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Next issue: FoodCorps in NC!
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| CEFS' Week of Sustainable Agriculture
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Farm to Fork 2011
This year's Farm to Fork picnic was a huge success, selling out all 530 tickets in 2 weeks! The event, organized by Orange County and Slow Food Triangle and benefitting CEFS and PLANT at Breeze Farm Enterprise Incubator, has become one of the area's premier celebrations of local food and farming.
Thirty restaurants were paired with 30 local farms to create delectable dishes highlighting the bounty of the season's harvest. Fifteen food artisans, producing everything from cakes to cheeses to meats, also tempted the crowd with their tasty offerings. While parents savored the food, kids had a great time with activities coordinated by the Montessori Farm School.
Many thanks to our wonderful sponsors and see you next year!
Sign up to be on the 2012 mailing list here. |
Our Sponsors
Series Sponsor
Cultivator Sponsor
Tarheel Foodie
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Looking for that Perfect Gift?
Visit our online store
to find a beautiful gift and help support CEFS' work, too!
Plenty of items to pick from, including: short & long-sleeved t-shirts (youth & adult sizes), baby one-sees and bibs, messenger bags & tote bags, aprons, coffee mugs and much more!
 Please visit our store and help support CEFS!
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Letter from the Directors
So many changes; so much going on! The work of building the local food economy in North Carolina surges ahead -- as evidenced by all the great things being done across the state through local initiatives and partnerships and by the continuing successes reported by the 10% Campaign and the Farm-to-Fork Picnic.
We at the state level are hard-pressed to keep up with everything, or even just answer our phones and emails. It just would not be possible without all the work being done by the people mentioned below. Thank you all -- from the Summer Interns who come in and spend eight weeks with us, to the partners, staff and project members who keep things rolling forward!
So, welcome (or good travels as our paths part ways) and thanks for being with us in our shared work, now, in the past and into the future.
Dr. John O'Sullivan, CEFS Director
NC Agricultural & Technical State University
Dr. Nancy Creamer, CEFS Director
NC State University
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Drs. Michelle Schroeder-Moreno and Chris Reberg-Horton Named CEFS Assistant Directors Dr. Schroeder-Moreno, Assistant Director of Educational Programs, will oversee and provide leadership for several ongoing and planned educational programs. Interest in NC State University's agroecology and related programs has grown rapidly. The internship and apprenticeship programs at CEFS continue to complement these educational programs and attract participants from around the world. Dr. Schroeder-Moreno will also direct the development of a new Agroecology Education Farm at the NCSU Lake Wheeler Field Station in Raleigh and continue to grow the NCSU Agroecology curricular programs and NCSU Campus Farmers Market. Dr. Reberg-Horton, Assistant Director of Collaborative Research, will help to pull teams together to respond to collaborative and interdisciplinary funding opportunities across agencies and within private foundations. He will also develop a web-based method for faculty to share field activities, maps and documents, and to develop consensus for decisions. Dr. Reberg-Horton will also work to attract new faculty to CEFS from a range of disciplines and will coordinate outreach to new faculty in the development of grant proposals and activities. |
Welcome Joanna Massey Lelekacs!
Joanna Massey Lelekacs, RLA, ASLA, is a new Extension Associate with CEFS. Joanna will coordinate the new incubator farm project associated with the USDA Beginning Farmer grant (led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology). Through this project, she will support the planning and implementation of a small number of incubator farms (partnering with county and city governments) on city or county land in North Carolina. Joanna plans to work with each community through a charrette process to develop a community-based vision for what a successful incubator farm will look like in their community.
