Tag Archives: Agriculture

Hydroponic Greenhouses –Jeff Morgan and Tony Mallory @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

A talk instead of tours of the Pine Grove Middle School greenhouses this year.


300x225 Greenhouse, in Hydroponic Greenhouses, by Gretchen Quarterman, for OkraParadiseFarms.com, 18 January 2015

The greenhouses have a fungus just now because it is too moist
in them because of the amount of water they had to put on
during the freezes. Therefore there will be no tours this year.

However Jeff and Tony will be happy to give a talk.

I scheduled them for the last session at South Georgia Growing Local:

Hydroponic greenhouses and gardens are a viable method of growing in
many Continue reading

Gretchen will be on the radio twice this week @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

Update 2015-01-20: Oops; actually Wednesday January 21st on the Chris Beckham show, still 8AM. Listen in tomorrow!

Morning radio is where a lot of people get their local news,
and Gretchen will be talking about



South Georgia Growing Local
on both the local talk shows this week,
reminding everybody about the great lineup of speakers about local agriculture for
Saturday January 24th at Pine Grove Middle School.

7:30 AM Monday 19 January 2015

Scott James, 92.1 FM WDDQ, http://www.talk921.com/


facebook event
,
tunein.

8:00 AM Tuesday 20 Wednesday 21 January 2015



Chris Beckham, 105.9 FM WVGA, http://valdostatoday.com/wvga/

facebook event,

tunein
.

You can listen to them with a radio, or through various online
streaming services, such as
tunein.

-jsq

Oliver Farm Pecan Oil wins national Good Food Award @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

A speaker at the upcoming

South Georgia Growing Local Conference

just got a national award in San Francisco.

Press release via ABAC,

Georgia Farmer Wins National Award for Cooking Oil
,



A Georgia farmer took home a coveted Good Food Award in the oils
category this week.

Oliver Farm Pecan Oil was recognized Thursday at the Good Food Award
ceremony in San Francisco.

Since he started pressing food oils in 2012, Clay Oliver has
expanded to produce cooking oils from sunflower, pecan and peanuts
from the family homestead near Pitts, Ga.

“It’s great to be from the South and up against other
producers from across the country … and then Continue reading

The Basics of Fermentation:  We Have Culture! –Janisse Ray @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

Now a word from our founder.



Science is finding that a healthy gut biome is vital to a powerful
immune system, a highly functional brain, and overall good health.
Jump-start your road to recovery or maintain your vigor by
incorporating cultured foods in your diet. Fermenting is wicked
simple and lots of fun. In this workshop Janisse will make
sauerkraut, kefir, and kombucha. She’ll also talk about many other
homemade cultured foods you can incorporate into your homestead or
home kitchen for the benefit of you and your family, including cream
fraiche, vinegar, and much more.

Janisse Ray and Leeanne Culbreath started the South Georgia Growing Local
series of conferences

in November 2010 in Tifton
.
For more about Janisse Ray see

her web page
.
She already held

Southeast Georgia Growing Local
in Tattnall County in November 2014.
Come see Janisse at the other fifth conference in this series,

South Georgia Growing Local 2015
, January 24, 2015, at Pine Grove Middle
School in Lowndes County north of Valdosta.

-jsq

Making soap with Milk, Essential Oils, & other Natural ingredients –Tom Kuettner @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

What’s in your soap? Listen to Tom Kuettner and find out.


300x225 Curing, in Subject: Making soap with Milk, Essential Oils, & other Natural ingredients, by Tom Kuettner, for OkraParadiseFarms.com, 14 January 2015

Why use Natural soap, Types of soap making, Basic soap making, What
problems do adding Milk, Essential Oils, Botanicals pose, how do we
deal with these problems to make quality soap.

Who should attend: Anyone with a desire to make their own soap or
with an interest in what’s in their soap and why to use natural
soap

Come hear Tom at

South Georgia Growing Local 2015
, Continue reading

Draft Schedule @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24



Here’s the current draft schedule for the conference,
with all five tracks.

