Vegetable and Fruit Farming People
NOFA-VT has two people who can assist commercial organic vegetable and fruit growers with technical needs.
Wendy Sue Harper, Ph.D.
NOFA-VT hired Wendy Sue Harper in September of 2007 as the Farm Education Coordinator. For the past eighteen years, she worked for at the University of Vermont as a Senior Lecturer of Soil Science and Ecological Agriculture in the Department of Plant and Soil Science and as Program Manager for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, as well as Extension Horticulturist. During her tenure, she created, directed, managed, and administered many agricultural and educational programs, and gave numerous presentations and workshops to farmers and farm interns. Wendy Sue inspected farms for the Vermont Organic Farmers starting in 1998. She also served on the NOFA-VT Technical Advisory Committee and provided technical assistance to NOFA-VT and farmers in the areas of soil management and composting.
Wendy Sue is developing NOFA-VT’s vegetable and fruit technical assistance program, which will include technical-education programs for growers, requested research on problems, and on-farm visits.
Please contact Wendy Sue at the NOFA office.
Richard Wiswall
NOFA-VT has contracted with Richard Wiswall, farmer and farm financial planner, to provide technical assistance to organic farmers in Vermont seeking production and financial assistance on small fruit and vegetable operations. Richard, from Cate Farm in East Montpelier, VT, has 22 years of experience growing organic vegetables and medicinal herbs and has developed systems that yield consistent profits.
Richard provides on-farm technical assistance for organic vegetable producers as part of NOFA-VT's technical assistance program. The technical assistance program is free to farmers - made possible by a grant from the Vermont Housing Conservation Board's Farm Viability Enhancement Program.
Richard will provide tools farmers can use for farm financial planning, including goal setting, establishing crop enterprise sheets and farm record keeping. Richard can help you analyze your crop records for the past season, and plan for successive seasons. Here is what one group of farmers who have worked with Richard had to say, "Working with Richard Wiswall has been a great benefit to our farm. He has helped us to begin looking at our business with an eye towards profitability and lifestyle sustainability." Please contact Richard at 454-7157, or contact the NOFA office for more information.