Book Updates – Sustainable Market Farming

Conference Season, cold damage update, potato yield error in my book

Conference Season

It’s busy season for conferences, so I’ll tell you about the next two I’m speaking at. You can go to my Events page to see what’s further ahead.

This weekend (January 6-8 (Fri-Sun), 2023) is the Virginia Association for Biological Farming at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center

Virginia Association for Biological Farming

23^rd annual Virginia Biological Farming Conference

VABF Conference INFO Home Page

The 23rd annual Virginia Biological Farming Conference is Virginia’s premier organic and sustainable agricultural conference! The Conference brings together farmers, gardeners, eaters, educators and advocates of biological and organic farming and gardening. The Conference will be held in person January 6-8, 2023 at The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.

The three-day Conference includes: Full and Half Day Pre-Conference intensive workshops, 50+ sessions and workshops, presentations and panel discussions, 40+ tradeshow exhibitors, locally sourced farm meals and book signings. The Conference features a Silent Auction and networking opportunities including regional networking meetings, and the Taste of Virginia Expo & Social!

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Elaine Ingham, Soil Food Web School

Leah Penniman, Founding Co-director Soul Fire Farm

I will be presenting a half-day workshop 8am-noon on Friday Jan 6, on Year-Round Hoophouse Vegetables

90 minute workshop Sunday January 8, 8.30 am – 10 am Alliums Year Round

90 minute workshop Sunday January 8, 10.30 am – noon, Asian Greens in the Winter Hoophouse

See the 2023 Session Summaries

Taste of Virginia Expo and Market & Social

Included in the Conference Registration and free and open to the public is the Taste of Virginia Expo & Market on Saturday, January 7, 2 – 9 PM in the Crystal Ballroom at Hotel Roanoke. Featuring sampling and sales of Virginia-crafted foods, local libations, handicrafts, and herbals. Complete the evening with music, dancing, and socializing from 8-10 PM.

Locally Sourced Meals

VABF and LEAP Local Food Hub are working together to procure the majority of our Conference food from local member farms. We look forward to supporting our member farms and enjoying delicious, fresh, local food from the farms below! All Conference Registrations include lunch and dinner on Saturday, lunch on Sunday and morning coffee and tea.

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NOFA-Mass Annual Winter Conference, January 12-14, 2023

Northeast Organic Farming Association, Massachusetts Chapter.

The Conference will be held at Worcester State University on Saturday January 14 and online Sunday January 15. We encourage you to make the most of the range of possibilities – i.e. tastings in person, international discussions over Zoom, tool modifications, storytelling. Creativity is welcome!

An organic lunch on Saturday is sandwiched by over 40 educational workshops for a full day of learning and socializing.

This is a valuable opportunity for farmers, gardeners, homesteaders, educators, and environmentalists to share resources and ideas to grow our vibrant organic community. We are excited to come together around this winter’s theme, “Cooperative Foodways: Building Our Future Together.”

The conference hosts 40+ workshops and draws hundreds of attendees from throughout the Northeast.

I will be giving a workshop on Crop Planning for Sustainable Vegetable Production

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Cold damage update

Bright Lights chard with cold-damaged stems.
Dec 27.
Pam Dawling

I reported very little damage to our hoophouse crops last week when it was 2F (-17C) outdoors. Since then, no plants keeled over, but some leaves are showing tan patches of dead cells, either where the leaves touched the rowcover. or where they were not properly covered. So, we have lost some leaves of senposai, a few of spinach, some on the yarrow we planted for beneficial insects. But, overall, I’m extremely happy with the good condition of our crops.

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Mistake about potato yields

Sorting potatoes two weeks after harvest to remove problem potatoes before rot spreads.
Photo Wren Vile

Yes made a mistake back in 2012, when I wrote Sustainable Market Farming, which I hope has been corrected in reprints since I was first notified of this in August 2019. If you have an older edition of my book, it might still have the error. In yield numbers on page 376, it says about potatoes, “Yields are likely to be 150 lbs/ac (168 kg/ha); 200 lbs/ac (224 kg/ha) is a good yield”.

I posted on my blog about this: https://www.sustainablemarketfarming.com/2019/08/20/ice-for-lettuce-seed-mistake-in-my-book-fall-sowings/

“Yes, my mistake indeed! On page 45, I have the (better!) info that potatoes can yield at least 110 pounds/100 feet, or 49.9 kg/30m. I think I probably meant to write on page 376, that a low yield could be 150 pounds/100ft, which is equivalent to 11 tons/acre. In the metric system, that’s 223 kg/100m, or 24.4 tons/ha. Other sources suggest average yields could be almost twice this. And good yields, even 4 times the low numbers.

So it should say

“Yields are likely to be 11 tons/ac (24.4 tons/ha); 22 tons/ac (48.8 tons/ha) is a good yield”

That’s US tons of 2000 pounds, metric tons of 1000 kg. Or for a smaller scale, probably closer to what most of us are growing,

“Yields are likely to be 150 lbs/100ft (223 kg/100m); 200 lbs/100 ft (300 kg/100m) is a good yield”

I hope I’ve got all the conversions right.

Conferences, Growing for Market articles and books

What with the pandemic, snowstorms, power and internet outages and related travel limitations, you might be forgiven for thinking I’d faded away or something! Except for my regular weekly blogposts, which I have kept up, come whatever!

This week’s blogpost is a reminder about other aspects of my work. Conferences, magazine articles, and my books. First the conferences. I do have an Events Page, in case you haven’t discovered that yet, and one with videos and podcasts I’m in. I’m also including a list of other Organic virtual conferences

Virginia Association for Biological Farming

2022 Virginia Biological Farming Conference,

January 22-24 (Saturday to Monday)

Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center

Conference website

Saturday 1/22 will be half-day and full-day pre-conference sessions. The general conference is on Sunday and Monday.

Lodging and Travel

Workshops

The three-day Conference includes: Pre-Conference intensive workshops, 48 concurrent sessions of workshops, presentations, and panel discussions, 50 tradeshow exhibitors, locally sourced farm meals and book sales with author signings. The Conference highlights include a Youth Program, a Silent Auction and networking opportunities including regional meetings and fireside chats, morning yoga for farmers and the Taste of Virginia Expo & Social.

