Green Guru Network

Farmer Grants let commercial producers explore new ideas in production or marketing. Reviewers look for innovation, potential for improved sustainability and results that will be useful to other farmers. Projects should be technically sound and explore ways to boost profits, improve farm stewardship, or have a positive impact on the environment or the farm community.

To qualify, you must be a farm business owner or manager in the Northeast SARE region. It is not necessary that you farm full time, but the primary activity of your farm must be to produce and sell agricultural products. There is a limit of one application per farm per year.

Grant funds can be used to pay for your time and time that your employees work directly on the project, materials specific to the project, project-related services like testing and consulting, project-related travel, outreach expenses, equipment rental, and other direct costs.

Check out Partnership Grants for money to fund your sustainable farm- business project

The deadline to apply is December 1^st 

Farmers in the Hudson Valley produce arguably the best produce in the world. Renowned for our apples, tomatoes, and peppers the regions great culinary delights is part of what makes us what we are.

Farmers here traditionally relied on two or three seasons of income. While produce is abundant, litteraly falling off the trees in season, winters are cold and lean. Many farmers take side jobs at the local library, plowing snow, cutting firewood. Many long to save their harvest and create value added products. They find that for the most part health regulations they must meet to preserve their harvest are cost prohibitive.

Farm to Table Co-packers opened their 21,000-square-foot industrial kitchen in Kingston’s Tech City in answer to this need. It is one Valley company that offers packaging services for fresh, locally grown produce meeting these regulations. Read more in Hudson Valley Magazine's article Farm To Table Co-packers and New York State's article.  Want to find some of this great food near you?  Try following Winter Sun Farm find them at your local winter farm market. 

The Hudson Valley enjoys some of the best fruits and veggies in the world.  The harvest this year will be abundant and there are going to be more tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers than farmers can get to market.  Several great entrepreneurs worked together with government grants and created a USDA approved food processing facility in the old Tech City (IBM) building in Kinston New York.  Now farmers can cooperatively use the facility to create value added products like frozen tomato paste, peppers, and squash.  We can all enjoy these next winter and local farmers will have a great off season income stream.  Check out this story about this company called "Farm to Table".