NEW HARTFORD GARDEN CLUB
Cow Pots start the New Year….
Theresa Freund of Freunds’s Farm was the guest speaker at the New Hartford Garden Club’s first 2010 meeting on February 3. Garden club members eager to talk “dirt” and plan a new growing season turned out to hear about the Connecticut farm’s invention taking national gardens by storm. Members were not disappointed… Theresa’s presentation was not only interesting and educational… but an entertaining history of the evolution of the “Cow Pot”.
Theresa and her husband Matthew are second generation dairy farmers and own Freund’s Farm in East Canaan, now a major business with a new world market; due to their environmentally friendly creation they affectionately call “Cow Pots”. Giving credit where credit is due, Theresa told the audience “A total of 250 milking Holsteins (and one Jersey) provide the manure to make the Cow Pots”. The Freund’s herd is the largest herd of cows in the state of Connecticut on pasture. Each day they change the pasture with a 20 day rotation program assuring that the animals do not damage the approximately 200 acres during the five months they graze.
The Freund’s have nearly perfected the complete use of all the ingredients the cows so efficiently supply for cow pot products. The manure is fed through a methane digester that supplies the farm with hot water that heats the home, barn and offices. The residual liquid is used for fertilizer and the bulk waste becomes cow pots. The molding process for the pots heats the ingredients and adds air making each pot weed, pathogen and odor free. “Making the Cow Pots includes heating the manure to 110 degrees, producing methane as a byproduct and then the manure goes through a digester to squeeze out the liquid” informed Theresa.
From the first cow pot prototype six years ago, to recently having their product featured on “Martha Stewart”, “The New York Times” and “Johnny Seed”… Theresa is quick to mention with pride the positive environmental impact of their cow pots. Land and waste management is a life style for the Freunds, who proudly point out that cow pots are not only good for plants but their use helps to reduce garden plastic containers that are the bane of landfills. Cow Pots act like a slow release fertilizer, are 100% biodegradable and can be planted directly in the garden without shocking the plant with transplanting.
Theresa ended her presentation by answering questions from the New Hartford Garden Club members eager to gather details on Cow Pot fine points, and she delighted the crowd by giving away “Cow Pot six packs” for club members to use in their spring gardens. A table of homemade baked goods made by NHGC members and spirited conversation topped off the successful meeting.
Interested garden enthusiast’s are encouraged to consider membership and are invited to educational seminars and meetings. Contact Sibyl Pellum at 860-379-3722 or Marylou Ringklib at 860-379-4612 for more information.