Update:

I had planned to give a half-day pre-conference intensive on Year-Round Hoophouse Vegetables, and two 90 minute workshops on Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish and Lettuce Year-Round. But then it all looked too risky for me, and I had to cancel. Very sorry.

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February 10-12, 2022 (Wednesday to Saturday 2.30pm)

PASA

Lancaster Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, 25 S Queen St, Lancaster, PA

PASA is taking great care to make the in-person conference as covid-safe as possible. See the website. https://web.cvent.com/event/495529cf-5f11-41ed-9a1d-c9e55d151c6a/summary?RefId=home

I am giving three 60 min workshops:

Optimize Your Asian Greens Production Thursday 2/10 9-10 am

Beauty in a tatsoi plant.
Photo Wren Vile

This workshop covers production of Asian greens, outdoors and in the hoop house, for both market and home growers. Learn to grow many types of tasty, nutritious greens easily and quickly for fast returns. This workshop includes tips on selection of over 20 types of Asian greens, the timing of succession planting, crop rotation in the hoop house, pest and disease management, fertility, and weed management throughout the year.

Winter Vegetable Production Methods from the Field to the Hoophouse, Fri 2/11 9-10am

Harvested turnips ready for storage.
Photo Pam Dawling

Grow cold-hardy vegetables in the open and with protection varying from rowcovers to hoop houses (high tunnels). Learn about tables of cold-hardiness, details of crops to keep growing into winter, crops for all-winter harvests, overwintering crops for spring harvests, and winter hoop house crops. We’ll also discuss how to plan harvesting and planting dates, and how to maximize production with succession planting, follow-on cropping, and with stored vegetables.

Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish, Saturday 2/12 11am-12.00 noon

Sweet potatoes on a plate.
Photo Brittany Lewis

At this workshop you will learn how to grow your own sweet potato slips, plant them, grow healthy crops, harvest good yields, and select suitable roots for growing next year’s slips. You will also learn how to cure and store roots for top quality and minimal losses. This workshop will be useful to beginners and experienced growers alike.

Handouts

Booksigning Thursday 2/10 4.30-5.30 pm at the Book Nook

Book sales at the Book Nook

The is also a virtual conference in January and early February.

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Maryland Organic Food and Farm Association (MOFFA)

Virtual Conference February 26, 2022

https://www.marylandorganic.org

I am giving a 45 minute recorded workshop on Cold-Hardy Winter Vegetables.

There will also be a pdf handout.

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Mother Earth News Fair at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania

September 16-18, 2022. Early Bird discounts are available already!

Hours

Friday Sept 16: 12:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday Sept 17: 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Sunday Sept 18: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Location

Seven Springs Mountain Resort
777 Waterwheel Dr.
Seven Springs, Pa. 15622

http://maps.google.com/?q=Seven%20Springs%20Mountain%20Resort

The Fair at Seven Springs is unique, as speakers, staff and attendees co-mingle throughout the weekend at this beautiful four-season resort. Take advantage of complete lodging and ticket packages, which can be booked directly through the resort. Packages are available including rooms or condos. For more information and to make a reservation online click here, or please call 1-800-452-2223.

I am presenting two 60 minute workshops at outdoor stages:

Cool Season Hoophouse Crops

Hoophouse winter greens.
Photo Kathleen Slattery

How to fill your hoophouse with productive food crops in the cool seasons. Suitable crops; cold-hardiness; selecting crops; calculating how much to harvest, how much to plant; crop rotation; mapping; scheduling; seasonal transitions; succession planting and follow-on cropping.

Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish

Sweet potatoes in storage. An ideal crop for winter meals, as they store at room temperature for a long time, maybe seven or eight months.
Photo Pam Dawling

At this workshop you will learn how to grow your own sweet potato slips; plant them, grow healthy crops and harvest good yields, selecting suitable roots for growing next year’s slips. You will also learn how to cure and store roots for top quality and minimal losses. This workshop will be useful to beginners and experienced growers alike.

My books will be on sale in the Mother Earth Bookshop

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I have presented at several Mother Earth Fairs Online.

Online: Food Independence Course Part Two

was released on 3/26/21.

It consists of eight video presentations, most of which come with pdf handouts. My contribution is Growing Asian Greens, and pairs nicely with Guide to Asian Vegetables by Wendy Kiang-Spray, author of The Chinese Kitchen Garden: Growing Techniques and Family Recipes from a Classic Cuisine. Other topics include Dandelion Wine, Homemade Teas, Food Conversations, Passive Solar Greenhouse Design, Productive Growing from Home, and Growing Your Own Spices.

Part One of the Food Independence Course includes seven videos, most with handouts, and there is a free preview of DIY Sourdough Basics with Jessica Moody. other topics include Your Edible Yard, the Chinese Greenhouse, Community Meat Buying Club and Mindful Meat Eating, Practical Yogurt and Emma’s Cool crops.

You can subscribe to the All-Access Bundle for $2.99/month (or $35 for a year).

Once you register for All-Access, you will receive access to all 47 current video workshops and prerecorded webinars plus anything new that is added.
All the workshop videos are pre-recorded and can be viewed whenever you like and however many times you like.
Because the videos can be viewed at your convenience, you can watch them on your own schedule!
At MOTHER EARTH NEWS, all of the content, including these workshops, are designed to empower you to become less dependent on systemic products or services. What does that mean? This is an opportunity learn how to save a lot of money on things such as groceries, expensive health products, energy, and more!
Unlike at the physical FAIRS, where workshops take place simultaneously, you don’t have to pick and choose which workshops to watch! Most folks can enjoy only 10 to 12 workshops maximum at a physical FAIR. Now you can see them all!
No additional travel expenses, such as hotel rooms, airfare, gas, pet care, dining out, etc.
All dogs are allowed!!!

I have also contributed an 8-part Garden Planning Course

Before that, I did a workshop on

Winter Cover Crops for Gardeners

as part of the Winter Gardening Course.

Fall broccoli undersown with a mixed clover winter cover crop.
Photo Nina Gentle.

All these and many more videos and handouts are available as part of the All-Access Bundle

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Podcasts and Videos

Check out my page for Podcasts and Videos!

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More Virtual Organic Conferences in January and February

Here’s a useful list from eOrganic. I’ll be at PASA, but not the others.

eOrganic is the organic agriculture community of practice with eXtension. Theirr mission is to foster a research and outreach community, engage farmers and ag professionals through trainings and publications, and support research and outreach projects.

