In Our Summer 2019 Issue
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
In this issue, we recognize the 2019 winners of the Bill Duesing Organic Living on the Earth award. The award is given in Bill’s memory and in honor of the principles for ...
The Bill Duesing Organic Living on the Earth Award
"My sole real regret is that I leave this earth having only partially completed the transition to a solar-powered society grounded in organic agriculture." (Bill Duesing)
Bill Duesing, who passed away in July 2018, was the founder of The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut (CT NOFA) and a pioneer in organic agriculture in New England. For more than four decades, he worked as an organic farmer, author, artist, and environmental activist.
Bill became the founding president of CT NOFA in 1982 and served for 12 years as the executive director. For many years, he served on the NOFA Interstate Council, including a decade as president. In his later years, he worked as a CT NOFA Organic Advocate and as a consultant, mentoring new farmers. During the 1990s, he produced two radio shows, “Living on the Earth” (WSHU) and “The Politics of Food” (WPKN), and he is the author of Living on the Earth: Eclectic Essays for a Sustainable and Joyful Future (1993).
For many years, Bill and his wife, Suzanne, operated Old Solar Farm in Oxford, and through it all, Bill was a tireless advocate for a local, just, and organic food system. Facing the last months of his life, he said, “I trust my colleagues in this mission will continue their efforts to realize a sustainable and joyful future for all.”
In his honor, Bill’s many friends have joined with CT NOFA to carry on his legacy through the creation of “The Friends of Bill Duesing Fund” and “The Bill Duesing Organic Living on the Earth Award.” The fund supports CT NOFA’s mission to continue his organic legacy, and the award is given annually to organic farmers, landscapers, advocates, or organizations that are devoted to Bill’s goal of loving and treating the earth in a natural way. The first of these awards was announced at the CT NOFA winter conference in February, and in honor of its inauguration, three winners were chosen from across Connecticut.
FARMER/FARM CATEGORY
Wayne Hansen – Wayne's Organic Garden
Wayne Hansen is a legendary figure in Connecticut’s organic agriculture movement. In 1989, Wayne's Organic Garden became the first certified-organic farm in eastern Connecticut and the second in the entire state. He supplied highly varied, nutritious, and delicious organic produce to his customers for more than 30 years. Wayne passed away earlier this year, only shortly after becoming an award recipient.
Wayne was an early pioneer in year-round production, growing under row cover, in hoop houses, and in greenhouses. Perhaps even more importantly, Wayne served as a mentor and inspiration to other farmers, as well as his customers. He shared his knowledge and skills at countless on-farm workshops, CT NOFA events, at farmers markets, and more. Wayne regarded other organic growers as collaborators rather than competitors, and in the case of new farmers, as mentees. Thanks to his example, Wayne has also inspired conventional growers to adopt more sustainable practices. As a founder of the organic movement in Connecticut, Wayne will be sorely missed and, undoubtedly, remembered both for his contributions and for a phrase that became his signature slogan, “organic...we’re in it for life.”
ORGANIZATION CATEGORY
Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center's Giving Garden at Coogan Farm, received by Craig Floyd
The Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, founded in 1946, is a 300-acre nature sanctuary in Mystic. It is dedicated to educating children, young and old, about nature. The 45-acre Coogan Farm, also in Mystic, was added to the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center in 2013. Maggie Jones, Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center's keeper for 25 years, had a vision of creating a greenway to connect the nature center and the farm. She saw the farm as an intact historic landscape worth saving and knew that protecting the farm from development would safeguard the surrounding environment and keep the 370-year old culturally significant farm intact.
Craig Floyd is the farm manager for the Nature Center’s Giving Garden at Coogan Farm and a 10th-generation farmer from Stonington, where his family has been farming since 1712. He is renowned for his bottomless knowledge of how plants grow and an uncanny ability to genuinely connect with people. The Giving Garden at Coogan Farm is a no-till, no-spray farm on which Craig manages hundreds of volunteers, all pitching in to grow highly nutritious food under his tutelage. In keeping with the name, Giving Garden, all produce grown is donated. It has donated over 43,000 pounds of bio-nutrient-rich produce, which translates to 93,172 meals, through the Gemma E. Moran Food Bank. In 2018 alone, 10,000 pounds fed 23,000 food-insecure people in southeastern Connecticut.
ORGANIC LAND CARE PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY
Nancy DuBrule-Clemente – Natureworks
Nancy DuBrule-Clemente is the founder of Natureworks, an organic garden center and landscape design consultation, installation, and maintenance service in Northford. Nancy has set the standard for organic land care and horticultural practice for more than 30 years, not only in Connecticut but in the entire northeast. The Natureworks crew and retail store has used organic fertilizers and pest control products since its inception in 1983.
During her career, education has been a primary focus for Nancy. With newsletters, handouts, emails, website offerings, social media posts and web videos, articles for local newspapers and magazines, and lectures and radio interviews, Nancy has passionately and tirelessly spread the word about organic land care and sustainable practices and changed innumerable landscapes in ways that reflect her principles. She has authored two published books and is a past president of CT NOFA. Although she has a thorough knowledge of the full spectrum of plants, her favorites are Connecticut’s native species and those that attract beneficial insects and butterflies, especially the monarchs. Both her home garden in Middletown and the Natureworks demonstration garden serve as examples of landscaping that is both beautiful to the eye and in harmony with the natural cycles of our ecosystem
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