Massaro Community Farm Launches Season with Beekeeping and Composting

On March 23, Massaro Community Farm will kick off its 2013 season at 10am with its first beekeeping workshop of the year. This workshop focuses on the parts of the backyard hive, hive tools and techniques for assembly to get your backyard beekeeping started on the right track. The farm will also launch its organic land care series by teaming up with the Ansonia Nature Center to host the Duck Truck Composting Workshop at 12 noon the same day at the Ansonia Nature Center, just 0.5 miles from the farm.

For the last two years, the Connecticut Beekeeper’s Association has conducted home beekeeping workshops at the farm on a variety of topics from late winter through fall that are intended to guide new and existing beekeepers on the essentials of assembling and maintaining a healthy hive.

“Building upon the interest we’ve had in beekeeping, we wanted to expand our workshops to provide topics that would appeal to and educate our surrounding community on how best to maintain a yard that is both appealing and beneficial to supporting our natural environment,” said Jason Morrill, Massaro Community Farm board president. Morrill is also a member of the CT Beekeeper’s Association.

The Duck Truck Composting workshop will lead off Massaro Community Farm’s 2013 organic land care series that will cover nurturing backyard pollinators and planting an edible landscape, among others. While reservations for this first workshop are not required, we are asking those interested to call (203) 736-1053 to let us know you are coming. 

The Duck Truck Composting is the brainchild of Alexis Wilcox, a teacher, master gardener and composter who offers a host of landscaping services, including light chain-sawing, chicken coop building and garden layout and installation. The Duck Truck, a traveling compost workspace based in Hamden, was born when Alexis affixed a number of rescued plastic ducks to the outside of the truck. Now, Alexis makes numerous appearances throughout the year educating both kids and adults on the ease and benefits of diverting our green scraps to the compost pile for repurposing. Alexis is also a big proponent of using worms to eat your compostable materials.

Massaro Community Farm is a non-profit farm on a 57-acre parcel of land in Woodbridge, Connecticut, 15 minutes northwest of New Haven. Our mission is to keep farming, feed people, and build community. Our full programming calendar and details can be found at www.massarofarm.org.