Fresh Roots Farming Program
Farming for Environmental Change.
Our Fresh Roots Farming program encompasses Lovewell Farm, Fresh Roots Farm… and all the farms that will come after it! Through the Fresh Roots Farming Program, we are striving to make a positive environmental change via regenerative farming practices, hands-on education, and building a community around the shared stewardship of our earth through our internship and volunteer programs. Currently, the Fresh Roots Farming Program is the core effort of our organization. The demand for education around farming, gardening, and fresh and nutritious food is at an all-time high, and we’re here to meet that demand.
The produce from our farms goes to our annual Community Supported Agriculture Program or CSA, a few local restaurants, and the Ramsey Farmer’s Market. At this time, we do not sell directly from the farm.
Our Growing Practices
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Market Gardening is a style of farming used widely around the world and the United States. Its basic tenets include: farming on five acres or less with mostly hand tools, growing organically on 30in raised beds, and growing bio-intensively in polycultures. We place plants close together and grow many crops at one time in our fields (around 15-20 types of veggies) as opposed to one, which would is called a monoculture. By growing directly for our markets (a CSA, the Ramsey Farmers’ Markets, and Restaurants) we are able to directly get know our customers.
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Permaculture, or permanent agriculture, was developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s and encompasses a set of principles that suggests ways to live more in sync with the earth and each other. Unlike many growing systems, the earthworks that go into creating growing spaces in permaculture are meant to be permanent; gardens and fields are rarely tilled and growing beds are used year after year. Permaculture revolves around a set of principles that encourages individuals to create growing systems that align with the natural ecosystems in their area. Some permaculture principles include: Use Small and Slow Solutions, Creatively Use and Respond to Change, and Catch and Store Energy. When we design our farms and interact with them, we keep the principles in mind to guide our work and decisions.
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In order to maintain and work towards optimal soil health, we do not till our growing spaces. Tilling disrupts the structure of soil and over time causes topsoil loss and soil compaction. Instead, we use hand tools like the tilther, developed by Eliot Coleman, and the broad fork, an ancient farming tool to aerate our soil and prepare beds for planting.
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Marking Gardners and permaculturalists are known for growing an immense amount of fruits, vegetables, and herbs on small plots of land. They do that through bio-intensive growing. At our Farms, that means spacing our plants close together, weeding often, and turning our beds over quickly which means the minute a crop comes out another gets planted. These practices allow us to get the most use out of our smaller fields. It also ensures that we keep a close eye on our plants. Intensive spacing means intensive cultivation. As we weed our fields, scout for pests, or harvest, we are able to closely observe our crops and their health.
Fresh Roots Farm
200 Campgaw Road Mahwah NJ, 07430
The MEVO Fresh Roots Farm is a two-acre community-built educational farm located in Campgaw Mountain Reservation in Mahwah, NJ, on County of Bergen parkland, and is a project in partnership with the County of Bergen Department of Parks. The Farm was jointly developed by The County, County Executive, and MEVO to be a hands-on experiential sustainability center in 2015. The unique nature of our farm derives both from its shared possession by the government and not-for-profit sectors and from its community-driven volunteer efforts. The volunteer efforts for our farm have resulted in a productive agricultural operation where nutritionally dense fruits and veggies are cultivated on one acre of raised bed space. In addition to our produce fields, the farm harbors a food forest, a compost operation, and a seedling nursery. The success of the Farm, within its unique governmental partnership, makes it a tangible model for replication throughout the state and country.
Lovewell Farm
40 Peterson Place Mahwah NJ, 07430
We started working at Lovewell in 2017 and have been steadily developing the once-acre plot since. Lovewell Farm is on the property of long-time Mahwah residents Ron and Kathy Knight and their children. The plot has a long history of being farmed and was originally part of the Sidorsky Family Farm as well as a community garden. In its later years, a prior land owner used it as a leaf drop-off, which means that we’re farming on a giant pile of compost! When we got to Lovewell, it was covered in invasive weeds and rubble from past farming operations. We have since cleaned up the space, built a deer fence, and built out four field blocks, with the help of volunteers. In addition to growing veggies at Lovewell, we have Asian pear and peach trees, our honey bee apiary, and plan to incorporate an array of herbs and pollinator plants. Lovewell is an extension of Fresh Roots Farm and uses the same farming practices we use there including market garden, permaculture, and low-till practices.