Published Feb 16, 2010

Quality Information for Our Vegetable Growers

By Teresa Opheim

Writes a PFI member about our Cooperators’ Meeting, our yearly meeting where our farmers share their on-farm research and demonstration projects and priorities: “I attended the workshop on the economics of the hoop houses and growing vegetables on Thursday. As the information was being shared I was struck by the quality of the information, the questions by participants and more information and sharing of experiences by others participating.”

The workshop in question featured PFI growers Jill Beebout and Sean Skeehan, as well as Ann and Eric Franzenburg.

This member is a small-scale fruit and vegetable producer, and he recalls being frustrated in the past “because as small organic growers we were thirsty for information that would help us get established but the experts really didn’t know how to relate to operations our size. To be quite honest at the time PFI wasn’t ready either.”

Since that time, the tent at PFI has gotten larger. Our organization now has robust programming for our horticulture members, that programming led admirably by staffer Sally Worley. As this member reports: “In 10 very short years it is remarkable what was going on in that room on Thursday!”