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 call our office at 978-654-6745 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.
PDF Assessment form used by organizations to determine a farmer's past history and experience with farming/gardening. Can be easily adapted to other programs. All Regions. English Level: Advanced. Farming Level: n/a. Literacy Level: Advanced. Key Words: assessment, evaluation, administrative.
Various Resources and Guides on from ATTRA, the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Information provided on marketing, business, and risk management.
Background Information on New Americans’ is a compilation of resources about refugees and special immigrants actively participating in refugee agriculture programs at the International Rescue Committee in Charlottesville, VA. The information originates from a variety of sources including the IRC itself and the Department of Health and Human Services. It provides abbreviated information about the cultural practices and context from which resettled people hail, with an emphasis on diet, food traditions and agricultural
background.
A presentation on Basic Business Planning and Recordkeeping given by Gary Matteson of Farm Credit at the 2015 NIFTI National Field School. Additional resources available at farmbiztrainer.com.
Do you have a good understanding of what your students are going through from their perspective? Students need to appreciate the core components of good business planning and why it is important to their success before they will latch onto the “numbers” that they generally try to avoid. This session will include tips on how to integrate financial skills training and record keeping into all the skills your program is already teaching, with the end goal of helping farmers be business minded in their operations.
The BCS Safety Checklist and Parts Diagram is a resource designed to be incorporated into a field workshop to train multi-farming and language/literacy farmers how to safely operate and maintain a BCS machine and roto-tiller attachment. This resource should be used by staff as a guide to teach farmers during a workshop, but can also stand alone as a handout or sign after an initial workshop. Staff will use hands-on demonstration to show farmers how to operate machines and attachments.
Shell beans are an important crop to farmers, but (and because of how much they are grown) they face significant pest pressure on the farm. We worked with our local extension agent to put together accurate, useful, and accessible organic management options for the two most important pests on our farm: Mexican bean beetle and leaf hopper.
This Bed Planning tool is used to assist farmers in knowing which crops to plant in each bed and when to plant them. Each bed marker is filled out either by staff ahead of time, or by farmers in a class session using their crop calendars and crop rotation plot maps. The bed markers are then placed in each bed at the farm. This tool was developed to increase farmer independence through simple tools, as farmers were not consulting their notebooks weekly and/or had difficulty reading their crop calendars throughout the season. You can add cover crop rotations, succession planting, and multiseason planting. Using these tools allows farmers to quickly look at the upcoming dates, prepare their beds, and plant their seeds in the right bed and at the right time. They are laminated and tape is used for writing in permanent marker (on top of tape), so that they can be recycled and used year after year.
