FIELD DAY FOCUSES ON CONSERVATION, ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ORGANICS
Innovations in Energy Use and Organic Farming
Fox Haven Farm – Jefferson, MD
No charge to attend but registration is required.
Walk-ins welcome, but optional $10 meal must be purchased with registration by July 19.
See successful conservation and energy-efficient farming practices in action at Fox Haven Organic Farm, a 550-acre property nestled in the rolling landscape of Catoctin Valley near Jefferson, Maryland.
Farm manager Dick Bittner will lead a tour of the farm, which includes approximately 190 acres of tillable open land, 180 acres of existing woodlands and 180 acres of new trees and shrubs that have been planted on the slopes through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Farm enterprises include:
- organic hay production for a nearby organic dairy farm, which then provides manure to nourish the fields at Fox Haven;
- a three-acre organic produce operation featuring a solar-powered system to move water from a nearby well, store it in two 2,400 gallon holding tanks, and deliver it via gravity-powered drip irrigation;
- a vertical-axis wind turbine prototype; and
- a geo-solar greenhouse under construction.
The American Chestnut Foundation is also using a three-acre plot of the land to grow a blight-resistant strain of chestnut tree from the crossing and back-crossing of Chinese and American chestnut species.
The management team at Fox Haven believes in using an adaptive management approach: carefully observing what is happening on the land and directing a continuously adjusting course of action to benefit the farm and the Catoctin Creek watershed, and nurturing living ecosystems to perform at an optimal, self-regulating level in perpetuity.
This event is being held in partnership with the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA).
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