Crystal Stewart Courtens is a regional vegetable specialist with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program. In this role she serves small and diversified vegetable growers across an 18 county region from Clinton to Orange Counties. Within this role, her responsibilities include:
- Providing on-farm consultation to growers in the region
- Organization of summer field meetings and winter schools within the region, and session chair at statewide meetings including the NOFA-NY winter conference and the New York State Fruit and Vegetable EXPO
- Research primarily in organic systems on vegetable varieties, pest and insect controls, and fertility management
- Statewide lead on garlic research and educational programming
Crystal serves on the NOFA-NY board of directors and is the current board president. Serving on the NOFA board provides an opportunity to strengthen the partnership between Cornell and NOFA, improving quality of and access to research-based information that growers need to be successful.
Crystal and her husband, Jean-Paul, own and operate Philia Farm, a small vegetable and garlic seed farm in Johnstown, NY.
