Voice Video

From Family Flock to Homegrown Food

What is colony collapse and what are local beekeepers doing to help address the problem?

Island Grown Initiative, a local food, culture and agriculture organization, joins local growers, the local Brazilian community and island restaurants in an effor

From Family Flock to Homegrown Food

Island Grown Initiative (IGI), a not-for-profit, is helping local backyard farmers on Martha's Vineyard feed their families.

In this trial run of IGI's Mobile Poultry Processing Trailer, three flock owners bring their birds to a neutral site to be humanely and cleanly processed into food for their families. In regulatory language, this is a 'custom only' event, ie: not for sale. IGI's trained team handles the process to ensure quality control. The growers participate in the processing and in the end, take their own dressed birds home for bagging.

In the 'Pack in Pack out' process - each family is also responsible for the removal of compostables, back to their property for proper composting. The equipment is cleaned and sanitized between flocks. In total, seventy-eight cornish rock hens are humanely handled and safely processed. Now, three backyard farmers have their own food in their own freezers for their own families.

Island Grown Initiative, a local food, culture and agriculture organization, joins local growers, the local Brazilian community and island restaurants in an effor

Joel Salatin of PolyFace Farm presents a case for a self-sustaining island agriculture using existing island land and a pasture-based system.

On Tisbury Great Pond Tom Osmers tends thousands of healthy seed oysters in the oyster nursery. The seed are part of a larger effort by Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group to build sustainable hatcheries here.
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Farmers feed us. And The FARM Institute is two years into a project to raise pigs for work and breeding and for pork. Melinda Rabbit DeFeo walks us through the fields to teach us about their heritage-breed pigs. These pigs are Gloucester Old Spot/Tamworth cross breeds. They root, eat and sleep. They will take the entire seven acre corn maze in a few weeks. The pigs are also an excellent source of food and present the island an opportunity to discover new ways of sustainable animal-farming.

On Tisbury Great Pond Tom Osmers tends thousands of healthy seed oysters in the oyster nursery. The seed are part of a larger effort by Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group to build sustainable hatcheries here.

When you go to Katama Farm you will learn hands on about community agriculture. Visit The FARM Institute's web site for more information.