The virus is moving quickly, the landscape changes day to day - but also moving fast are folks ready to pitch in and help. MCA staff has been talking to local civic and farmer organizations, food relief organizations and consumers throughout the county. Below is an evolving list of resources for those who produce and consume food in MoCo and beyond. As a farmer from Moon Flower Farm in Frederick Co. put it on a call- #LocalistheNewNormal. If you were waiting on a time to turn to your local farmer, that time is now.  An item to add? - [email protected]

Update: MCA is launching Labor Link Montgomery to connect farmers and folks who are out of work. If you are a farmer needing help get in touch at [email protected]

• Future Harvest, the Maryland Farmers Market Assoc. and others have created a map to help folks find local farms.  Be sure to call first. 
• Wondering how to begin approaching farms - local College Prof Christina Rai has you covered with this post. 
• What is available on local farms this time of year? Strawberries are around the corner but roots and greens are the bulk of offerings in early spring. 
• Each year Community Supported Ag (CSA) shares are an opportunity to support your farmer and get local food each week. CSAs are about to open and you can support your farmer now. Farms are thinking about ways to have drive-thru pickups, delivery and other methods to limit the spread of germs. You can find CSAs to join here - check in with them about what they are offering this year as things are rapidly changing.
• The Food Council has gathered small local food businesses that offer pickup and delivery. 
• Food is actually not a big source of virus spread but we still need to be careful. Here are the FAQs on food safety for consumers.

Consumers in Need
The Food Council Website has a good round up of food resources for students, seniors and others.

For Potential Volunteers: For those who are healthy and interested in volunteering, please find information below on opportunities with some of our partner organizations.

• Montgomery County Volunteer Center
• Capital Area Food Bank
• Manna Food Center 
• KIND: Kids in Need Distributors
• Community Food Rescue 
• #GiveaMeal to a friend, neighbor, or stranger in need through Geppetto Catering.
• Montgomery County Volunteer Center: Guidance for Non-Clinical Volunteers

Local photographers have been sharing their spring shots. Enjoy. 

Audible: The spoken-word producer has launched Audible Stories, which lets families listen to hundreds of free titles such as “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” narrated by Scarlett Johansson; “Anne of Green Gables,” read by Rachel McAdams; “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” told by Stephen Fry; and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The available books come in six languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German. 
Find it: The collection is at stories.audible.com

LibriVox: Volunteers from around the world record books in the public domain and then release the audiobooks online for free. Available titles include “The Adventures of Puss in Boots Jr.” by David Cory and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne in Spanish. You can browse the catalog by author, title, genre and language, which includes ancient Greek, Arabic and Portuguese. If you’d rather record a book than listen to one, anyone can volunteer to do so. No prior experience required. 
Find it: Visit librivox.org

Spotify: The streaming service boasts a wide selection of recordings and free audiobooks narrated by well-known authors. Listen to Kurt Vonnegut read “Breakfast of Champions” and “Slaughterhouse-Five,” Edna St. Vincent Millay reflect on love or Charles Bukowski recite his poetry. You also can find audio editions of Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” 
Find it: Sign up for an account at spotify.com. Click on “Browser” (in the upper left corner), scroll all the way down to “Word,” and enjoy.

​Project Gutenberg: This is a library of more than 60,000 free e-books, assembled by thousands of volunteers who digitize and proofread digital media. No fee, registration or special apps are required. Titles are available in Portuguese, French, Dutch, Finnish, Tagalog, Hungarian, Esperanto, German, Spanish, Latin and more. 
Find it: Visit gutenberg.org

Scribd: Access e-books by bestselling authorssuch as Stephen King and Ann Patchett and other electronic materials at no cost (and no credit card) for 30 days. 
Find it: Visit scribd.com

​FreeBooksy: The website offers a daily selection of free e-books for Kindle, Nook, Apple and Kobo devices. 
Find it: Visit freebooksy.com

​ManyBooks: Browse thousands of free books, including Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet.” 
Find it: Go to manybooks.net and search by title, author or keyword.

​Feedbooks: Discover and download thousands of public-domain books such as Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” and J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan.” 
Find it: Visit feedbooks.com and click on the “Public Domain” tab at the top.

International Children’s Digital Library: You’ll find award-winning books for various reading levels, including a collection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Browse literature in Hindi, Mongolian and other languages. 
Find it: Go to en.childrenslibrary.org.Registration is optional, but registered users can select a preferred language and save books to a personal shelf

​

First of all thank you to each of you who have taken time to write in or call county council members and the executive regarding the proposed zoning change that would open the Reserve to utility scale solar facilities. Apparently we have more we need to do.