Additionally, Joanna will facilitate the design of a North Carolina-focused web resource for beginning farmers integrated within the 10% Campaign, assembling links to existing resources as well as incorporating new materials developed by NCAT, CFSA, CEFS and attorney Andrew Branan. Joanna will also support a beginning farmer training component for NC extension agents. |
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Farewell to Steve Moore
CEFS Small Farm Manager Steve Moore is moving on to a new position at Elon University in the fall. We thank him for his many contributions to CEFS over the years, and wish him well! Here, CEFS apprentices Christy Ottinger, Kavita Koppa, Alice Evans, and Connor Horne offer a fond farewell.
 | | Steve Moore, center, wearing one of his many hats. |
We have only known Steve Moore since February, but in that short time he has left an indelible impression on each of us. Perhaps it is easiest to understand Steve's value to the CEFS community by considering the many hats (both literal and figurative) he has worn. The side of Steve that we apprentices know best is his role as a teacher and mentor to all those who come to the Small Farm Unit seeking knowledge and advice. With unflagging patience and devotion to his students, Steve has enhanced our knowledge in ways that will become increasingly apparent as we move on in our lives. In addition to being a skillful teacher, Steve is a meticulous scientist, a friendly face to the public, and (perhaps most importantly) a seasoned groundhog trapper.
Wearing his many hats, Steve has been a kind and sincere friend to those who learn from him. Always open to questions, concerns, and thoughtful conversation, Steve helps make the Small Farm Unit a space for meaningful education for apprentices, interns, community volunteers, and many others. As a professor at Elon University, Steve will profoundly impact his students and colleagues, just as he has here at CEFS. |
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Most Local (and Delicous) Lunch EVER!!
Thanks to Arthur Gordon -- dedicated CEFS volunteer, Chef/Owner of the Irregardless Caf�, and participant in many CEFS events with wife Anya, member of CEFS' Board of Advisors
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On a warm June afternoon, Irregardless Caf� chef/owner Arthur Gordon is mashing potatoes in a bucket with a shovel, on his way to preparing the most distinctively delicious lunch of the summer. (Don't worry - both bucket and shovel had been sanitized first!) A volunteer at CEFS' Small Farm Unit, on this day he is preparing lunch for 20, using the produce that's just been harvested (plus a very few strategic additions, like black beans). The menu: mashed potatoes, beets with black beans, and grilled vegetable salad.
Preparing the impromptu feast in the Small Farm Unit's post-harvest handling facility (just barely a kitchen!), Arthur is in his element: undaunted by the lack of formal kitchen infrastructure he is improvising, adapting, managing his rapt crew of interns and apprentices like an experienced ship captain. And then...the meticulously-crafted final product - each plate leaves the "kitchen" like a work of art, a three-dimensional painting alive with color and texture. Sitting in the shade of the big oak tree, we savor every magical bite. Truly this wins the award for the most local - and delicious - lunch ever. |
2011 CEFS Internship
 | | Interns learning firsthand about bees at the Small Farm Unit. |
The 2011 CEFS Summer Sustainable Agriculture Internship has blown through Goldsboro like a summer storm! This year's fourteen college-aged interns represented nine states from South Dakota to Connecticut, and a diversity of majors from English and Public Policy to Global Environmental Studies to Bioenvironmental Engineering. During the 8-week program, interns got their hands dirty working on the Small Farm Unit, participated in research projects with faculty mentors, and engaged with Wayne County public officials, farmers, and community activists.
Interns also took a weekend fieldtrip to experience the Triangle's thriving local foods (and fuels) scene, with stops at the Carrboro Farmers' Market, Chatham Marketplace Co-op, Piedmont Biofuels, and Peregrine Farm. We wish our 2011 Summer Interns the best in all their future endeavors!
Learn more about the CEFS Sustainable Agriculture Internship Program here. |
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Mission & History of CEFS
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems develops and promotes food
and farming systems that protect the environment, strengthen local
communities, and provide economic opportunities in North Carolina and
beyond.
North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T
State University established the Center for
Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) with the
North Carolina Department of Agriculture at the
Cherry Farm facility near Goldsboro, NC in 1994.
These partners work closely with state and federal
agencies, non-governmental organizations (for
example, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association,
Rural Advancement Foundation International,
Farm Bureau), farmers, and citizens to provide
agricultural research, extension, and education for
our state. The development of CEFS is a national
model for partnership, innovation, and
interdisciplinary cooperation.
To learn more about CEFS, Please visit: www.cefs.ncsu.edu
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Center for Environmental Farming Systems
Box 7609 - NCSU
Raleigh, NC 27695
cefs_info@ncsu.edu
919-513-0954
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