Princeton Agricultural Commission

Princeton Agricultural Commission

Meeting Minutes

February 14, 2024

Town Hall Annex and GoToMeeting

Commission Members present in person:  Eddie Good, Chair, John Mirick, Lisa Prozzo (alternate), Chad Steiner, and Susan Connell (alternate)

Commission Members remote:  None

Commission Members absent:  Dylan Stimson and Dianna Gruber-Markley

Public Participation in person:  None

Public Participation Remote:  None

Call to order: 7:00 pm

Minutes

The minutes for January 10, 2024 were corrected and approved.

Program on Grants on January 24

Attendance was a skimpy, probably due to weather (icy rain).  Program was good, with the presenters answering questions.  Another time, we should try to coordinate with other Ag Comms.

Future Programs

Small Farm Shared Experiences

The date was confirmed for Wednesday April 17, 2024 at 7:00 in the large room at Town Hall Annex, with the usual light refreshments.  Format will be town hall approach.  Dylan and Eddie will moderate.  Panelists need to be identified and recruited:  someone on plants/gardens, livestock, poultry, and trees/forestry.  At the March meeting, we can finalize panelists.  Goal is to have roundtable discussion with lots of audience participation.

Publicity will be important.  Eddie with draft a flyer for discussion at March meeting.  Redemption Rock News and Landmark will probably print brief prepared press releases.  We should also send to the Worcester Telegram.  We can send an email notice to the Town through the Town Clerk.  We can circulate notices through Next Door and Face Book.  We can send flyers to other Ag Comms.  We need to create a mailing list with contact information that can be easily used for every program.

Farm Day

The date was confirmed for Saturday, May 18, 2024, noon to 4:00.  Last year’s flyer and map worked well.  Locations and staffing need to be determined.  Four sites seem to work well.  Rattle Root was eager to participate again.  Andean Dawn (Lisa) is always popular.  Cornerstone Ranch (Susan) is a possibility for the future but has a conflict this year.  The Stimson Farm, Charbrooke, and Audubon were mentioned.  We will discuss again in March. 

Farmers’ Market

We still need to line up vendors, probably through specific, personal contact.  We think we have a good concept (first and third Sundays, noon to 3:00), but there has been little response.  Posting notices has not worked.  We could try to jump-start the market by not requiring a fee and organizing volunteers to do set up and clean-up.  If we do not have a viable list of vendors by May, we probably need to table the concept.

Next meetings

Wednesday, March 13 at 7:00 PM – regular meeting in Town Hall Annex with virtual option

Wednesday, April 10 at 7:00 PM – regular meeting in Town Hall Annex with virtual option

Wednesday, April 17 at 7:00 PM – Small Farm Shared Experiences Program in Town Hall Annex

Meeting adjourned at approximately 8:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

John Mirick