MA 01070, (413) 634- 5024,
stockman@bcn.net
Newsletter Editor: Jonathan von Ranson, 6
Lockes Village Rd., Wendell, MA 01379, (978)
544-3758, Email: Commonfarm@crocker.com
Website: www.nofamass.org Email: nofa@
nofamass.org
New Hampshire
President: Larry Pletcher, PO Box 204, Warner,
NH 03278, (603) 456-3121 lpletcher@conknet.
com
Vice President: Essie Hull, 115 Baptist Rd.
Canterbury, NH 03224 (603) 224-2448,
seedhead@essenceofthings.com
Treasurer: Paul Mercier, Jr., 39 Cambridge
Drive, Canterbury, NH 03224, (603) 783-0036,
pjm@mercier-group.com
Secretary, Barbara Sullivan, 72 Gilford
Ave., Laconia, NH 03246, (603) 524-1285,
borksullivan@earthlink.net
Program & Membership Coordinator: Elizabeth
Obelenus, NOFA/NH Offce, 4 Park St., Suite
208, Concord, NH 03301, (603) 224-5022,
nofanh@innevi.com
Newsletter: Maria Erb, 91 Old Wilton Rd.,
Mont Vernon, NH 03057, (603) 672-2936,
maria@erbfarm.com
Organic Certifcation: Vickie Smith, NHDA
Bureau of Markets, Caller Box 2042, Concord,
NH 03301 (603) 271-3685, vsmith@agr.state.
nh.us
Website: www.nofanh.org,
New Jersey
President: Donna Drewes, 26 Samuel Dr.,
Flemington, NJ 08822, 908-782-2443,
ddrewes@tcnj.edu
Vice President: Stephanie Harris, 163
Hopewell-Wertsville Rd., Hopewell, NJ 08525,
(609) 466-0194, r.harris58@verizon.net
Treasurer: William D. Bridgers, c/o Zon
Partners, 5 Vaughn Dr., Suite 104, Princeton,
NJ 08540, (609) 452-1653, billbridgers@
zoncapital.com
Secretary: Emily Brown Rosen, 25
Independence Way, Titusville, NJ 08560, 609-
737-8630
Newsletter Editor: Mikey Azzara, PO Box 886,
Pennington, NJ 08534-0886, (609) 737-6848,
fax: (609) 737-2366, Email: mazzara@nofanj.
org
Executive Director: Karen Anderson, 60 S.
Main St., PO Box 886, Pennington, NJ 08534-
0886, (609) 737-6848, fax: (609) 737-2366,
Email: nofainfo@nofanj.org
Certifcation Administrator: Erich V. Bremer,
60 S. Main St., PO Box 886, Pennington, NJ
08534-0886, (609) 737-6848, certify@nofanj.
org
website: www.nofanj.org
Rhode Island
President: Fritz Vohr, In the Woods Farm, 51
Edwards Lane, Charlestown, RI 02813 (401)
364-0050, fritzvohr1@verizon.net
Secretary: Jeanne Chapman, 25 Yates Ave.,
Coventry, RI 02816 (401) 828-3229, alfalfac@
mindspring.com
Bookkeeper/Membership Coordinator:
Peggy Conti, Brookside Apartments, Apt.
#8, Charlestown, RI 02813, (401) 364-3426,
PeggyConti@aol.com
NOFA/RI : 51 Edwards Lane, Charlestown, RI
02813, Fax (401) 364-7557, nofari@ids.net,
www.nofari.org
New York
President: Scott Chaskey, Quail Hill Farm, PO
Box 1268, Amagansett, NY 11930-1268, H
(631) 725-9228 W (631) 267-8942, schaskey@
peconiclandtrust.org
Vice President: Maureen Knapp, Cobblestone
Valley Enterprises, LLC, Box 121, 2023
Preble Rd, Preble, NY 13141, (607) 749-4032,
cvfarm@twcny.rr.com
Secretary: Annette Hogan, 526 State Rte 91,
Tully, NY 13159-3288, 315-696-0231, annette.
