IPM Field Walk: Simple Gifts Farm, North Amherst

This walk is being given as part of a series from the UMass Extension. Learn to identify and scout fruit and vegetable pests and select integrated pest management strategies that work for you. Walk the fields with Extension Educators and Farmers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont to learn how each area and farm is practicing IPM.  Bring a hand lens if you have one. This series is funded in part by a Northeast IPM Center grant. Each field walk includes 2 education credits for certified pesticide applicators.

Jeremy Barker Plotkin and Dave Tepfer are the farmer stewards of the North Amherst Community Farm (NACF), a community-owned farmland preservation. The farm integrates vegetable crops and livestock, and connects NACF members with their food supply through a Community Supported Agriculture program, many on-farm events, and a farm store. Farmers in the Simple Gifts apprenticeship program are being trained to scout and monitor crops this year by UMass Extension staff. Come to this field walk to learn how to use pheromone traps to monitor Squash Vine Borer and European Corn Borer, and learn to scout multiple vegetable crops with UMass Extension staff Ruth Hazzard and Lisa McKeag.