Corey Kurtz came on board this week as GFN's first Development Director, after two decades working in nonprofits as a community organizer, policy advocate and development professional. She led development efforts at Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts, Dakin Humane Society, and most recently, at Connecticut River Conservancy. Corey is excited to continue to expand the network of people who care passionately about food justice and sustainable farming and generously support GFN’s work.

Corey has an M.A. in Social Policy from Tufts University and a B.A. in Political Science from Macalester College. She spent her childhood exploring the woods and farms of the Connecticut River Valley and has loved being back in this beautiful place once again. She lives in Amherst with her partner, Uri, and their two kids, Danny and Lila.

Grow Food Northampton is thrilled to be named as one of this year’s Massachusetts Nonprofit Excellence Award finalists! The Awards honor the most innovative and creative work being done by nonprofit organizations across the state. We are being recognized for how we pivoted in the pandemic to get fresh farm food to community members experiencing food insecurity through both the creation of the CFDP and the tripling of our SNAP Matching capacity. 

Join us on June 22 at the virtual ceremony where the winners will be announced. Learn more and register for free here.

This past weekend, the Asparagus Festival in Hadley kicked off the grand finale of the tender shoots’ short-lived season. If you grow asparagus in your garden, you might find that the plants are still producing new, tasty-looking stalks through June, but the perennial care and cultivation of asparagus requires self-control. Towards the end of this month, it is wise to stop harvesting and let the plants grow to their full spindly height, allowing them to photosynthesize and store nutrients in their elaborate network of snakelike roots. 

The same practice—of mindful, sustainable harvest—can be applied to wild food foraging, now that the season is in full swing. Perhaps the relationship between a grower and their asparagus is clearly intimate and intentional, but if you pulled ramps in the early spring, or plan to pick from a tangle of wild black raspberries this summer, I challenge you to think of your relationship with wild food in a similar light. That is to say, care for your wild food sources, and they will care for you in return; like asparagus, many wild edible plants may provide a seemingly abundant supply of food, but that does not mean it is all for the taking. 

Read on for more information on responsible foraging as well as a great list of resources.

Urban Foraging: Find, Gather and Cook 50 Wild Plants by Lisa M. Rose – This beautiful guide to foraging in the streets and yards of where you live includes helpful, vibrant photographs to help you identify wild plants, information about how to forage ethically and responsibly, and recipes to enjoy what you gather. Even if you don’t hit the streets to forage, it’s a fascinating read. 

Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement by Monica M. White – This book tells the story of the role that Black farmers played in the Civil Rights movement and centers them as key advocates, activists, and intellectuals in the fight for Black emancipation and justice. The book articulates brilliantly how Black farming serves as a strategic approach to Black liberation.  

Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons in the United States, Edited by Justine M, Williams and Eric Holt-Giménez – Through the voices of people from the communities that have been harmed the most by the conventional food system and that have been consistently dispossessed from their land, this book makes a powerful case for land justice as the foundation for food equity and economic and racial justice. 

Black Food: Stories, Art & Recipes From Across the African Diaspora, Edited and Curated by Bryant Terry – This exquisitely designed volume is a cookbook, a feat of historical analysis, a cultural artifact of Black food justice, and a joyful celebration of Black culture all in one. With chapters on “Land, Liberation, and Power,” “Black, Queer Food,” “Motherland,” and “Migrations,” sumptuous recipes,  and so much more, this book is not just a pleasure to read and cook from, it “tells a global story of creativity, endurance, and imagination that was sustained in the face of [Black] dispersal, displacement, and oppression” (Imani Perry, Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University).