Act soon, and get a speedy reply, plus 3 Free Signs once your farm is certified!
These and other marketing materials such as twist ties, logo stickers, and canvas banners are available exclusively to Certified Naturally Grown producers in our online store.
Calling Front Range farmers and food hubs! We’re partnering up with our friends at GoFarm to put on a free CNG workshop where you can learn the ins and outs of certification and find out if CNG’s right for your farm!
We’ll eat dinner together, network, and then get into the details of CNG certification. You’ll learn all about our grassroots certification program, including in-depth explanations of our standards, the benefits of certification, and how to get certified. Then we’ll have a Q&A session to dig into your specific questions!
Mark your calendars and RSVP for this fun, informative workshop!
Any questions about CNG or the event? Want to host a CNG workshop with your organization? Interested in our other educational offerings for farmer training programs?
Reach out to keegan@naturallygrown.org
The generosity of our grassroots community has always helped to determine the investments we can make in our offerings. This winter we will expand educational programming and networking opportunities for members. Please chip in to support this work, and let us thank you with a gift!
Gift A. This calendar features artful illustrations of each month’s seasonal produce.
Gift B. Holiday Greeting Cards are perfect for sending new year’s wishes to loved ones. They are blank inside, and come in a pack of 5.
We have big plans to cover up to seven topics of great interest to the CNG membership (we asked, of course). Your support will help to increase the number of topics we can cover this winter and beyond. Please chip in and let us thank you with a gift.
Become a Friend of CNG before December 31st at one of these levels
Just send us a note with your gift preference, or we can follow-up with you.
2 Ways to Chip In
These gifts were hand designed by the talented Aly Miller, whose work you have surely seen over the years on CNG’s artful signs, bumper stickers, and T-shirts. She was on CNG staff for seven years! Today she is an independent illustrator. We’re delighted to continue sharing her work with you in this way.
Our programs truly are powered by our grassroots community. Thank you very much!
In the late winter of 2022, we launched a three part discussion event that was held LIVE on Youtube. We invited producers, and leaders to discuss a series of topics and the discussion was informal and guided by questions submitted by the viewers. We call it CNG Roundtable LIVE, and it was so fun to chat with farmers about these juicy topics:
Want to view the recordings? Visit our YouTube channel HERE
We are delighted to share one of our newest creations, featuring Kat Johnson and two other farmers in the CNG community. Kat has been farming for 17 years, and joined CNG staff as Certification Specialist last spring. Having spent the prior four years farming at one, then another CNG operation, she already felt like part of the CNG family. Plus she was featured in two of the short educational videos we produced last year. So we tapped her talents again for our latest film, “What to Expect When You’re Inspecting”.
Why did we make this film? Here’s how Kat describes it:
The farmer-to-farmer inspection process is absolutely the best part of CNG certification because of the way it creates community and upholds our integrity as growers. But if you haven’t done it before, it might feel scary because you don’t know what to expect, or maybe you fear finding a violation. Hopefully the video will show our new members how inspections can simply be an open dialogue between two farmers that is guided by the worksheets. Usually they have a lot more value than just fulfilling an annual requirement.
All in all, opening up your farm to the annual inspection requirement is far less demanding and nerve wracking than you might think – especially compared to typical USDA organic inspections. Unlike those, during a CNG peer-review, the inspector can offer advice, lessons learned, community resources and lasting relationships.
Enjoy!
Farmers appreciate CNG’s annual peer-review process as an opportunity to meet and learn from others, but it can be a little intimidating for newer members. Plus it can take some practice and coaching in order to do it well.
So we built upon the remote inspections model developed during the pandemic to include Observers. These Remote Observed Inspections (ROI) have helped to achieve two goals at once:
I thought it was a great way to see another farm that was outside of my inspection region, especially since there are currently few CNG growers in my area. I really enjoyed hearing the thoughts and reactions of the inspector. It will help me conduct better inspections in the future.
But it wasn’t just facts and techniques shared – it was also our approach. Again and again the observers expressed appreciation for the values that were embodied in these ROIs, including:
At the end of our last ROI, another observer reflected:
This is more like a support system; that’s what CNG feels like to me.
Our inaugural course of CNG Boot Camp South concluded in October. This series of five weekly sessions is built on the format of our Film SEEDs winter course, but with new elements, and tailored to farmers from the Southeastern United States.
