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Foodshed Field School event on tap for today

BEVERLY — Local foods and farm-to-table products are hot topics these days, and many nonprofit organizations see value in investing in an agricultural industry that is growing to be a major player to a sustainable market looking for good food, good nutrition and access to fresh products.

The first West Virginia regional Foodshed Field School will be offered from 3:30-6:30 p.m. today at the Charm Farm in Beverly. The event is a collaboration between Future Harvest CASA, part of the Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, the Potomac Highlands Food & Farm Initiative, and the Value Chain Cluster Initiative (VC2), a program of the Natural Capital Investment Fund, based in Shepherdstown.

Mike Kwasniewski is co-owner of the Charm Farm, a whole-diet community supported agriculture farm. Charm Farm will provide a guided tour of the farm’s crops, plus a peek at the new walk-in cooler that allows long-term storage of large quantities of root crops throughout the winter. The tour will also include guidelines on the planning, labor and passion that powers a year-round, full-diet community supported agriculture program.

Through community supported agriculture programs, farmers sell their locally-grown food products directly to customers. What began in the 1980s as a seasonal agricultural occupation, branched out in 2004 to whole-diet CSA farms that focus on providing their subscribers and their families locally-grown products all year long by expanding to beef, pork, flour, grains, dairy and root vegetables. Whole-diet CSA farms strive to supply shareholders with all the food they need through the winter and spring.

“The Foodshed Field School project here at the Charm Farm is part of the educational programming with the Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, based in Maryland,” Kwasniewski said.

“It was initiated by Marti Neustadt, regional coordinator of the Value Chain Cluster Initiative.”

The Value Chain Cluster (VC2) Initiative provides hands-on business development and coaching services to strengthen local food and farm businesses in four regions of West Virginia.

“VC2  creates jobs  by  investing in one of West Virginia’s most promising industries — the  production, processing, aggregation and distribution of local food,” Neustadt said.

Funded through the Rural Jobs Accelerator program, with funding from the US Department of Agriculture, Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the Economic  Development  Administration (EDA) and  the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, VC2 serves four regional multi-county clusters covering a total  of 17 counties or about a third of the state.

The Charm Farm is also “organic certified” and Eric Pawlowski, the Sustainable Agriculture Educator for the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), will be on hand to answer questions and explain the organic certification process.

“The OEFFA is one of the oldest, largest and most respected certification programs in the nation, serving 10 states including West Virginia,” Neustadt said. “Their program ensures organic crop and livestock producers meet the high standards established for organically grown food.”

The Charm Farm is located outside the town of Beverly on Georgetown Road. Once on Georgetown Road, travel one mile to the stop sign, turn right to continue on Georgetown for another mile. A barn with silo and greenhouses will be on the right, and follow signs to the field day event.

For more information contact Marti Neustadt, 304-704-1090 or email martineustadt@vc2.org

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