hogan@worldnet.att.net
Treasurer: Alton Earnhart, 1408 Clove Valley
Rd., Hopewell Junction, NY12533, (845) 724-
4592, altone@attglobal.net
Certifcation Liaison: Mary Jo Long, 534 Chase
Rd, Afton, NY 13730, H (607) 967-8274, W
(607) 639-2783 F (607) 639-2768, mjlong@
clarityconnect.com
Newsletter Editor: Stu McCarty, PO Box 70,
632 Tunnel Rd., Tunnel, NY 13848 (607) 693-
1572, fax: (607) 693-4415, newsletter@nofany.
org
Executive Director: Sarah Johnston, 591
Lansing Rd. #A, Fultonville, NY 12072-
2628, (518) 922-7937, fax: (518) 922-7646,
sarahjohnston@nofany.org
Offce Manager: Mayra Richter, PO Box 880,
Cobleskill, NY 12043-0880, (518) 734-5495,
fax: (518) 734-4641, offce@nofany.org
NOFA-NY Certifed Organic, LLC, 840 Front
Street, Binghamton, NY 13905, (607) 724-
9851, fax: (607) 724-9853, certifedorganic@
nofany.org
Farm Education Coordinator: Brian Caldwell,
Hemlock Grove Farm, 180 Walding Ln,
Spencer, NY 14883-9609, (607) 564-1060,
education@nofany.org
Public Seed Initiative Project Coordinator:
Michael Glos, Kingbird Farm, 9398 West Creek
Rd, Berkshire, NY 13736-1329, (607) 657-
2860, michaelglos@nofany.org
website: www.nofany.org
Vermont
NOFA-VT Offce, P. O. Box 697, Bridge St.,
Richmond, VT 05477 (802) 434-4122, Fax:
(802) 434-4154, website: www.nofavt.org,
info@nofavt.org
Executive Director: Enid Wonnacott, elila@
sover.net
NOFA Financial Manager: Kirsten Novak
Bower, kbower@gmavt.net
Winter Conference & Summer Workshops
Coordinator: Olga Boshart, oboshart@hotmail.
com
VOF Certifcation Administrator & Technical
Assistance Coordinator: John Cleary, vof@
nofavt.org
VOF Certifcation Assistant: Nicole Dehne,
nicdehne@hotmail.com
Bulk Order Coordinator & VOF Certifcation
Assistant: Cheryl Bruce, Cheryl2643@aol.com
Dairy and Livestock Advisor: Lisa McCrory,
lmccrory@together.net
Offce Manager: Kim Cleary, info@nofavt.org
Ag Education & VT FEED Coordinator: Abbie
Nelson, abbienelson@aol.com
NOFA Contact People
Th e Nat ur al Far me r
F a l l , 2 0 0 5 47
You may join NOFA by joining one of the seven
state chapters. Contact the person listed below for
your state. Dues, which help pay for the important
work of the organization, vary from chapter to
chapter. Unless noted, membership includes a
subscription to The Natural Farmer.
Give a NOFA Membership! Send dues for a friend
or relative to his or her state chapter and give a
membership in one of the most active grassroots
organizations in the state.
Connecticut: Individual/Family: $35 to $50,
Business/Institution: $100, Supporting $150,
Student (full-time, please supply institution name)
$25
Contact: CT NOFA, Bill Duesing, Box 164,
Stevenson, CT 06491, (203)- 888-5146, or email:
ctnofa@ctnofa.org or join on the web at www.
ctnofa.org
Massachusetts: Individual $30, Family $40.
Supporting $100, Low-Income $20
Contact: Membership, 411 Sheldon Road, Barre,
MA 01005, (978) 355-2853, or email: info@
nofamass.org
New Hampshire: Individual: $30, Student: $23,
Family: $40, Supporting: $100, Basic $20*
Contact: Elizabeth Obelenus, 4 Park St., Suite 208,
Concord, NH 03301, (603) 224-5022, nofanh@
innevi.com
New Jersey: Individual $35, Family/Organizational
$50, Business/Organization $100, Low Income:
$15*
Contact: P O Box 886, Pennington, NJ 08534-0886,
(609) 737-6848 or join at www.nofanj.org
New York*: Student/Senior/Limited Income
$15, Individual $30, Family/Farm/Nonproft
Organization $40, Business/Patron $100. Add $10 to
above membership rates to include subscription to
The Natural Farmer.