Growing for Market articles

January 2022 Growing for Market magazine cover

The January 2022 issue has my article on Greensprouting and planting potatoes. The November/December issue has my article on Planning an asparagus patch.

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Heads up on Sustainable Market Farming price increase elsewhere but not through my website.

After nine years at a cover price of $34.95, it is going for another reprint, and will be $39.99 as of February 25, 2022. Fortunately I have plenty of copies on hand for direct sale.

Ice for lettuce seed; Mistake in my book; fall sowings

Ice cubes over newly sown lettuce seed, to help germination in hot weather.
Photo Bell Oaks

The photo above shows our strategy for germinating lettuce seed when the soil is too hot (above about 84F (29C). First I shade the soil for several days to cool it, and I keep it moist. Then I sow late in the day, cover the seeds with soil, tamp down, water with fresh-drawn cold water, set out ice cubes along the rows, cover with shadecloth and retire for a relaxing cup of tea. One tray of ice cubes is enough for a 4ft (1.2 m) row.

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I just got this email pointing out a mistake in Sustainable Market Farming. So get a red pen and fix your copy today! An observant reader said:

“Hi! I just read the section on potatoes in your book “Sustainable Market Farming” and was a bit confused because of the yield numbers on page 376. You write “Yields are likely to be 150 lbs/ac (168 kg/ha); 200 lbs/ac (224 kg/ha) is a good yield”.

I’m currently working on a farm where we get 200-250kg of potatoes from one 100m row, that’s the number you say is a good yield per hectare… And I don’t even think our yield is particularly good, because there was a lot of damage in the potatoes (green ones, wireworm, slugs, scab). So I guess your numbers are just a mistake?”

Yes, my mistake indeed! On page 45, I have the (better!) info that potatoes can yield at least 110 pounds/100 feet, or 49.9 kg/30m. I think I probably meant to write on page 376, that a low yield could be 150 pounds/100ft, which is equivalent to 11 tons/acre. In the metric system, that’s 223 kg/100m, or 24.4 tons/ha. Other sources suggest average yields could be almost twice this. And good yields, even 4 times the low numbers.

So it should say

“Yields are likely to be 11 tons/ac (24.4 tons/ha); 22 tons/ac (48.8 tons/ha) is a good yield”

That’s US tons of 2000 pounds, metric tons of 1000 kg. Or for a smaller scale, probably closer to what most of us are growing,

“Yields are likely to be 150 lbs/100ft (223 kg/100m); 200 lbs/100 ft (300 kg/100m) is a good yield”

I hope I’ve got all the conversions right. Let me know if I haven’t!

While researching yield figures, I found an interesting publication, The Potato Association of America, Commercial Potato Production in North America 2010.

The month of August is when we establish crops that will feed us in the fall and winter.

We sowed carrots August 8 and are now hoeing them and hand-weeding and thinning. We flamed these carrots on day 4 after sowing, because we have found that carrots can emerge on day 5 when it is as warm it can be in August. The idea is to flame the beds the day before the carrots are due to emerge. Flame-weeding is a great way to get rid of millions of fast-growing weeds and leave the field free for the slow-growing carrots. We still have to weed and thin once or twice as the carrots (and weeds) grow, but it is much easier to see the carrots, and they grow better if the first flush of weeds has been flamed off.

Some years all goes smoothly, and some years not! This year we had two snags. One is that the carrots were mistakenly sowed an inch deep, instead of near the surface. Of course, this delays emergence, so by the time the carrots made it through that inch of soil, many new weeds had sprung up too. The second challenge was that our well pump has not been working right, and we have not had enough irrigation water. And until this past week, we had a very hot dry spell.

Looking forward to lush beds of fall carrots.
Photo Bridget Aleshire

But now we are making forward progress. Twin Oaks can eat 30+ bags (50 lbs, 23 kg each) of carrots during the winter, so we try really hard to grow a big crop of fall carrots.

We sowed cucumbers 8/2 and they are up well. The 8/5 beans look very good indeed.

The first two beds of kale (sowed 8/8) came up well, thanks to diligent hand-watering. The second two (8/12) are also up, and it’s just a day too soon to say the third (8/17) are just as good. Sowing two beds of kale at a time is a good strategy allowing us to focus the hand watering on the not-yet-emerged beds, for best success. We try to have the pairs of beds very near each other, to make dragging the hoses easier. This year we even sowed some back-up flats of kale, because last year’s kale had such a hard time getting established. (It might have been cutworms or grasshoppers).

Young Vates kale.
Photo Bridget Aleshire

The squash was sown a little late this year (8/10 rather than 8/5) but there is still hope. Our average first frost is 10/20 (our average over the last 13 years), so with a 54 days to maturity (from direct seeding) squash like Zephyr, we reckon on sowing 68 days before that first frost – or more to allow for seasonal cooling and even an early frost. That’s 8/13 absolute last date. We’ll use rowcover once fall cools down, but we do hope for a decent yield before the plants get killed.

Our fall turnips are doing well. We sowed them 8/7 under insect netting. here you see a row of radishes squeezed in at the edge of the bed. We often do this with radishes because we only want 90ft (27 m) at once. Kale beds are another place we sometimes sow radishes. Because radishes grow so fast, they will be gone by the time the slower, bigger crops need the space. And because they don’t get tall, they can be at the edge of the beds without getting in our way as we walk along.

Young turnips with a row of radishes squeezed into the bed.
Photo Kathryn Simmons

More on Summer Pests, August Growing for Market, Year-Round Hoophouse Book Update, Mother Earth News Post on Repairing Hoses

Hornworm on tomato leaf.
Photo Pam Dawling

More on Summer Pests

Last week I wrote about hornworms. The Alabama IPM Newsletter has a good compilation of articles on tomato worms and various other insect pests. Hopefully you don’t need to read up about all of these!

Worms on My Tomatoes!

Horse fly: pest behavior and control strategies

Grape Root Borer

Spotted Wing Drosophila and African Fig Fly Detected in Monitoring Traps

Slug Management in Vegetables

Scout Soybeans Closely for Stink Bugs in August

Hang in there! Be careful what you wish for in terms of early frosts!

