If you go
WHAT: Dig It! The Adirondack Green Festival.

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

WHERE: Marcy Airfield, Keene Valley.

EXHIBITORS:

  Adirondack Harvest concentrates on practices that benefit local farmers' connection to their communities by providing quality fresh, local foods via farm stands, farmers markets, local restaurants and schools.

  Adirondack Green Circle is a local global-response group that enthusiastically and creatively chooses sustainable-living practices and educates, motivates and organizes about things "green."

  Cornell Cooperative Extension will demonstrate the "Square Food Garden" method of growing vegetables and flowers and discuss the benefits of composting and soil amendment.

  Essex County Adirondack Garden Club of America will offer information on the Ellen Lea Paine Memorial Nature Award, a scholarship that has benefited local schools, individuals and non-profit organizations involved in protecting or studying the natural environment.

  The Nature Conservancy, represented by members of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, will discuss invasive animals, plants, pests and pathogens, focusing on exotic plants and suggesting alternatives.

ADMISSION: Free.

KEENE VALLEY — Lola Johnson has worn many brims over the years, and her latest is green, as organizer of the first Adirondack Green Festival at Marcy Airfield on Sunday.

Festival partners include Adirondack Harvest, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Essex County Adirondack Garden Club, the Nature Conservancy and Adirondack Green Circle.

"It's a very important coalition," said Johnson, who is a member of the Adirondack Garden Club. "The whole thought was to let people know how many organizations are evolving around the premise of conservation education."

HARMONY
Festival attendees can tour the Community Garden at Marcy Airfield.

"You can see what a movement this is," Johnson said. "It's happening in Rouses Point, in Champlain, down in Chazy and in Plattsburgh.

"It's a marvelous, timely activity (the festival) because the goal is to educate people how to live more fully within the bounds of environment, what to do with the soil, plant the right plant at the right place at the right time.

"It's about management, not misuse or abuse but working in harmony. It's a beautiful thing going on. All these agencies represent a part of this. They are trying to share with the public, particularly young people."

TOMATO FOREST
Tours will be given of Ron Hasting's Rivermede Farm.

"He is an award-winning farmer and agriculturally very high tech," Johnson said. "He has displays of high tunnels for various fruits, flowers and veggies, which effectively extend the season. He actually has a tomato forest, where he has cultivated tomatoes to become as high as trees."

THE RIGHT SITE
This festival is an attempt to connect the region's green dots.

"We thought we could get to a common place, which Marcy Airfield represents," Johnson said. "You've already got a Farmers Market in place and the Community Garden. It's a perfect location for us and weaves together like-minded organizations for the benefit of those who attend."

Johnson hopes more green organizations will step forward.

"You wouldn't believe how much information is available to the public online, on paper and with staff at the Cornell Cooperative Extension.

"Every one of these organizations is willing to help to bring about a change that is eco-friendly. It's a movement, and we're just beginning."

IN THE FUTURE
This year's festival is about exposure and awareness. Johnson hopes it will become an annual event.

"It could lead to so much more. It's a nice atmosphere. It's a drop-by atmosphere. No one requires your attention any longer than you want to give it."

Handouts will be available, and people can do their own follow-up.

"It's an absolutely first effort," Johnson said. "We will learn from it. These organizations never worked together before. You have like-minded people working for a common goal for the benefit of the environment and people who want to be self-sufficient or at least live in harmony with the Earth."

E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com