Sessions were hosted by Chad Gard of Hole in the Woods Farm – CNG since 2010 – and enhanced with the experience of farmer-teachers Brad Stufflebeam of Home Sweet Farm in Brenham, TX and Nobie Muhl of Good Samaritan Urban Farm in Atlanta, GA. More than 20 farmers participated from the Southeast, and many gained a great appreciation for the knowledge and generosity of the other members in our community – teachers and participants alike.
With CNG Boot Camp, participants could volunteer to be in the “Hot Seat” for a session, where they would describe a farming challenge and/or pose questions to the farmer teachers. In one session Cash of Alpha Omega Veteran Services Urban Farm in Memphis, TN was our Hot Seat Hero. She asked for advice on how to get better results trying to grow carrots in her particular soil and farming conditions. Nobie and Brad are listening intently here in the picture, but they gave some great advice!
The course covered the following topics
We are very grateful for the generous support of our film sponsors.
Small Farm Works sponsored Three Ways to Transplant.
Ohio Earth Food and Earth Tools sponsored Bed Preparation.
Want an invitation to sponsor future films? Be sure to register as a Business Ally.
Boot Camp South was made possible with funding from the Farmers Market Promotion Program, USDA-AMS.
Congratulations to These 56 Newly-Certified Farmers and Beekeepers
We are delighted to announce the most recent crop of Certified Naturally Grown producers who have met all the requirements for certification since April! They are listed below alphabetically by state and province.
Yaqui Hideout, AZ
Owl and Bear Farms, CA
Honey Rock Landing, CO
The Village Farm, CT
Sunset Farm, CT
Sassy Bee Honey, DE
Bey Family Farms, GA
Bread And Butter Farms, GA
Red Ruby Farm, GA
Woodland Wellness, GA
Leo Nani Farms, HI
Ono Gardens, HI
Jupiter Ridge Farm, IA
Hammer Ridge Homestead, ID
Prairie Renaissance Farm, IL
The Table Farm and Workshop, IL
Locally Good, KS
Little Wren Farm Apiary, MA
Queen’s Greens, MA
My Mustard Seed, MD
Splendid Earth Farm, MD
Sunny Hill Growers, MD
Twelve Hands Farm, ME
CBI Giving Tree Farm, MI
Chubb E. Acres Farm, MI
Clear Bottom Lake Farm, MI
HeartBeet Farms, MI
Mayfield Cottage Greens, MI
Songbird Farm, MI
Third Coast Sustainability, MI
Back Yonder Farms, MO
Longpoint Farm, MO
Flower Farm and Cottage, MS
Cedar House Farms, NC
Dr. Buddy’s Bees, NC
Seven Oaks Farm, NC
McLawland Farms, NC
Black Dog Bees & Maple Trees, NHJGI Farms, NJ
Bark Hill Farm, NY
Macedon Center Farm, NY
Wolf Creek Garlic, OH
Hive, LLC, OK
JJ Natural Farm, OK
Phoenix Farms LLC, OK
Brick & Bower OR
Cultivate Farms, OR
Kohlmann Farms, PA
Botanical Bites & Provisions, VA
Shepherd’s Hill Farm, VA
Stallard Road Farm & Botanicals, VA
Tower Hill Farm, VA
Courage to Grow Farms, WA
Early Bird Farm, WA
Avrom Farm, WI
Happy Day Farmhaus, WI
-⠀CNG Boot Camp: Hold Your Spot
-⠀Our 3 New Board Members
-⠀Staff Transition & Addition
Are there any new CNG members near you? Find out with our searchable map of CNG farms.
We are pleased to announce the launch of our latest educational initiative: CNG Boot Camp. This course is designed specifically to support Certified Naturally Grown farmers in understanding best practices for vegetable production, while fostering valuable connections with other like-minded producers.
We will offer the course multiple times, and to different cohorts of about 25 farmers each. Cohorts will be defined as much as possible according to geographic region, growing zone, experience and scale, to help maximize valuable networking and focused learning with peers who share similar experiences. Boot Camp will be held online, in five weekly 90-minute sessions.
Our first course will be offered to farmers in the Southeast, and begins mid-September. Southern farmers hold your spot here if you’re farming in the South and would like to be notified when registration opens.
If you’d like to participate in another Boot Camp cohort, register your interest here.
Five weekly sessions will cover the following topics: