Gather for a celebration of homemade fermented food and drink!

Sunday, April 14
4 to 8 pm
Brooklyn Free School
372 Clinton Ave (between Greene & Lafayette)
Brooklyn NY 11238

Fermentation is everywhere and it deserves our love and attention. Zack Schulman’s, a TNG member, encourages people to ferment foods, come together to enjoy them, and share their experiences making them. Celebrate the amateur fermenter! Think of this also as an informal tasting.

Do you make something special with your homemade ferments? Maybe you concoct a unique mustard from your own vinegar, or cook up a satisfying soup from your own miso, or perhaps you incorporate home-aged cheese into some delicious dish. How about an awesome kraut or kimchi! If so, this is your opportunity to share these types of things.

The guidelines are simple: bring a homemade fermented food or drink or something made with a homemade ferment to share. If you’re unsure if it’s fermented, just drop Zack a line at z.schulman@gmail.com. You can also bring a culture/starter to swap at the culture exchange table.

People who have never (intentionally) fermented anything, may be a bit intimidated, so Zack has started a blog with the basic information to get into the kitchen and out to the party fermentferment.wordpress.com.

There will be a few mini-presentations/workshops/skillshares going on throughout the afternoon and evening and Concerts in the Kitchen will be playing a short set around 6 or 6:30.

RSVPs requested but not required. This event is free, but donations accepted to support the generous hosts.

The TNG is pleased to present an ongoing, intimate conversation with innovative critical thinkers: local farmers, food activists, journalists. and radical educators. We focus on localized efforts to address the challenges of our current social, environmental, and economic landscape.

March 30, 2013

DAN KITTREDGE of Bionutrient Food Association returns!
For EATERS & GROWERS, Soil is KEY to Quality Food!
9:30am – 4:30pm
Studio 353
353 West 48th Street (btw 8th/9th Ave) – 2nd Fl
New York, NY 10038
Register at http://tiny.cc/fcs-soilworkshopday2
Fee: $75. for the day

A practical and philosophical approach to soil management and Nutrient Dense Food — this workshop is for both those who care about what they EAT and those who love to GROW nourishing food.

Learn the principles and practices for producing nutrient dense food from soil expert and organic farmer Dan Kittredge. The focus will be on soil biology, mineralogy, and energy dynamics. Each session will consist of classroom style discussion including review of soil test results. Participants are encouraged to interact and form a network of like minded growers and eaters.

The workshop will begin with an analysis of soil tests, discussion about cover crops, and recommended soil amendments. These are ways to build the ‘battery’ of the soil and stimulate its digestive processes to assure maximum potential for effective crop growth and improved yield in the following spring and summer. Specific forward-looking topics and themes will be addressed and explored, and a gradual immersion will take place as we reach an increasing depth of understanding about the multi-faceted nature of the biological system of the soil and the interaction that takes place between the soil, the air, the plants and our observations and interventions.

Who is Dan Kittredge?
An inquisitive second-generation organic farmer, Dan advocates moving beyond organic. He has put together and is popularizing a system for “Bionutrient-Rich Crop Production,” often abbreviated as “nutrient-dense farming.” Kittredge started his experimenting with nutrient-dense principles on Many Hands Organic Farm in Barre, Massachusetts, where he grew up. Kittredge was spurred to explore the nutrient-dense paradigm after reflecting on the problem of mediocre yields and predictable insect and disease outbreaks on small organic farms. The Bionutient Food Association, bionutrient.org started as a project of The Real Food Campaign realfoodcampaing.org whose mission is to empower and educate farmers towards the production of quality food. BFA now has its own non-profit status and advocates for vital soils and nourishing food nationally. Today, Kittredge farms his own15-acre homestead where he raises grassfed beef, goat, sheep and a full spectrum of vegetables. Practicing what he preaches, he finds it very easy to make good money growing nutrient dense food.

Principles and Practices to Be Covered
Treating for Deficiencies:
overview of soil depletion
causes & options for rebalance
interpreting soil tests
composting for fungal or bacterial dominance
seed vitality and sources
biological inoculation.

Principles of Biological Farming:
biological symbiosis as ideal mode of feeding
complete & incomplete compound creation

Course participants will learn:
to ‘read’ soils and plants
to identify the growth stages, processes and limitations of plants
the ‘language’ plants share with soil and surrounding air

Participants will receive:
monthly e-newsletters to supplement the course presentations.
answers to FAQs
timely responses throughout the growing season
protein synthesis & proteolysis and correlation to disease
management systems & steps to realize

Vital Health in the Field:
strategies to address limiting factors before and after they show up
nutrient drenches & foliar sprays
testing- conductivity, pH, tissue, weak acid, refractometers &
brix measurements
secondary plant metabolyte production as primary insect &
disease management strategy
effecting expansion & fruiting aspects of growth

Managing Crops Through the Season:
observing, understanding and managing plant structure & development
learning from weeds
proactive methods of dealing with disease
crop energetics
prolonging the harvest

$75 for the day
For more information or for a copy of the Soil Test form,
contact : philipmarshall1313@yahoo.com or call 718.441.0246