help and tips

Savvy food makers who specialize in jarring up tasty seasonal goods can be a huge help when you come back from market with hundreds of pounds of leftover tomatoes. Processing excess produce not only keeps it out of the compost pile but also saves the money and hard work that went into growing and picking the crop. With some forethought, you can turn leftover produce into a shelf-stable product that can be sold all winter and beyond.

We changed the date of our Innovative Direct Marketing Webinar for farmers. The new date for the webinar broadcast is May 26, 2020.

Innovative direct marketing can keep your farm business viable in fast changing times. Join Jamie Collins of Serendipity Farms on for a webinar on tools to increase your farm’s customer base and your revenue. 

Farmers are currently facing unprecedented challenges as supply chains quickly and radically change. Our local food systems can be strengthened by building consumer awareness of local farms using sustainable growing practices.

Innovative direct marketing can keep your farm business viable in fast changing times. Join Jamie Collins of Serendipity Farms on April 28 for a webinar on tools to increase your farm’s customer base and your revenue. 

Join the CCOF Foundation and the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) on January 14 from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time for a webinar that reviews techniques for managing soil and irrigation during times of drought. Find out how to use your water resource most efficiently and hear about managing soil for best water absorption and storage.

Join the CCOF Foundation and the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) for a webinar on December 10 that provides a practical introduction to Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP), a crop insurance option for diversified organic farms and ranches. In this webinar you will learn what information you need to apply for WFRP, assess if this crop insurance product is right for your farming operation, and learn how the documentation you keep for organic certification can support your application.

Have you heard conflicting information about how the federal Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) applies to small produce farmers? Has a buyer asked you to be “FSMA Compliant?” Have you heard contradictory information about food safety from different people?

Join the CCOF Foundation and Kitchen Table Advisors on October 29 for a webinar that dives into farm business planning from a crop profitability perspective. 

Enrollment for the USDA Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+) began on September 11, 2019. More than $3 billion is available for producers affected by natural disasters in 2018 and 2019. Producers in 29 California counties are eligible for relief, including prevented planting payments for those unable to plant eligible crops in 2019. Crops that qualify for federal crop insurance or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) coverage are eligible for the WHIP+ program. 

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the University of California, Davis Soil Resource Laboratory today announced the release of the iOS and Android SoilWeb app, version 2.0. The app now has a cleaner and more modern interface with GPS-location-based links to access detailed digital soil survey data (SSURGO) published by the NRCS for most of the United States.