The public hearing was held on March 3rd. The hearing record will remain open until March 13. It will be taken up in committee and apparently voted on sometime in the summer. Many of you have seen our outreach on this. This is a link which includes the video of the hearing (a must watch) and updated information including some compelling testimony in the record and the action platform.

The Reserve was well represented by a number of stakeholders at the public hearing who made a compelling case for the protection of farmland, the carbon sequestering power of the techniques being implemented currently and those that are being introduced, the significant role in resilience that the Reserve will provide in the decades to come.

Sadly, a strategy was employed by a number of industry representatives (not all) who sought to diminish the value of local farms and the public purpose of the Reserve. One industry rep declared - when afforded additional time to speak by Hans Riemer:

“I think you need to look at the particular land uses, not all forms of agriculture are climate beneficial.  We have industrial agriculture; soybeans, corn, wheat, and sod.  Those forms of agriculture take carbon out of the soil-ground, support animal agriculture which is harmful for the climate.  Guess what the top four crops are in Montgomery County agriculture?  Soybeans, corn, wheat, and sod.  We also have hay which has certain ways which you can grow that-that has carbon benefits.  So I would want to score and do mapping that looks at an acre by acre basis of the carbon benefits provided by that land and you can say that if this is corn and soybeans wouldn’t it be better for the climate if it was solar instead for example.  To just assume that all land uses are beneficial is bad math.”


The industry executive continued the following day on social media:

"Taxpayers across the county pay for those easements (ag). They should provide real public benefit. Growing corn and soy beans for dog food is not a public benefit I want to finance. A reminder that our kids are learning in trailers because we don’t have enough tax revenue. Maybe we should keep the ag zoning but tax the land not used for public benefit."
I want to make this perfectly clear nothing -  NOTHING - is gained by standing silently by as our farming colleagues are torn down this way. In fact, these words and those of others ZTA proponents who testified, and the striking silence from the council members present, are both chilling and deleterious. Take note, though mum after the industry rep’s assertions, councilmember Riemer took the time to chastise a climate change advocate after his testimony (see video) which opposed the ZTA and called for a comprehensive integrated science based plan to guide actions.

So what began as a hearing on the merits of a specific zoning text amendment emerged as challenge to the Reserve itself. The chief sponsor of the zoning text amendment, Riemer,  has written in promotional material that the Reserve needs to step up and do its part. At the hearing a picture was painted of a desolate, carbon emitting, poorly utilized landscape benefitting few - whose true and highest public purpose would be energy generation. This left me to wonder whether we were really proposing partnership, as represented, or domination.

What do you say we send a message, many of us about what this place does - what you do because of it, what matters to you, what challenges do you have such as access to affordable land here  and how getting this right matters? The action alert can be completely and quickly reworked as you choose. But the council needs to hear your stories - otherwise decisions will be made in isolation of fact.

​A message from MCA in this difficult time: 

Dear Friends,

There is no question that the current health crisis and resulting disruption has presented great challenges for many but it also presents great opportunity. This can be our finest hour. How we come together as a community to support one another, even from a distance, will define us. All of us can make ourselves useful at this time. Check on your neighbors, reach out to friends and family, and reconnect with that which is most important right where you live.

This early spring newsletter seeks to bring some joy and activities to your homes. Let images and news from the Reserve and the promise of spring buoy your spirit.

In deep and abiding solidarity,

Montgomery Countryside Alliance

Read the full newsletter here including:

• Ways to Help Your Neighbors
• Cute Little Lambs
• Local Food Will Help Us Through
• Take Action to Protect Reserve Farmland
• and more.....

 and stay tuned for ways that MCA is working to connect our community - even from a distance. 

Update: We are surveying local farmers about how we can support them and they can support hungry folks. CSAs are a great way to help - find your farmer here and look here for your food safety questions answered.

Before schools closed we were thrilled to share "The Biggest Little Farm" with the junior class of the Poolesville Global Ecology program. We've culled some inspirational words from their journal responses to the film below. The film is currently available on Amazon Hulu and other various platforms. 
We give thanks to Black Hill Regional Park, Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection  and the Montgomery County Food Council for cosponsoring and facilitating.

While we are working to re-forest stream buffers in the Ag Reserve through the Re-Leaf the Reserve program, there is another plant who's carbon sequestration is un-sung - the humble moss. It is drought tolerant, holds up to foot traffic, never needs mowing and releases nitrogen to surrounding plants that in turn help those plants take in more CO2. In fact, half of the nitrogen fixed on land is done so by moss and lichens and they sequester carbon equivalent to all biomass burned throughout the world. 
A moss garden could be yours like this gorgeous moss lawn- or for the hooligans among us - moss graffiti: