How climate is affecting our local farms

SHARON — Three well-known farmers from area towns will take part in a discussion about farming and climate change on Saturday, Feb. 26, from 4 to 5 p.m.

Following this in-person panel event there will be a reception at the Sharon Historical Society & Museum, which has organized the talk as part of a new exhibit put together by Carol Ascher.

The exhibit is called Reinventing Farming: How Small Farmers in the Northwest Corner Are Finding Niches Amidst Climate Change, Industrial Farming & Large Supply Chains.

There will be a display at the museum on the Green of farming implements through the years.

One point Ascher hopes to highlight in the exhibit is that people today only spend about 7% of their money on food, compared to 25 or 35% in the 1950s and 1960s.

Working with her on the exhibit are Marel Rogers and Jonathan Doster. Videos that the team produces for the exhibit (which runs through May) will become part of the historical society’s oral history collection.

To register for the panel discussion with Matt Freund of Freund’s Farm in East Canaan, Rebecca Ridgway of Ridgway Farm in Cornwall and Sarah Paley Coon of Paley’s Farm Market in Sharon, call 860-364-5688 or go to www.sharonhist.org/events2/

Future panel discussions will be on April 2 and 23 and May 28.

— Cynthia Hochswender