Norbut Solar Farms—August 2024
Our event at Norbut Solar Farms on August 28, 2024 was great fun and very interesting. The wood-fired pizza and salads were delicious, and it was a treat to enjoy a meal together. The farm is fascinating as well as beautiful, and staff there did a bang-up job of leading tours of the facilities and explaining the environmental, sustainable and community emphasis of their operations. There were quite a few pigs — the friendliest, healthiest, happiest looking pigs we’ve ever seen — raised with the goal of practicing “agrivoltaics”, wherein using livestock in the solar panel acreage keeps the area free of undergrowth without the need for pesticides or cultivation and also keeps it agriculturally productive.
Nell Gardner showed us the beautiful gardens she has designed and created, and explained how, using a system of “matrix planting” and careful plant choice, the gardens require little maintenance and are beneficial for pollinators. Several of our group were still examining the extensive cutting garden when it was almost dark. There were tours of the greenhouse, which is a state-of-the-art oasis containing an abundance of thriving banana trees, fig trees, pineapples, ginger, vanilla vines, and other tropical and heat-loving food plants.
Thanks so much to Norbut Farms for a wonderful evening!
Photos contributed by Judy Hubbard and Jeff Schuetz
Original announcement
Join FCGN for wood-fired pizza and tours at Norbut Solar Farms in Parma, NY, on August 28, 2024. Doesn’t that sound like fun!
Nell Gardner, who spoke on cut-flower farming at this year’s Seed and Houseplant Swap, is the person behind the landscape plantings at the facility. The owner, David Norbut, wanted gardens with a meadow look to enhance the ambiance as well as to provide cut flowers for the offices and for employees and their families’ use. Nell took on the position and suggested using a matrix style of planting – a style which, to try to sum it up, involves planting a selection of plants in groups to cover the ground, limiting weeds and emulating how plants grow in the wild. At Norbut, Nell chose low-maintenance plants with similar requirements, varieties that would play well together and not become aggressive, and that would look good all season. This style of planting favors wildlife, and Nell has used natives and nativars to this end.
In addition to tours of the ornamental gardens, Norbut personnel will provide tours of the organic vegetable plantings and also the animals. At the moment, pigs are the only animals at the farm, and the object of raising them is to work towards a system of “agrivoltaics,” in which farm animals keep down the plant growth around the solar panels, turning what would be a costly and environmentally unfriendly job into a sustainable situation where animals do the work and provide a product as well.
The event will start at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, August 28, rain or shine. This event requires membership, is limited to 120 people, and costs $10 per person. The menu will include the Norbut chef’s famous wood-fired pizza, salad, and vegetable hors d’oeuvres. We expect a good amount of interest, so we ask that if you do want to bring a guest that you limit it to one. To register, email flowercitygardennetwork@gmail.com with your intention. We will email you back letting you know if there is still room, and if so, where to mail a check. Your registration will not be confirmed until we receive your check, and we ask that we have that within 5 days of hearing back from us. The deadline for registration is Monday, August 19. We will keep this page updated with the status of registrations to see if there is room, so check back often.