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Tuesday February 21, 2012, a 90-minute farminar was held hosted by Practical Farmers of Iowa. Beginning farmer, Wade Dooley, of Albion, IA led questions to experienced farmer Tom Frantzen of New Hampton, Iowa. 20 others joined in to hear more about extending the rotation, adding more value to the same number of acres of land.

This latest Farminar was focused on adding a small grain crop to a a corn and soybean crop rotation.

• What markets are best for Iowa small grains?
• Oats, Barley, and Wheat are typical “small grain” crops, what ones work best on different soils?
• What equipment is needed to produce and harvest them?
• Can you improve marginal land with adding a small grain to the rotation on those soils?
• Can you grow your own seed for your farm?

Tom Frantzen highlighted the importance of small grains in this statement:

If fossil fuels go away, I’m still here, if combines and big tractors go away, I’m still here, but if you remove my small grains, my farm system doesn’t work. That is how important they are to my weed management strategies and alfalfa establishment.

View the complete farminar recording at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p8fs4ln0tzi/

Next week, February 28, 2012, Kim Alexander and Garrett Caryl will lead a new Farminar on Pricing Poultry: Eggs, Broilers, and Turkeys. Join us online at 7:00PM CST! www.practicalfarmers.org/farminar

Supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2010-49400-21843

Did You Miss the 2012 Organic Seed Growers Conference?

Organic Seed Alliance and eOrganic bring you selected recordings from the 2012 Organic Seed Growers Conference held in Port Townsend, WA, on January 19 – 21, 2012. The conference brought together hundreds of farmers, seed production and distribution companies, researchers, plant breeders, pathologists, and university extension in two days of informative presentations, panel discussions, and networking events. The recordings cover the organic plant breeding track of the conference, including:
Introduction to On-Farm Plant Breeding
Organic Wheat Breeding
Breeding Peas, Sweet Corn, Broccoli, Winter Squash and Carrots as part of NOVIC
Organic Corn Breeding
Breeding for Nutrition

The full list of recordings is here.

–

Kristina Hubbard
Director of Advocacy & Communications
Organic Seed Alliance

(406) 493-6965
kristina@seedalliance.org
www.seedalliance.org

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PFI staff were invited to a wonderful meal at our member farmer Gary Guthrie’s home in Nevada on Monday. Last year, Gary initiated a generous new tradition to treat us to lunch after Cooperators’ Meeting.

He prepared the following grand menu, and all the food except for a few items (such as sugar, flour, salt, Parmesan cheese, Picket Fence cream…) came from his farm.

-  French bread (made from scratch!)
-  Gary’s signature Bolero carrot sticks
-  Pesto with basil, garlic, walnuts and Parmesan cheese
-  Peperonata (stewed peppers) with Carmen sweet peppers
-  Roasted leg of lam
-  Black Aztec corn polenta (with some sweet corn)
-  Rhubarb, strawberry and blueberry pie with Picket Fence whipped cream

There is always magic in Gary’s cooking. If you eat at his table, you’ll learn something. But there is no definite or authoritative teaching involved (what “good” food should be, what nutritional values we need to consider, etc.). Rather, because the food is so delicious and it is obvious a lot of thoughts and care were put into each dish, it inspires you to think and imagine. I remember one lunch that I had at Gary’s two summers ago. I was not doing very well that summer to the extent I didn’t have a good appetite (if you know how I’m almost always ready to eat, you know how serious it was). But after eating lunch at Gary’s house, which menu I still remember precisely, I felt a lot healthier physically and mentally. That meal reminded me of the saying that I think all the Japanese people know, “ishoku dogen,” which literally means food and medicine are of the same source.

Hearty lunch plate

PFI staff with Gary (How can you not smile when your stomach is filled with delicious food?)

PFI farmer Mark Quee gave a wonderful closing to the PFI Cooperators’ Meeting last week. At the meeting, more than 70 farmers met to set their research and demonstration projects for the year.

Said Mark: “As farmers we know the cycles of nature: birth life dormancy and death then birth or resurrection and over again. Cold warming to hot cooling to cold. Resting, hoarding calories, exerting, losing weight.
As Cooperators we have added another element to the cycles that guide us: through cultivation, relationship and reciprocity, we will bend ever so slightly, the shoot toward the light.

“So, with apologies to [4H founder] Jesse Field Shambaugh, I’m going to steal that 4H pledge seemingly embedded in my DNA and adapt it for us today.

“Let’s pledge:
Our Heads to better farming
Our Hearts to better sharing
Our Hands to greater sustainability and
Our health for a better self, a better community, a better state, a better country, and a better planet.”

John Wesselius from Sioux Center, IA along with Dru Montri from Bath, MI led the latest Farminar (February 7, 2012) on how to “Increase your Farmers Market Sales”. 80 live viewers attended to share ideas and ask questions of the farmers.

The farmers recommended the three big things to see greater sales:

1. Know your current Farmers Market sales and costs
2. Set Clear Expectations and Goals for your farm
3. Develop and experiment with strategies and techniques to improve sales (more…)