Bees, bugs, and oils; plants, planting, and soils!

Herbs, small fruits, and citrus; cooking, fermenting, and curing!

Goats, fish, and chickens; water, solar, and weaving!

Nutrition, seed saving, and permaculture!

The current updated schedule will always be in

the main conference page
.














































































Session Time Track 1 Track 2 Track 3 Track 4 Track 5
Welcome 9:00-9:15




Session 1 9:30-10:30 Local Cooking — Christine and Angela Hagen Soil Building — Julia Gaskins Small and Unusual Fruits and Vegetables — Dr. Bret Wagenhorst TBD Back Yard Hens — Dr. Claudia Dunkley
Session 2 10:45-11:45 Local Oils — Clay Oliver Planting by the Almanac — Terry Davis Invasive Plants — Karan Rawlins Permaculture and Sustainability — Stewart Douglas Bees — Raynae Jones
Lunch 12:00-1:00




Session 3 1:15-2:15 Herbs — TBD Fermenting — Janisse Ray Citrus — Mark Crawford Reducing Waste — Feeding America Goats — Bobbie Golden
Session 4 2:30-3:30 Nutrition — Karen Chapman Aquaponics — Dr. Pat Duncan Textiles — Lisa Smith Solar — Ron Jackson Curing Meats — Derrick Dawson
Session 5 3:45-4:45 Essential Oils — Mary Clement Bug Identification — David Riley Water Collection — John S. Quarterman Goat Milk Soaps — Tom Kuettner Hydroponic Greenhouses — Jeff Morgan and Tony Mallory
Wrap Up 4:50-5:00




Updated January 18

-gretchen

Building Healthy Soils –Julia W. Gaskin @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

Crops need soils with organic matter, as a UGA soil specialist reminds us.



Healthy soils are fundamental to growing crops sustainably. The key
to heathy soils is organic matter because organic matter is so
important for microorganisms and the other soil creatures. Most of
our agricultural soil have very low soil organic matter from years
of farming. It can be a challenge to increase organic matter in
South Georgia with its sandy soils and hot, humid climate, but it
can be done. Come learn basic principles of soil management and
strategies for you to improve your soil health.

Julia Gaskin is the Continue reading

Essential Oils –Mary Clement @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

Not all growing is for food, as Mary Clement of

Four Seasons Oils
(facebook) reminds us.



Learn all about essential oils!

Discover the benefits of therapeutic grade essential oils and how
they can be used to improve your physical and emotional wellbeing.
Learn about the different grades of oils, various applications for
them and how these powerful resources can work as natural,
chemical-free replacements for items you use every single day.
Discover how simple it is to remove toxic products from your life
with the aid of essential oils.

There will be Continue reading

Five tracks at South Georgia Growing Local @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24


300x225 Tracks, in Raccoon tracks., by John S. Quarterman, for OkraParadiseFarms.com, 10 May 2008

There are five tracks (final schedule coming soon) and
several people have asked if it is possible to go to all of
the talks at the conference. It is if you are 5 people.

The day will be something like this:

9-9:15 Welcome

9:30 – 10:30 Session I

10:45-11:45 Session II

12-1 Lunch

1:15-2:15 Session III

2:30-3:30 Session IV

3:45-4:45 Session V

So that’s five sessions, each of which (except the Welcome)
will have five tracks.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on the 24th.

-gretchen

Small organic farms can (already) feed the world



Research, including studies presented at the conference in Istanbul,
is showing that organic agriculture can deliver reliably high yields
”and that organic fields thrive in the face of disaster and
duress, where chemical-reliant crops falter. Organic fields, for
example, fare significantly better than chemically managed ones in
the face of extreme weather, such as droughts or floods.

Anna Lappe, for takepart, 4 November 2014,

Yes, Organic Farming Can Feed the World
, Continue reading