The August issue of Growing for Market is out. The lead article is Serving the Underserved by Jane Tanner. It’s about small farms connecting with people who are struggling financially and cannot easily feed their families good food. Examples include people working for food, gleaning finished crops, farms donating to shelters and other organizations, accepting SNAP cards at farmers markets, and an incentive program to encourage people to use SNAP entitlements to buy produce. Posting a photo of a SNAP card at your booth can help people using the cards feel welcome. The author encourages farmers to take flyers to distribute in the waiting rooms of agencies where people enroll for SNAP, WIC and other benefits. A approach used in central Texas is to post photos of available produce on popular Facebook groups for Spanish speakers that otherwise feature cars and jewelry for sale. The article is packed with ideas.

Tumbling Shoals Farm in mid-March
Photo Ellen Polishuk

Ellen Polishuk’s Farmer to farmer Profile this issue features Shiloh Avery and Jason Roehrig of Tumbling Shoals Farm in NC. Here’s the very short version:

Tumbling Shoals Farm

3 acres certified organic

7 high tunnels ( one heated)

1 Haygrove tunnel

66 % FM, 26% C SA, 8 % wholesale

2018 is year 1 1 for this farm.

Ellen visited in mid-March, on the farm crew’s first work day of the year, when there was snow on the ground. The farmers made a thoughtful review of their first ten years, and a plan for the future. They decided to expand in 2017 to increase net farm income and quality of life. This involves hiring one more full-time worker for the season, for a total of five; building a heated high tunnel (for early tomatoes); and providing a four-day-weekend paid vacation for each employee during the dog days of August. Not everything went according to plan. Terrible wet spring weather led them to the somewhat desperate decision to also work a winter season too, to meet their income goal. This didn’t meet their quality of life goal, as you can imagine! The original investor for the heated hoophouse fell through, but they were able to finance it themselves. Everyone benefitted enormously from the little August break. For 2018 they are going to focus on their most profitable crops (they dropped strawberries, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, winter squash and cut flowers.) Ellen commended them for their bravery in taking the difficult decision to drop “loser crops”. I know what that’s like. As Ellen says

” There is history to battle, habits to break, customer wishes to deny, and maybe even some ego to wrestle with.”

The article continues with info on addressing soil fertility outside and in the tunnels, buying selected machinery, and running a Lean packing shed. For more photos from Ellen’s visit, go to tinyurl.com/y7r8vr5a.

For more information go to Ellen Polishuk’s website. (Her new book Start Your Farm will be out soon, and I will review it on my blog.)

The next article is on when to call in a book-keeper and when a CPA, by Morgan Houk. “Why are we asking ourselves to be our own financial advisors too?” We have many other hats, we don’t need this one. Rowan Steele writes “Working Together: Oregon multi-agency farmer development program grows farmers.” This is about providing opportunities for the next generation of farmers, and lowering the average age of Oregon farmers below 60, ensuring that food production continues, and that the land is well cared for. Doug Trott writes about protected culture flower planning, from am exposed hillside in west-central Minnesota. Flower growers everywhere will get encouragement from this careful farm research and practice.

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Hose repair tools: repair piece, sharp knife, Philips screwdriver, “wooden finger,” dish soap and unbreakable insulated mug.
Photo Pam Dawling

Mother Earth News DIY Skills and Projects blog is giving more coverage to my Step-by-Step Garden Hose Repairs post. I also wrote about hose repairs here.

Anyone who is looking at a broken hose can read this and gather what’s needed to get that hose back into service. Next hot sunny day (when hoses are more flexible) find half-an-hour to solve your hose problems

The Year-Round Hoophouse front cover.
New Society Publishers.

Year-Round Hoophouse Book Update

The Twin Oaks Indexing Crew has finished indexing my new book. Very thoroughly, I’m happy to say – what farmer has time to deal with a poor index when they are in a hurry?

All the typesetting is done. Next stop is at the printers. This will take five to six weeks. From the printers it goes to the warehouses, then out to the stores. I should have copies for sale at the beginning of November! I sign all the copies I sell direct through my website and at sustainable agriculture conferences and similar events I attend. Yes, it is possible to buy the book for less money, but you don’t get a signed copy, and you won’t have the warm heart that comes from knowing you helped support a small scale farmer and author. The amount that an author gets for a copy of the book sold depends on the price the buyer paid and the price the supplier paid. And there’s also the library for those with not enough money to buy.

Year-Round Hoophouse book update, Nematodes in hoophouse cucumbers, Organic Broadcaster.

Removing old hoophouse plastic. Photo Wren Vile

I just completed another step on the way to getting my new book, The Year-Round Hoophouse, published. I proofread aver 300 pages of text over the course of five very intensive focused days. In the next four days I checked all the photos, including the color section. I replaced a few photos that didn’t come out clearly, fixed a couple of glitches (that’s what proofreading is for!) And I added up to 17 more photos wherever there was enough space at the ends of chapters. The index is being prepared, and another proofreader is also carefully working through the text.

Then the corrected pre-press proof will be prepared by early August, and we’ll be on track for the November 20 publication date, with the books coming off-press in mid-October and heading to the stores. ISBN 978-0-86571-863-0.

The finished paperback book will be 288 pages, 8″ x 10″ (20 x 25 cm) for $29.99 (US or Canadian). It will also be available in digital formats.

Cucumber roots with nematodes (see circles).
Photo Pam Dawling

When we were clearing our early bush cucumbers from the hoophouse a couple of weeks ago, I found four plants at the east end of the bed with nematodes. I’ve written before about our struggles with root knot nematodes in our hoophouse, and indeed, you can read everything I know about nematodes in the Year-Round Hoophouse.

Here is another photo of the lumpy roots, with circles outlining the nematode lumps.

A different cucumber root with nematode lumps (see circles).
Photo Pam Dawling

The July/August Organic Broadcaster is out. The first article is about a poultry system compatible with regenerative agriculture. Regenerative Agriculture is one of the sustainable agriculture movements that are springing up as an alternative to USDA Organic, which now allows CAFOs, hydroponics and other unhealthy, non-sustainable methods. The regenerative poultry system includes trees for shade, ranging paddocks where the poultry are rotated, and night shelter. The aim of the author, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, is a fully regenerative supply chain, starting with what kinds of grains they feed the poultry and how they are grown. Farmers can reach the organizers of Regeneration Midwest by emailing regenerationmidwest@gmail.com.