Contact: Mayra Richter, NOFA-NY, P O Box 880,
Cobleskill, NY 12043, Voice (518) 734-5495, Fax:
(518) 734-4641, email: offce@nofany.org www.
nofany.org
Rhode Island: Student/Senior: $20, Individual: $25,
Family $35, Business $50
Contact: Membership, NOFA RI, 51 Edwards Lane,
Charlestown, RI 02813 (401) 7557, fritzvohr1@
verizon.net
Vermont: Individual $30, Farm/Family $40,
Business $50, Sponsor $100, Sustainer $250, Basic
$15-25*
Contact: NOFA-VT, PO Box 697, Richmond, VT
05477, (802) 434-4122, info@nofavt.org
*does not include a subscription to The Natural
Farmer
Saturday, September 10: Fall Focus on
Vegetable Growing, Barre, MA for more info:
978-355-2853 or www.mhof.net
Saturday, September 10: Practicing
Community-Supported Forestry, Bristol, VT, for
more info: 802-434-4122, www.nofavt.org
Saturday, September 10 and Sunday,
September 11: Drumlin Farms 50th Birthday
Reunion, Lincoln, MA, for more info: email
drumlinfarm@massaudubon.org or call 781-259-
2221
Sunday, September 11: Cooking From the
Garden, Manchester Ctr., VT, for more info: 802-
434-4122, www.nofavt.org
Saturday and Sunday, September 17th and
18th, 10 am to 5 pm: North Quabbin Garlic and
Arts Festival, Orange, MA for more info: deb@
seedsofsolidarity.org, or (978) 544-9023
Saturday, September 24: Preserving the Harvest,
Barre, MA for more info: 413-848-2836
Wednesday, September 28: Year-round
Vegetable Production and Sales, Craftsbury, VT,
for more info: 802-434-4122, www.nofavt.org
Tuesday, October 18: Small Farm Day, Local
organizations all over the world are planning
actions to protest agribusiness power and the
World Trade Organization, whose General
Council is meeting in Geneva on the 19th and
20th
Saturday, October 29: New England Harvest
Celebration and Seed Conference, Amherst, MA,
for more info: Call CR Lawn and Eli Rogosa: 207
872 9093, growseed@yahoo.com
Friday, November 4th and Saturday,
November 5th: 2005 New England Farmers
Market Coalition meeting and workshop, Cole
Hall, University of NH, Durham, for more info:
www.farmersmarketcoalition.com
Friday, November 4th to Sunday, November
6th: CFSA 20th Annual sustainable Agriculture
Conference, Durham, NC. for more info: 919-542-
2402 or www.carolinafarmstewards.org
Saturday, November 12: Next Years Market
Garden Budget, Dover, MA for more info: 413-
848-2836
Friday, November 18: Deadline for SARE
Sustainable Community grants (up to $10,000) to
reconnect farming and economic development.
for more info: 802-656-0471 or www.uvm.edu/
~nesare
Tuesday, December 6: Deadline for SARE
Farmer/Grower grants (up to $10,000) to explore
sustainable and innovative marketing practices.
