Tag Archives: Slow Food Connecticut

Another casualty of late blight

As you may know, Slow Food Connecticut hosts the fabulous Tomato To-mah-to: Heirloom Tasting Feast each year. This year, it was scheduled for Sunday, August 23rd.

However, with the rainy conditions in the northeast and the ensuing late blight for tomatoes, it is not to be this year.

The hosts for this event are Urban Oaks Organic Farm in New Britain and Upper Forty Farm in Cromwell, CT. Both farms are suffering greatly from circumstances related to this unseasonably cool and wet weather. A few weeks ago, when Susan Chandler, the leader of Slow Food Connecticut emailed to announce the event’s cancellation, it was unclear if there would be any field grown tomato plants surviving by next Sunday. Flooding and blight have taken an enormous toll at the farms, and the areas at Upper Forty where tents are usually set up and parking is provided were saturated with rain to the point that they had been swamp-like for weeks.

We hope that if you have the means, you’ll contribute to Slow Food Connecticut’s Tomato Fund in support of Upper Forty Farm and Urban Oaks Organic Farm, who have generously hosted this event for eight years.

Proceeds will be equally divided between Upper Forty Farm and Urban Oaks Organic Farm and are entirely tax-deductible.

If you would like to donate, please send a check to “Slow Food Connecticut” and mail to:

Susan Chandler
1870 Asylum Avenue
West Hartford, CT 06117.

Please note “Tomato Fund” on the memo line.

Tour of Urban Oaks Organic Farm in New Britain, CT, June 6

From our friends at Slow Food Connecticut:

Save the date for a tour of Urban Oaks Organic Farm in New Britain on Saturday, June 6.

It began in 1999 with a vision to create an inner-city organic farm to help save a neighborhood.

Next, came the challenge to clear trees, shrubs and weeds from 2 1/2 acres of land and 15,000 square feet of shattered greenhouses at an abandoned florist site.

Today, Urban Oaks Organic Farm is the first of its kind in the nation.

Owned by the non-profit Urban Oaks Community Development Corporation, Urban Oaks Organic Farm is dedicated to growing top-quality, certified organic fresh produce, year-round, for restaurants, specialty markets and our local community.

Urban Oaks Organic Farm specialties are salad greens, cooking greens, heirloom tomatoes and herbs. But they also grow sweet peppers, hot peppers, frying peppers, Italian and Asian eggplant, melons, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini and all the crops you’d expect in the summer in southern New England.

Lettuces, salad greens, kale, chard, spinach, collards, herbs and more are harvested year-round from their greenhouses.

Please check the Urban Oaks Organic Farm website for details as the date draws near.

urban-oaks-organic-farm-logo-color

Phone: 860-223-6200
email: urbanoaks@earthlink.net