The second article explains the consequences of USDA halting the Organic check-off as part of their program. The editorial introduces Organic 2051, a one-day conference (Feb 21, 2019) prior to the MOSES Conference, “to bring together leaders in the organic and sustainable farming community to chart the path forward for truly sustainable farming by the year 2050 and beyond, demonstrating our capacity to feed the world.”

Another article (by Matthew Kleinhenz) discusses biofertilizers and explores differences between an average yield increase which is sustained and throughout the field, and one that might lead to a similar average yield increase, but with a result that is widely fluctuating between one plant and the next, producing a few start yielders but fewer plants with an actual yield increase.

Bailey Webster writes about industrial hemp, an up and coming crop with mostly non-food uses, although the seeds are finding favor, touted as a “superfood”. Brittany Olsen writes about the MOSES farm mentorship program, Teresa Wiemerslage writes about the Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Regulation and Laura Jessee Livingston writes about a new apprenticeship program training farm managers.

Carlos Valencia and his dog, Paco, live on a farm in rural Kansas. He has faced numerous issues with officials and vandals that have prevented him from achieving his farming goals. Photo submitted

Another article by Bailey Webster explores a shocking case that looks like racism in rural Kansas (although of course it could be almost anywhere). Kansas farmer Carlos Valencia, who is is black and Hispanic, began managing a farm in Norton, Kansas that was owned by Golden Duck LLC in 2007. He was working for equity in the farm, rather than for wages, with the goal of owning it himself one day. He planned to raise poultry, and had submitted documents to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to get farm operating permits to raise geese on a commercial scale. The paperwork was taking a long time, and if he was to raise geese that year and earn his living, he needed to get goslings on the farm while they were available. Geese do not produce young year-round, only February-June. Fully expecting to get his permits (the previous farmers there had an industrial hog unit), he bought 20,000 goslings. This sounds like a huge number to me, but I understand from the article that this is a modest start. In June, disaster struck in the form of an unusually strong hail storm that killed 800 of Valencia’s young geese. He chose a common practice on poultry farms: incinerating them. The local authorities caught wind of it, and worried that the poultry had died of disease. The USDA and the state biopsied the dead birds to check for disease, and found that there was no disease present. Continue reading “Year-Round Hoophouse book update, Nematodes in hoophouse cucumbers, Organic Broadcaster.”

BCS Berta Plow, Proofreading The Year-Round Hoophouse, Tomato Foliage Diseases

Our new equipment – a Berta rotary plow.
Photo Pam Dawling

In recent years we have mostly hand-shoveled the paths between our 90ft x 4ft raised beds. If we have two neighboring beds ready to prepare at the same time, we might use the hiller-furrower on our BCS 732 walk-behind tiller. But frankly that didn’t do as good a job as the old Troybilt hiller-furrower we used to have, and if you went off-course, there was no chance of a re-run to fix it. With the Troybilt you could fix a wiggle by steering hard on a re-run, but the BCS wouldn’t co-operate on that. So there was less incentive to use the BCS. We would measure and flag the bed, and have a person with a shovel at each end of each path, shoveling towards each other. Then we raked the bed, breaking up the big shovel-dollops.

Using the Berta rotary plow to make paths between our raised beds.
Photo Pam Dawling

Now we have a Berta Rotary Plow from Earth Tools BCS, and we are hopping with joy. It is easy to fit and unfit on our BCS, easy to use and does a lovely job. We flag the midline of the path, plow up one side of the path and back down the other. We get straighter paths, beds almost ready to use (no shovel-dollops!), and we save a lot of time, and don’t feel so tired!

A raised bed prepared with our Berta Rotary Plow, with some lettuce transplants under shadecloth.
Photo Pam Dawling

This week I am proofreading the Advance Proof of The Year-Round Hoophouse. A professional proofreader is also working through the advance proof at the same time, and the foreword and the endorsements are being written (or more likely, being thought about!).

So far, I have found a few inconsistencies to align. I guess I thought one thing when I wrote one chapter and something else a few months later when I wrote another chapter! I found a few tiny typos, even after so much careful checking here and during the professional copy-editing process. I found a few unclear bits, which I hope will now be clearer!

I relearned a few things I’d figured out for the book and then forgotten about! I impressed myself with seeing again all the information packed in there, from helpful tips to expansive over-views. I’m very much looking forward to having the book in my hands. Several more months yet. Publication date is November 20. New Society is taking pre-orders. When I’ve got some actual boxes of books I’ll update the Buy Now button here on my website and you can support-an-author and buy direct. I’ll sign the book for you!

Grow abundant produce year-round in any climate

Growing in hoophouses reduces the impact of increasingly unpredictable climate on crops, mitigates soil erosion, extends growing seasons, and strengthens regional food supply. The Year-Round Hoophouse teaches how to site, design, and build a hoophouse and successfully grow abundant produce all year in a range of climates.

Pam Dawling has been farming and providing training in sustainable vegetable production in a large variety of climates for over 40 years, 14 of which have been hoophouse growing. Pam’s first book is the best-selling Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres.

PB 9780-086571863-0/ 8 x 10”/ 288 pages/$ 29.99/Available November 2018

Pre-order at www.newsociety.com before November 1 and receive a 20% discount.

Striped German tomato in our hoophouse. Note the lower leaves have been removed to reduce diseases.
Photo Alexis Yamashita

At the end of July or the first week of August we will pull up our hoophouse tomatoes and sow some soy as a cover crop until we are ready to prep the beds for winter greens. Our outdoor tomatoes are producing now, and as their yields increase, we’ll have no regrets about pulling up the aging hoophouse plants. We like to grow some heirlooms in there, and they are (in general) notorious for foliar diseases. I know some are disease-resistant, but we don’t only grow those ones! We did better this year at removing any lower leaves touching the ground, to dissuade any transfer of diseases from the soil.

Early in the season we had aphids and sooty mold, but ladybugs sorted out that problem. More recently we have had a little Early Blight, some Septoria leaf spot, and a sporadic issue that has concentrations of leaves with small silvery spots (dead leaf tissue). These are mostly located below webs of zipper spiders. Is it a disease, or the result of spider poop or dead prey detritus?

Zipper spider on a hoophouse tomato.
Photo Pam Dawling

Update on my new book, and how to garden when it rains a lot

Update on the progress of my new book, The Year-Round Hoophouse.

