As the days continue to get shorter and many of you have experienced a hard frost, I hope you are able to sit down with this month’s edition of the Grower’s Toolbox with a well-deserved warm cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Hopefully, you also have some time to finally reflect on the past growing season and can take pride in your accomplishments.

Our farm services team is also taking a moment to take pride in our 2019 accomplishments. Having conducted more than 45 workshops for over 750 attendees, provided one-on-one direct assistance to 135 North and South Carolina farmers, and hosted 1,000 sixth graders at Lomax over four days, 2019 has been busy, but rewarding.

With your support, CFSA can continue to provide needed services and support to North and South Carolina farmers. Please consider a tax-deductible gift to CFSA in your 2019 philanthropic efforts. Together, we can ensure a fair and sustainable food and farming future.

• Oh, WNC Christmas Tree takes a closer look at Christmas tree farming in WNC.
• UMO AgPrime Mini-Grant Cost-Share grant closes at the end of the month.
• Got a new, innovative ag project idea that will increase profits? The NC AgVentures grant program expanded to 46 eligible counties. Deadline: Jan. 14
• FACT’s mentorship program is accepting applications for mentors and mentees. Deadline: Dec. 31
• The Piedmont Food Processing Center in Hillsborough, NC is opening 4,800 cubic feet of frozen storage with the completion of two, 15 x 20-foot freezers now available to small food manufacturers and farmers. Blast freezing with a double-door liquid nitrogen freezing cabinet is also available.
• Planet Kitchen is a new shared kitchen in Asheville, NC that’s available to small to medium producers.

Cheers,

Karen McSwain, CFSA’s Associate Executive Director for Programs

Late fall is a great time to build your reactor, so the compost will be ready to amend or inoculate your soil by next summer.