New Entry's farmer library has hundreds of resources on sustainable farming, marketing, and operating a successful small business. Our physical library at our office in Beverly, MA contains books, CD's, DVD's periodicals, pamphlets, and videos in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Khmer. You can also search the directory below for downloadable digital resources, helpful web sites, and online farming videos.
Please visit or email us at nesfp@tufts.edu if you can't find what you're looking for here. Sometimes we are out in the field, so it's best to let us know if you're planning on stopping by.
Handout that provides an overview of how to build your own pack-shed and walk-in cooler for a diversified vegetable/fruit farm. Based on a workshop held at the Farley Center's farm incubator.
The Building from the Ground Up: USDANRCS Conservation and FSA Loan Programs webinar, is part of the Investing in Your Farm: Accessing Grants and Loans for Growing Your Business workshop series, hosted by the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project.
In this webinar, instructors share knowledge/understanding of NRCS and FSA funding programs for beginning farmers. Topics covered in the workshop include:
Mission and benefits of working with FSA.
Getting started as beninning farmers.
Non-insured crop disaster assistance program.
Supervised credit and unique requirements.
Farm ownership loans.
Farm operating loans.
Down payment loan program.
Microloans.
General eleigibility and application process.
For additional information please reach us out at: nesfp@tufts.edu
Word document checklist for farmers to assess the completeness of a developed business plan. All regions. English Level: Advanced. Farming Level: Beginner. Literacy Level: High. Keywords: Business plan, market, marketing, product, competition, sales, operations, personnel, management, financial
Working with towns and their agricultural commissions, New Entry Sustainable Farming Project’s Community Farmland Connections project uses spatial analysis to identify unused viable farmland and encourage landowners to lease their land to a farmer. Through spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and subsequent community education and outreach, this process can be a valuable way to increase the amount of viable farmland that is utilized in a given community. By reaching out to landowners in different areas, community groups can facilitate matches of prime farmland with beginning and existing farmers, in order to increase both new agricultural opportunities and local food for the town, county, and state.
This guide is intended to help municipal groups and/or agricultural non-profits think creatively about how to support new and beginning farmers finding land. It draws on the experience of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, a farmer-training program in northeastern Massachusetts, as we sought to find small parcels of farmland for the farmers graduating off of our incubator farm. It outlines step by step the spatial analysis and community process we went through with communities around Massachusetts.
Use this soil amendment application template developed by Cornell's GAP program (https://gaps.cornell.edu/educational-materials/decision-trees/log-sheets...) to help record what, how much and where you apply fertilizers on your farm. This template will help you with both the Nutrient Management Plan required by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultual Resources (starting in 2016) and to help with your farm's food safety plan.
Trainers can use this teaching module to help farmers, either as a group or one-on-one, make a plan for seeding cover crops in their field, by selecting the best cover crop for their needs and determining the right amount of cover crop seeds to purchase and plant.
This guide can be used by trainers who want to assist pre-literate and/or English- as a second language-speaking farmers with including cover crops in vegetable production and other crop rotation schedules. It covers three major types of cover crops (mustards, legumes, and ‘other’), and the potential benefits and costs of cover crops. It leads farmers through the process of identifying what they want to accomplish via cover cropping, assists them with identifying opportunities within their production schedule for insertion of cover crops, and assists farmers with selecting the cover crop or mixture of cover crops which best match their needs and goals. Some data is specific to the Southeast region of the United States, but links to resources where data appropriate to other regions can be accessed are provided. This teaching resource was developed by Lauren Bailey of The Nashville Food Project in Nashville, TN in partnership with the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED Solutions).
This guide can be used by trainers who want to assist pre-literate and/or English-as a second language-speaking farmers with including cover crops in vegetable production and other crop rotation schedules. It leads farmers through the process of sorting through the characteristics of specific cover crops to select the best one or mix of cover crops to meet their goals. It introduces farmers to a series of questions that they can answer throughout the growing season to evaluate the performance of the cover crops they have planted. Worksheets are provided so that trainers can assist farmers with this evaluation and with recording the results. Some data is specific to the Southeast region of the United States, but links to resources where data appropriate to other regions can be accessed are provided.This teaching resource was developed by Lauren Bailey of The Nashville Food Project in Nashville, TN in partnership with the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED Solutions).
Guided discussion draws on farmers’ traditional strategies for dealing with catastrophic crop failures to introduce the concept of crop insurance. Participants are introduced to basic concepts and vocabulary related to insurance. USDA’s Whole Farm Revenue Protection is introduced through a discussion of its purpose and benefits.