My upcoming book has reached its next stage: copy editing. My publisher, New Society, pays a professional copy editor, who has just sent me his edits. My job this week is to look through them, approve or reject the proposed changes and fix anything only I can do (reformatting the dates in the tables is one of those things). I used many more commas than necessary, and had some clumsy phrases, which will all be swept away before you see the final book.

You’ve already seen the cover (above) and the table of contents. The book can be pre-ordered from New Society, for a 20% discount off the cover price of $29.99 ($23.99). Buying from NSP supports publishers and writers like me. You can also pre-order from Amazon, where the price today is $27.40. Publication date is 11/20/18.

Once the copy edits are finished, NSP’s designer will work on the interior layout of the book for a couple of weeks, then advance proof copies go to a professional proofreader and me again, and also to the person writing the foreword and those writing the endorsements on the back cover and inside.

When the corrections are made and all the contributions gathered, the book comes back to Twin Oaks for indexing, by the Twin Oaks Indexing crew for about a month (July/Aug). After that, it goes to the printers for about 5 weeks, then to the warehouse. If all goes well, I’ll have a copy in my eager hands in late October. I’ll be signing and selling copies at events I attend after that date. See my Events Page.

Our kale beds after heavy rain. Photo Wren Vile

How to garden when it rains a lot.

We’ve been getting a lot of heavy rain in the past two weeks, and sometimes it’s a challenge to find garden work we can do. Of course, it’s very tempting to take some time off, and sometimes that is the very best thing. But the danger is of falling too far behind, so that the next couple of weeks become impossible. Here’s my list of tasks to consider before, during and after rain.

If you are expecting rain, get your transplanting done!
Photo Denny Ray McElyea

Gardening before heavy rain:

Transplant anything even remotely big enough, where you have the beds or rows prepared.
Sow anything due to be sown that week.
Prepare rows and beds (especially raised beds), so that you can plant as soon as possible, and won’t have to wait for the soil to dry enough to till.
Harvest enough to tide you over the rainy spell.
If you have 4 hours of good sunshine before the rain is expected, hoe small weeds and let them die.

While it’s raining you can catch up on work in your hoophouse or greenhouse. Photo Wren Vile

Garden activities while it’s raining hard:

Catch up on planning, organizing, record-keeping and bill-paying.
Prepare some spare blog posts, newsletters or Instagrams.
Give careful consideration to contingency plans – perhaps you will need to drop a planting if too much time passes before the soil is workable again.
Update your task list and mark the priority tasks, so you can hit the ground running!
Repair equipment, sharpen tools.
Wash and sort gloves.
Order supplies.
Watch inspiring farming videos or webinars, or listen to podcasts. Include the crew, and follow with a discussion. The Twin Oaks Garden blog has a new post!
Research those burning questions you didn’t have time for before the rain. Exactly what does a spined soldier beetle look like?
If you have a hoophouse or greenhouse, get all caught up with tasks under cover.
Spring clean your packing shed.
If heavy rain is expected any minute, and you might have to stop in a hurry, do weeding, not planting. Bring only the minimal number of tools and supplies. Be ready to leave as soon as it thunders! Don’t hoe if it’s about to rain, it’s a waste of time. Likewise don’t leave pulled weeds on the beds before rain. They’ll re-root.

Dreary raised bed scene. Photo Ezra Freeman

Gardening after heavy rain:

Work on mulched areas and perennial crops first, where you won’t get bogged down in mud. Weed asparagus, rhubarb and garlic. If no more rain is expected, you may be able to lay the weeds on top of the mulch (whether organic or plastic) and let the weeds bake. The mulch will stop them re-rooting. But if more rain is expected, haul the weeds off to the compost pile.
If you have very wet soil, where your boot-prints have depth, don’t go there! Sinking mud compacts the soil, which means the plants go short on air, which will stunt their growth and the soil will be slower to drain after future rains. Standing on boards is an option for harvesting or planting. Take two boards about as long as you are tall (or a little more), and set them end-to-end in the path or aisle. Work your way along the plants to the far end of the second board, go back and pick up the first board, and set it down on the mud ahead of you. The helps distribute your weight over a much bigger area, so there’s less compaction, and the boards leave a smoother surface for next time. You may have to backtrack one board at a time to extricate yourself from the mess, but this can often be worth doing.
Use a rain gauge to see how bad it was.
Photo Nina Gentle

Some crops are best not picked while the leaves are wet: cucurbits (squash, melons and cucumbers) nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplants) strawberries and legumes (peas and beans) until the leaves dry, to reduce the spread of disease.
Mowing or weed-whacking will be possible before the soil dries enough to till. These are valuable weed control strategies.
Flame-weeding is another way to control weeds in some crops if the soil is too wet. One spring we could not hill our potatoes because of all the rain. Although it took a long time, we flamed the weeds in the potato patch, which left it clean enough to hill when the soil water soaked down enough.

Flaming (pre-emergent)
Photo Brittany Lewis

Year-Round Hoophouse Book update, Growing for Market, Mother Earth News post

My upcoming book The Year-Round Hoophouse is being copy-edited this month. I was lucky enough to get the same copy-editor who I worked with on Sustainable Market Farming. Meanwhile the designer is working on the layout design, and a bookmark. I already have the pre-publication postcards to give away at events I attend. See my Events Page for that information.

My hoophouse book will be published November 20, which means it will come off-press (all being well) on October 12. Between now and then, we will finish the copy-edits, proofread for errors, then go back to the designer to enter the corrections (in June). In July the index gets made, by one of the Twin Oaks Indexing crew. That can take three weeks. Then there’s a last check (August) before the book goes off to the printers. The press needs five weeks to turn the book around (September and some of October). Meanwhile the electronic version (Ebook) is prepared.

The foreword will get written, as will those endorsements you see on book covers from well-known people who have been given a copy of the advance page proofs to read. Also happening is a lot of attention to marketing–sending information to the sorts of people who will be interested in the book.

The May issue of Growing for Market is out. The cover article is about wholesaling, by Jed Beach. His purpose is to encourage growers who are dissatisfied with the stiff competition in retail, to look carefully at comparative costs of selling wholesale. Receiving a lower price (wholesale) will not lead to lower income if you costs are considerably lower.

