Please click on each of the titles below for outlines of our two Big Plans for the future! "The Hub" -- Renewable Resource Center & Agricultural Depot 1-5 year plan We're calling it "The Hub". A resource depot in the Canton-Potsdam area for "slow money" style local economic development, information on renewable energy and green building, plus major agricultural resources including aggregation, packing, value-added production (with a commercial kitchen to eventually include canning, drying, fermenting, vac-pac, flash-freeze, and more), packaging, refrigeration and cold chain storage. These are some of the "back of the house" operations we foresee. Natural offshoots might involve an indoors Farmer's * Market space as well as potential for a wholesale farmer's market for local institutions and grocery/convenience stores. A comprehensive "Buy Local" campaign** would be just one more bud on the branch of a regional food economy that works for all. Myriad projects, yet to be inspired, can co-exist in this facility. *NYS puts the apostrophe before the "s" in "Farmer's"; we are following suit. ** Independent retailers in communities with "Buy Local" campaigns reported an increase in holiday sales in 2010 that were three times stronger (up 3 percent) than those in cities without such campaigns (up 1 percent), according to a survey by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The "front of the house" public space would include relevant rural skills displays and events geared to tourists and locals alike, retail space for the value-added products created in this facility, shared offices for a variety of incubator enterprises and non-profit programs, to include space for various classes, dances, dining, and community celebrations.  Click here for more on "The Hub". Eventually The Hub will merge into the 5-10 year plan Homesteading College  Read, Do, and Learn    post Mas- onry Heat- ing Bees Whole System Thinking  of Rural Skills . Sustainable Agriculture (grow * eat * preserve) . Green Building . Renewable Energy . and a Locavore Economy |
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Future Plans |