for more info: 802-656-0471 or www.uvm.edu/
~nesare
Saturday, January 21, 2006: NOFA/Mass Winter
Conference, Bancroft School in Worcester, MA,
for more info: 978-928-5646, jassyhighmeadow@
yahoo.com
Wednesday, January 25 to Saturday, January
28, 2006: Ecological Farming Conference,
Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacifc Grove,
CA. for more info: 831-763-2111
Friday Sunday, January 27-29, 2006: 24th
Annual NOFA-NY Organic Farming & Gardening
Conference, Syracuse, NY, for more info:
(607)652-NOFA, offce@nofany.org
Calendar
NOFA Membership
NOFA Interstate
Council
* indicates voting representative
* Bill Duesing, Staff, Box 135, Stevenson, CT,
06491, (203) 888-5146, fax, (203) 888- 9280,
bduesing@cs.com
Kimberly A. Stoner, 498 Oak Ave. #27,
Cheshire, CT 06410-3021, (203) 271-1732
(home), Email: kastoner@juno.com
* Tom Johnson, Whole Foods Liaison, 87
Wells Rd., Lincoln, MA 01773 (781) 259-0070,
silferleaf@cs.com
* Mary Blake, Secretary, P O Box 52 Charlton
Depot, MA 01509 (508)-248-5496 email:
blakem_2001@msn.com
* Larry Pletcher, PO Box 204, Warner, NH
03278, (603) 456-3121, lpletcher@conknet.com
Elizabeth Obelenus, 22 Keyser Road, Meredith.
NH 03253, (603) 279-6146, nofanh@innevi.
com
* Karen Anderson, PO Box 886, Pennington,
NJ 08534, (609) 737-6848, kanderson@nofanj.
org
* Stephanie Harris, 163 Hopewell-Wertsville
Rd., Hopewell, NJ 08525, (609) 466-0194,
r.harris58@verizon.net
* Steve Gilman, 130 Ruckytucks Road,
Stillwater, NY 12170 (518) 583-4613,
sgilman@netheaven.com
* Alton Earnhart, 1408 Clove Valley Rd.,
Hopewell Junction, NY12533, (845) 677-9507,
altone@attglobal.net
Sarah Johnston, 591 Lansing Rd. #A,
Fultonville, NY 12072-2630, (518) 922-7937,
fax: (518) 922-7646, sarahjohnston@nofany.org
Elizabeth Henderson, 2218 Welcher Rd.,
Newark, NY 14513 (315) 331-9029 ehendrsn@
redsuspenders.com
* Fritz & Pat Vohr, In the Woods Farm, 51
Edwards Lane, Charlestown,RI 02813 (401)
364-0050, fritzvohr1@verizon.net
* Enid Wonnacott, 478 Salvas Rd., Huntington,
VT 05462 (802) 434-4435 elila@sover.net
* Camilla Roberts, 35 Sleepy Valley Rd.,
Athens, VT 05143 (802) 869-1388, camil@
sover.net
Kirsten Novak Bower, 65 Wortheim Ln.,
Richmond, VT 05477 (802) 434-5420,
kbower@juno.com
John Cleary, 407 Rt. 15, Underhill, VT 05489,
(802) 899-3808. vof@nofavt.org
Kay Magilavy, Virtual Rep, 212 18th St., Union
City, NJ 07087, (201) 863-1741
Jonathan von Ranson, Manuals Project, 6 Locks
Village Rd., Wendell, MA 01379, (978) 544-
3758, Email: Commonfarm@crocker.com
Brian Schroeher, Webmaster, 21 Tamarack
Court, Newtown, PA 18940, (215) 825-2140,
cell (908) 268-7059, Email: schroeher@yahoo.
com
Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson, The Natural
Farmer, NOFA Summer Conference, 411
Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005 (978) 355-2853,
Jack@mhof.net, Julie@mhof.net
Torrey Reade, Treasurer, Credit Card Support,
723 Hammersville-Canton Rd., Salem, NJ
08079, 856-935-3612, neptune@waterw.com
Interstate
Certifcation
Contacts
John Cleary, 407 Rt. 15, Underhill, VT 05489,
(802) 899-3808 vof@nofavt.org
Carol King & Lisa Engelbert, 840 Front Street,
Binghamton, NY 13905, (607) 724-9851, fax:
(607)724-9853, certifedorganic@nofany.org
Erich V. Bremer, PO Box 886, Pennington, NJ
08534-0886, (609) 737-6848, certify@nofanj.
org
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