High Mowing Seeds is sponsoring farmer emeritus Ellen Polishuk to travel the country interviewing farmers for a Farmer to Farmer Profile series, which will be featured in Growing for Market each month. This month her profile is of High Ground Organics in California, just two miles from the ocean. As well as the climate, Ellen tells us about the state laws that require overtime to be paid at 1.5 times the regular wage, and the requirement for wages for agricultural work to line up with other employment and achieve a minimum wage of $15 in six years’ time. This is causing big increases to labor costs. In addition, the national political situation is causing fewer immigrants to reach the farms. Hence, some farmers are selling up. The farmers at High Ground are selling one of their two farms in order to focus on farming one well. Eco-stewardship is an important value. They are excited about improving at managing people and weeds, transitioning to only organic seeds, and growing strawberries with anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD).

Photos of all the farms featured in Profiles are here.

Ellen has written an upcoming book, with Forrest Pritchard, called Start Your Farm.It will be published in September 2018.

Morgan Houk compares a trip to the accountant very favorably with a trip to have teeth pulled. She encourages all farmers to learn from an accountant:

“the financial success of my business is critical in order for me to continue building community and growing healthy food”

Kai Hoffman-Krull writes about two no-till methods: tilling with chicken tractors, and occultation (the cumbersome name of a system using impermeable plastic silage covers to kill weeds and cover crops and leave the soil ready-to-use). The main purpose of using no-till methods for Kai is to keep the carbon in the soil, as both social and environmental activism.

Gretel Adams closes this issue with her usual solid information on growing cut flowers, This issue the topics are ranunculus and anemones. As always, the flower photos are mouth-watering.

A hose with pinholes repaired using bicycle inner tube and old repair clamps. Photo Pam Dawling

I have a new blog post on Mother Earth News This one is a tip for repairing pin-holes in garden hoses. Cheap hoses don’t spring pin holes, they just crack up. But if you invest in good quality hoses, eventually they start to develop pin holes. Cutting the hose and inserting a repair connector is unnecessary. You just need a leftover clamp from a repair coupling (I found I had a whole boxful!) and a square of inner tube. Mark the hole before turning off the water. Wrap the rubber inner tube over the hole, then assemble the old clamp over that.

Meanwhile in the garden this week, we have transplanted tomatoes outdoors, as well as the first cucumbers. The first lettuces are almost ready to harvest, just as the last hoophouse lettuce mix is getting less desirable – milky sap, slightly bitter flavor. We’ve planted out six sowings of lettuce so far. We’ve hilled the potatoes and disked lots of areas for sweet corn and sweet potatoes.

My Forthcoming Book, Hoophouse Squash and Cucumbers, Growing for Market magazine

Here’s the photo of our hoophouse that we used on the cover of my forthcoming book The Year Round Hoophouse. You can read about it here.

Yes, exciting news! I’ve been writing my second book, the Year Round Hoophouse, I finished the manuscript at the end of February, and New Society Publishers have accepted it. Next steps include copy-editing and marketing. It will be published November 20, and I’ll give you more details as things become apparent. It will likely be 288 information-dense pages for $29.99 (worth every penny at 10 cents a page).

Growing in hoophouses reduces the impact of the increasingly unpredictable climate on crops, mitigates soil erosion, extends growing seasons, and enables growers to supply more regional foods. In one of the only books of its kind, The Year-Round Hoophouse teaches how to design/build a hoophouse and make a success of growing abundant produce all year, for various climates and land sizes.

Here is the list of chapters

Section 1: Design, Siting and Construction

Hoophouse Siting and Planning
Style and Design
Shopping Checklist
Preparing the Site and the Base
Utilities
Frame Assembly, Baseboards and Hipboards
End Walls
Roof Plastic
Drip Irrigation and Outfitting Your Hoophouse

Section 2: Growing Crops

Lettuce
Other Salad Greens
Cooking Greens
Root Crops
Alliums
Legumes
Tomatoes
Peppers and Eggplants
Cucurbits
Crops for High Summer
Bare-Root Transplants
Seed Crops

Section 3: Keeping Everything Working Well

Planning and Record-Keeping
Cold Weather Care
Hot Weather Care
Succession Crops
Crop Rotations and Sequences
Pests and Diseases
Salt Build-Up
Feeding the Soil
Replacing the Plastic
Preparing for and Coping with Disasters

Amys Apricot tomato transplanted a week ago, looking happy in our hoophouse.
Photo Pam Dawling

Meanwhile, we have finished transplanting about 90 tomatoes into two beds in our hoophouse and have been rewarded by seeing how much they have grown in just one week. They were really struggling in the greenhouse, where the light wasn’t so good, and it was hard to keep them warm through those cold nights. Two weeks ago I included a photo of a cleared space waiting for a tomato plant. Now we’re there!

Gentry yellow squash newly transplanted into our hoophouse, with a friendly wood sorrel!
Photo Pam Dawling

A few days ago we transplanted one bed of yellow squash (Gentry), chosen for being fast-maturing, productive and having a good flavor. Also a bed of Spacemaster bush-type slicing cucumbers, among the spinach, peas and baby lettuce mix.

New Spacemaster bush cucumber transplant in our hoophouse in a bed with old winter spinach, young snap peas and baby lettuce mix.
Photo Pam Dawling

Next will be the peppers. We have flagged the bed at spots 2 feet apart. Today I’ll harvest that lettuce mix around each flag, clearing the way to digging holes and adding compost.

North edge bed in our hoophouse flagged up for digging holes to plant peppers.
Photo Pam Dawling

In the photo above you can also see the bubble-foil insulation we have on the north wall. It improves the light back there, as well as keeping in some heat. It’s only the lowest 2 feet of the north wall, and very little direct light comes in there, so we gain much more than we lose. Also see the diagonal tubing we added to strengthen the frame at the west end, which is the direction most of the wind comes from.

At last the lettuce has started to grow! We have been struggling to find enough leafy crops to harvest a 5 gallon bucket each day. Today I had no trouble finding plenty of baby lettuce, tender young spinach and baby brassica greens for a salad for a hundred people.

