Sundays
8:30am Worship Service, Rite 1
9:30am Bible Study in Griswold Room and via zoom
10:30am Worship Service, Rite 2
10:30am Godly Play
Creation Care Resources
Why Bumble Bees are the Fuzzy Heroes We Need
(click on image)
If the insect world has a fuzzy, charismatic cutie, it’s surely the humble bumble bee. While insect populations are declining around the globe, bumble bees face unique threats that make them particularly vulnerable. Surveying projects across the U.S. are combining the forces of researchers and community scientists to help protect these critical native pollinators.

Our host and museum curator, Jessica Ware, Ph.D. dives inside the hive to explore why honey bees aren’t the coolest pollinator in town. And Hillary Sardiñas, the pollinator coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shows us how to net a queen bumble bee and explains how you can get involved in the mission to save imperiled insects! The series is produced for PBS by the American Museum of Natural History.
Long Table Farm CSA Distributions at Saint Ann's
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Beginning June 7th, and every Friday through October 4th, from 4:15 to 5:15, Long Table Farm of Lyme will distribute purchased CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares at Saint Ann's.
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Why Long Table Farm CSA?
We believe you should have access to healthy food grown without harmful chemicals.
The best way for us to do this is by growing delicious vegetables and fruits, and providing them to our community. Our Community Supported Agriculture project is the embodiment of these values.
Our CSA is simply this: a subscription to the weekly bounty from our farms. Our CSA features the most loved vegetables, fruits and greens. We introduce you to great new veggies, and provide you with support to eat and cook all of your share.
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How does our CSA work?
A CSA is a relationship between a farmer and community members; every week the farm provides vegetables and fruits to the community members. Instead of paying weekly, the CSA members purchase a share of the crop at the beginning of the growing season (we plan our growing season in December). This ensures a portion of our crop will be provided to you. If the farm has a surplus, then the community members benefit with extra produce. If a single crop fails, then your farmer will substitute a different crop. Complete crop failures will result in your farmer purchasing produce from other organic, local or sustainable farms, so you will not go home empty handed. We grow a surplus of produce to ensure that even if we lose a large portion, we have enough for our CSA.
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One of the greatest benefits of CSA membership is the relationship that develops between the farmer, land and community members. You are invested in our farm, and we honor the trust of that relationship by holding a high standard of care in our practices. It is our pleasure to provide you with safe, healthy food that enriches your lives and our land.
Production Methods
We are a Northeast Organic Farming Association Member Farm. We have agreed to implement the Organic Farmer’s Pledge Practices, which you can view here.
The health of our land and harvest is of the upmost importance to us. We use practices that enable our farm to benefit the surrounding ecosystem. Our growing style is influenced by Elliot Coleman and agroecology. We use Holistic Management to ensure our decisions reflect our values and keep ourselves and business healthy.
Since 2018, we have been using only biological and dish soap pest control. That means releasing beneficial organisms, using row cover and crop rotation, and absolutely NO CHEMICAL SPRAYS. Not even organic chemicals. Some organic chemicals are broad enough spectrum to kill beneficial insects and pollinators. We do not use Entrust, Neem or Pyganic. Most certified organic vegetable farms use these chemicals, and these chemicals kill beneficial insects including pollinators.
Our farm is low- tillage and we are moving towards more no-tillage type practices. A key ingredient in becoming no-till is having high quality, weed free compost. We’ve been making our own compost and we welcome food waste donations from our community! We love recycling nutrients with our farm. Over the last several years we’ve incorporated livestock in to our farm and nutrient management system. We use certified organic fertilizers and have been able to reduce our application by over 60% due to the integration of livestock.
Backyard Insect Inspires Invisibility Devices, Next Gen Tech
Leafhoppers, a common backyard insect, secrete and coat themselves in tiny mysterious particles that could provide both the inspiration and the instructions for next-generation technology, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. In a first, the team precisely replicated the complex geometry of these particles, called brochosomes, and elucidated a better understanding of how they absorb both visible and ultraviolet light.
This could allow the development of bioinspired optical materials with possible applications ranging from invisible cloaking devices to coatings to more efficiently harvest solar energy, said Tak-Sing Wong, professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering. Wong led the study, which was published today (March 18) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
The unique, tiny particles have an unusual soccer ball-like geometry with cavities, and their exact purpose for the insects has been something of a mystery to scientists since the 1950s. In 2017, Wong led the Penn State research team that was the first to create a basic, synthetic version of brochosomes in an effort to better understand their function.
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Monarch Butterflies
Monarch butterflies appear to be everywhere these days. Is the crisis over?
https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2023-10-30/are-there-more-monarch-butterflies-california
Western monarch populations have rebounded since their calamitous drop in 2020 but are still far below historic norms. Are native milkweed giveaways helping?
Plastic Recycling
HERE'S another look at plastic recycling and why it is such a challenge from the NYTimes.
2022 National Environmental Scorecard
2022 was the best year ever for climate action in Congress with the passage of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act that invests roughly $369 billion in advancing clean energy, creating good jobs, and fighting climate change and environmental injustice. This clean energy plan was finalized against a backdrop of devastating and costly climate-fueled extreme weather and oil and gas companies’ exploitation of Putin’s unlawful war on Ukraine.
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An issue that Dave and Christine Carter find is such a challenge at their old house is what to do about mice!
HERE is an article about mice/rat poisons going up the food chain to kill raptors! Or you can do something like THIS as listed on Amazon or any number of web sales sites. They work very well as we've tried them.
Going a Little Greener
The new year is a great time to assess your "carbon footprint". There are several online tools you can use. Here is one available at the Nature Conservancy website: https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/
Note that changing your eating habits (eating less meat) and your travel (avoiding airplanes) have more impact on easing your footprint than many other things, including recycling, which our committee feels is a moral obligation!
