Baltimore Urban Agriculture

Engaged Community Offshoots, Inc. (ECO) is planning to hold an urban agriculture summit this spring, featuring Will Allen, the CEO of Growing Power in Milwaukee, but we cannot (and don't want to) do it without your help!
The purpose of our proposed three day event is to spark the growth of community-based urban agriculture in the Washington DC - Baltimore corridor. We want to join forces to create the climate needed to jump start, demonstrate, and proliferate projects to grow healthy food in blighted urban and suburban areas, create jobs in underserved neighborhoods, and help create productive and beautiful community-based businesses that meet social needs. We need your involvement in order to make this weekend a wonderfully effective and powerful catalyst for a greener, healthier, and more sustainable future for our region.
So please join our planning conference call on January 14th at 11 am to add your perspective!

January 15 – 16, 2010

Rebuilding the Real Economy: Nourishing Local Foods and Farmers

National Conservation Training Center (NCTC), Shepherdstown, West Virginia

www.futureharvestcasa.org/10conference.html

Farmers' Markets and CSAs at Hospitals
Roneet Mallin, Co-coordinator of the Farmers' Market at Johns Hopkins Hospital, will share how they launched and sustain a successful Farmers’ Market with farmer
Lynne Ferguson of Ferguson Family Farms.

Todd Cohen & Katy Robinson, CSA Co-coordinators at Montgomery General Hospital, will share how they launched and sustain a successful and growing CSA at their hospital with farmer Pam Stegall Roberts of Calvert Farm.

Other presentations include:
Sustainable Fruit & Vegetable Production: Organic Fruit Production: Berries and Native Fruits Gardening & Urban Agriculture: Urban Homesteading

Fun with Fermentation: Simple Secrets of Sourdough, Sauerkraut, and Yogurt Farm to School: Reports from the Field in Maryland

Regenerative Soils How to Fund Your Next Farm and Food Project

Insects & Disease in Fruit & Vegetable Production Cheesemaking in Maryland
Adding Value to Your Farm: Agritourism Children’s Programs through Maryland 4H
Keynote: How National Policy Affects Your Farm – by Kathy Ozer, Executive Director of the National Family Farm Coalition

& Much More … www.futureharvestcasa.org/10conference.html

The conference location – the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) – is part of the US Fish & Wildlife Service and thus a federal facility. This means that EVERYONE MUST PRE-REGISTER. NCTC will need a list of attendees ahead of time, so you will not be able to register at-the-door.
This unique conservation-oriented setting, located on the banks of the C&O Canal, has 5 miles of paved footpaths, making NCTC is an outstanding environment for bird-watching, jogging, and nature photography.

Registration Deadlines:
If you are staying overnight at NCTC on Friday, January 15, you must register by December 15! You will be paying for the room (only $80) through your registration (either by mailing in the brochure registration form, or using PayPal online), but you must also call NCTC to physically reserve a room – 877-706-6282 or 304-876-7900. Please email us (futureharvestcasa [at] gmail [dot] com) with any questions. If you are not planning to stay over, but to commute to NCTC on one or both days, you must register by January 4!

For More Information: 410-578-7878 or email: futureharvestcasa [at] gmail [dot] com
Or Visit: www.futureharvestcasa.org