The April Growing for Market is out. The lead article, by Josh Volk, gives ideas for upgrading your packing shed or crop clean-up area. It includes a slatted spray table you can build and some natty clip-on fittings (K-ball nozzles) you can install on PVC pipe to give an easy-to-use sprayer wherever you want one. See below – I haven’t tried them myself.Sam Hitchcock Tilton has a profile of Nature’s Pace Organics in Michigan, and their switch from intensive cultivation to permanent cover crops and strip tillage. Liz Martin has written about the advantages of growing pole beans instead of bush beans. She has trialled different kinds to find varieties that have smaller smoother pods (more like bush beans) and likes Emerita, Blue Lake, Matilda and Cobra. Their trellis uses tall T-posts and two pieces of Hortanova netting. They also grow bean seed using this method. I gather they don’t have Mexican bean beetles or many bean diseases, two of the three reasons we gave up on pole beans. The third is our dislike of installing trellises, which only become worthwhile if your plants will stay healthy for the whole season. Thorsten Arnold writes about their co-op rural online farmers market in Ontario, Canada. Todd Coleman describes how to build and install an in-ground greenhouse heating system, and lastly Gretel Adams in Ohio discusses the many decisions behind building a cut flower greenhouse . They chose a tall-wall three-bay gutter-connected plastic structure installed by Yoder’s Produce Supply. This greenhouse has increased production so much that they are moving into shipping nationally through an online store.

Bex® K-Ball® Clip-On Spray Nozzle

Drill a 9/16″ hole and attach to pipe. No threading or nipples required, grips the pipe and the body fits in the 9/16″ hole. Spray is fan-shaped with spray angle of 65° at 40 psi and spray density tapers off toward the outside to permit overlapping of spray patterns.

Fiberglass-reinforced polypropylene
EPDM O-ring seal & SS spring clip
Pressure rating: 100 psi at 175°F
Swivel ball allows for 52° total angle of adjustment

Enjoy your spring!

Events I’ll be speaking at, error found in SMF, book update

Cucumbers and squash in our hoophouse. Photo Nina Gentle — Cucumbers and squash in our hoophouse.
Photo Nina Gentle

First of all, I’ll get my confession off my chest. A savvy reader spotted an error in my book Sustainable Market Farming: Take a red pen and correct your copy!

In Chapter 20, Sustainable Disease Management, on page 135 I said “Pathogens can infect the seed via several routes . . . Insects that feed on the plant can transfer the disease (striped cucumber beetles vector bacterial wilt, which is caused by Erwinia tracheiphila)”

It is true that striped cucumber beetles vector bacterial wilt, which is caused by Erwinia tracheiphila. It isn’t true that this disease is seed-borne. I don’t know where I got the wrong information from. I don’t yet know of an example of a disease spread by insects that can become seed-borne (that I feel confident about!).

I’ve asked my publishers, New Society, to correct that mistake next time they reprint. I wrote to the attentive reader, thanked her, and asked her for leads on where to find information about seed-borne diseases brought in initially by insects.

**Organic Seed Grower by John Navazio, Chelsea Green Publishers**

Meanwhile, I can recommend two books on seed growing (that weren’t out when I wrote my book), that contain good information about which diseases are seed-borne. I reviewed the impressive The Organic Seed Grower by John Navazio a while back..

**The Seed Garden, from Seed Savers Exchange and Organic Seed Alliance**

Newer is The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving from Seed Savers Exchange and the Organic Seed Alliance. Including “advice for the home gardener and the more seasoned horticulturist alike”, this is also a book from people who work growing seeds, and know their stuff. I plan to review it one week soon (when the work pace slows a little!)

If you’re a seed grower, you might want to add one of these to your wish list. Both are beautiful books, as well as clearly written ones.

This year I am not doing quite as much seed growing as some years. For sale, we are growing Carolina Crowder cowpeas in our hoophouse. Click the link to see photos.

For ourselves, we are selecting and saving seed from our Roma tomatoes and Crimson Sweet watermelon, as well as West Indian Gherkins. We are also saving garlic and shallots for replanting.

It’s that time of year when I line up events I’ll be speaking at in the fall and winter (and to some extent, into spring). Here’s my plan so far:

Friday and Saturday September 11-12 2015

Heritage Harvest Festival, Monticello, Charlottesville, VA.

On Friday, 1.30-2.30pm I will be offering one of the Premium Workshops, Crop Rotations for Vegetables and Cover Crops.

That’s at the Woodland Pavilion, Visitor Center.

Then I will be doing book signing at the tent called The Shop at Monticello (at the Visitor Center), 2.45-3.13pm.

On Saturday I will be offering another premium workshop, Producing Asian Greens. This one is at the Vegetable Garden Tent at the Mountaintop (where most of the Saturday events are). It’s immediately followed by another book-signing, 5.30-6.0pm. The Festival ends at 6pm. All day Saturday is packed with events, and a General Admission ticket will be all you need apart from tickets for premium Workshops.

The following weekend, September 18-20, I will be at the Mother Earth News Fair, Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. The schedule is not yet firm, but I will be presenting The Hoophouse in Fall and Winter probably on Friday September 18 4-5pm at the Mother Earth News Stage, and The Hoophouse in Spring and Summer on Saturday September 19 10-11am at the GRIT stage.

I will also be signing books at the Mother Earth News Bookstore at some point and doing some scale demonstrations of string-weaving for tomatoes at the New Society Publishers booth.

Hoophouse greens in November. Credit Ethan Hirsh — Hoophouse greens in November.
Credit Ethan Hirsh

The weekend of October 24-25 I plan to be at the Mother Earth News Fair in Topeka, Kansas with the two Hoophouse workshops. In February 2016, Mother Earth News is running their first fair in Belton, Texas. Too soon for detailed information yet, but watch the site, if you live in Texas.

November 6-8 I will be at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Sustainable Agriculture Conference, in Durham, North Carolina. Click here for the Conference page. I’m doing two workshops, Cold-Hardy Winter Vegetables – on Saturday November7, 8.30-10am, and Succession Plantings for Continuous Harvests – on Sunday November 8, 10.45am-12.15pm. I will also do book signing at the BookSignAGanza, Saturday 5-6pm.

January 27-30 I will be at the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group’s Practical Tools and Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms Conference in Lexington, Kentucky. On the website you can sign up for the e-newsletter and around October 15, you can do Early Bird Registration. I hope to be a speaker, but it’s too soon to say. . .

February 3-6, 2016 I will be at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture Conference at the Penn Stater Conference Center, State College, PA. Save the date.