This list of tools was crowdsourced from care farmers at CFN’s 2024 winter retreat. These are tools that care farmers have found useful in working with individuals with varying abilities, access needs, and communication styles and needs.
If you have experience with adaptive tools that are not included on this list, please share the name of the tool, a link to purchase, and what you love about it via email to Kasey: kasey@carefarmingnetwork.org.
Seeding & Planting
Neversink Farms-72 cell Winstrip Seedling Trays “We have standardized all of our seedling trays to these as they are extremely tough, great for growers who struggle with overwatering their plant starts, and will create consistency as opposed to having mixed number seedling trays of various styles and number counts.”
Johnny’s Ergonomic Hand Trowels
Pelleted Seed “Great for lettuce and carrots!”
Watering
Dramm 5 Liter Watering Can “This heavy duty watering can has an oversized handle for ease of handling and has a 5 year warranty for hand water purposes.”
Harvesting
Berrypickers “For blueberries and tea flowers.”
Needle Nose Pruners “Replaces scissors and pruners. Needs to have a spring!”
Carts & Wheelbarrrows
Gorilla Pro Steel 6 cu feet Wheelbarrow “These wheelbarrows have wider handles for better ergonomic control and ease of use, plastic lift handles for dumping, and they come with flat-free tires and are extremely tough.”
Landworks Electric Power Wagon Utility Cart “This battery powered electric cart is capable of carrying up to 500lbs, has a dumping feature, is fully rechargeable and will help mitigate the amount of energy utilized when moving heavy materials on site and field amendments.”
Groundworks Utility Carts “We have two that our farming interns utilize for various different tasks around the farm. They are extremely durable and useful pieces of equipment.”
Office
Laminator “Having access to a laminator has really helped with creating signage for hand tools and giving supplies a permanent home. This also allows our staff to be more aware of the locations of specific items that they may not be familiar with.”
P-Touch Label Maker “We utilize this label maker to label items in different work zones as well as our CSA packaging area for items like brown bags to scissors to better assist our farming interns and keep everything as stocked up as possible throughout the season.”
Participant Gear
Face coverings with essential oils added “For people with smell sensitivity.”
Tool belts with water bottle holder that clips to the belt