It’s conference season, so we’re busy stuffing our carryons with as many handbooks, bumper stickers, temporary tattoos, and CNG tshirts as we can! For many farmers in the north, the winter months aren’t just for seed ordering and hibernating, it’s for networking and sustainable agriculture conferences.

(Image from Rose Creek Farms)

We're offering one FREE registration to the Southern SAWG conference! It will be held in Lexington, KY this January 25 - 28.

Sign up here for a chance to win. Deadline: Tuesday December 20, 5pm.

The Southern SAWG conference is the largest and best conference for sustainable farmers in the southeast. It's worth every effort to be there!  

Farming and cooking go hand-in-hand, so it’s no surprise that there’s an abundance of farmer-run recipe blogs in our talented community. If adding a recipe page to your website or blog is a goal of yours, here are some inspiring recipe blogs to keep in mind!

On a cold and windy day last January in central Kentucky, Ed and Lora Ginter welcomed a group of CNG farmers on a tour of Bluegrass Aquaponics. The chilly wind left no doubt that it was winter outside, but entering the greenhouse felt like stepping inside a tropical oasis. Amidst the vibrant lettuces, big tanks of swimming tilapia, and ripening tomatoes, Ed and Lora showed the group the intricacies of their operation. Rarely had the Ginters received such a knowledgeable and curious group. The CNG farmers, having convened in Lexington for the annual Southern SAWG conference, posed detailed questions about how the Ginters managed fertility and pests. Everyone was impressed by the size and quality of the produce being harvested.  

(photo by Lise Metzger of Grounded Women: stories of women who farm)

We see a lot of farm photos.

There are gorgeous photos of CSA offerings, fields sparkling with morning dew and (hopefully!) proudly displayed CNG signage.

All these beautiful images are a big part of telling your story. 

But we also want to represent another side of farming: the grit, determination and plain ol' sweat that it takes to get the job done.

Here we call it #CNGgrit.

The number of times we've been asked if we sell CNG shirts was becoming way too many to ignore, so we finally did something about it! This summer we came up with a few T-shirt designs that are inspired by the beautiful food produced by CNG farmers. We think they really speak to the spirit of Certified Naturally Grown. 

These shirts are made on demand, which allows us to offer a variety of colors and shirt types. To order yours, visit our online T-shirt shop. You will first select your shirt design, then you'll select the type of shirt on which you'd like the design printed, (USA cotton, organic cotton, cotton-blend unisex USA, or kids cotton USA). Then pick your shirt color! 

We've ordered a few for ourselves and they turned out great.

Order your CNG T-Shirts here!

Please let us know below which design you like best. We may be pre-making a batch of shirts to take to events, so your input is very important to us. Find the short survey, and all the design images, below. Enjoy!

Earlier this year, CNG farmer Cliff Porter of Jarhead Farms (right) and our Marketing Services coordinator co-wrote a press release, which was published on NOW Habersham.

This announcement highlights Cliff's till-free farming practices and how he first became interested in farming!

If you're interested in submitting a press release to your local paper, check out our marketing lesson on Press Releases. If you're a CNG farmer who would like assistance in writing a press release, our marketing services coordinator, Aly, is happy to help you out! Write to her at alymiller@naturallygrown.org.

CNG has a new initiative that aims to capture the grit, determination, and hard work that’s required to succeed at farming. Enough with the pretty landscapes, we want images that depict the real life of a farmer on a daily basis. We'll feature these images on social media with the tag #CNGgrit. Please do the same!

We had a busy summer at CNG,  certifying 112 farms since April. We are pleased to welcome a new Member Services coordinator, Lindsey Jo, and to put new marketing initiatives to the test! Not subscribed to our newsletter yet? Click here to get the Harvest Quarterly delivered to your inbox. 

If you've called the CNG office in the past couple years, chances are you've talked with Aly Miller. Her efficiency, creativity, and unflagging positivity has been a huge asset to our organization. This spring we promoted her to a new position that takes greater advantage of her writing and creative talents. Read on to find out what keeps Aly going at CNG, and what she's doing with all the fresh CNG produce in her CSA basket!