Tag Archives: Sustainable

Lowndes County next year: SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference


Janisse Ray starting the conference
This year’s

SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference
was a satisfying success, and next year it moves to Lowndes County.

Not only did 260 people sign up, but
all the sessions were well-attended, and
everybody seemed to learn something new, from hoop houses to solar power, from hands-on
workshops to all-hands plenary sessions.
Of course the food was excellent.
You can get a hint from this picture of Janisse Ray opening the conference;
the food in the foreground is on the snack tables (ah, the honeycomb!).
Then there were the meals, potluck by and for a conference-full of foodies.

In 2011 about 50 people came to the first one in Tifton.
In 2012, about 150 people went to Reidsville.
In 2013, about 260 people signed up, also for Reidsville, Tattnall County,
to learn what it takes
to grow local sustainable food here below the gnat line
in this longleaf pine land of tea-colored rivers, acid soil,
and rich gardening traditions.

As Janisse Ray wrote on the

facebook event
for this year’s conference:


Gretchen Quarterman on preserving foods

SoGa Growing Local 2014 will be held in Valdosta, GA. Gretchen
Quarterman will be the lead organizer. We’ll be keeping you posted
on the date so you can put it on your calendars now. (We may do a
mini version in Tattnall in 2014.)

More later on what happened at this year’s conference,
and more as it develops on next year’s conference.
So far, many local farmers, civic and business organizations,
and local governmental bodies have offered to help, and Gretchen is forming an organizational committee.
Stay tuned!

-jsq

SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference

I think this is the third year of a fascinating conference
that started when some people in south Georgia realized
nobody else was going to talk about what it takes
to grow local sustainable food here below the gnat line
in this longleaf pine land of tea-colored rivers, acid soil,
and rich gardening traditions. -jsq

Red Earth Farm

Janisse Ray present:


SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference

A day-long, information-rich, action-packed, affordable
conference designed to get you healthier and save you money.



facebook event

When and Where:

9AM to 6PM, Jan. 26, 2013

Tattnall County High School,

Highway 23/57 South,

(1 Battle Creek Warrior Blvd)

Reidsville, GA 30453

Registration:

PDF,
Word

$30 before Jan. 15;

$45 afterwards.

Includes lunch.

Many do-it-yourself workshops in homesteading and country living:
mushroom culture, beekeeping, backyard chickens, soil-building,
small fruit production, economics, gardening for wildlife,
charcuterie, natural cleaning, fermentation, herbs on the menu,
natural cleaning & body care products, making jams & jellies,
vermiculture, weed management, marketing, everything you need to
know about small farming. Ladies Homestead Gathering, seed-saving.
And so much more….

Conference actually starts on Friday with a
potluck, reading & a showing of the film “Grow.”

For more information see Registration on the left here,
or email redearthfarm at yahoo.



Gretchen Quarterman will be giving a workshop at the Growing Local
conference: Beginning lesson on home made jams and jellies. What
you’ll need (not much) to start making delicious sweets from fruits
that are easily available.



Inspirational gardener & naturalist Ellen Corrie of Tifton, Ga. will
be teaching a workshop on Gardening for Wildlife at the Growing Local
conference Jan. 26. This presentation will look at how gardening
for wildlife makes your garden (whatever size) healthier and helps
restore habitat and preserve biodiversity. There’ll be an overview of
factors which need to be considered to attract and keep any wildlife or
beneficial general. I’ll focus on pollinators and specific practices
and plants to attract them. — with Leeann Drabenstott Culbreath
and Dan Corrie.



Albert Kipple Culbreath will be teaching a Mushroom-Growing Workshop
at the conference. Inoculation and care of logs for production of
shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Will include information on where to
obtain supplies, how to handle logs, which type logs to use, care
for the logs, and culinary uses. Sign up now. — with Leeann
Drabenstott Culbreath.

Local food for sustainability



James Polk provides us some

Food for Thought:

Let’s take a quick tally. 1) Locally grown food uses less fossil fuel getting to market, 2) fresh fruits and vegetables are healthier than packaged foods, and 3) buying locally grown food supports your local economy possibly keeping your would-be deadbeat friends employed.

My favorite reason to eat locally grown foods is the taste. Go to a farmers’ market and load up on freshly picked tomatoes, bite into a raw crisp green bean, take home some succulent zuccinni and eggplant to stir-fry – you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more delicious meal.

Yep.
That and okra.
Anybody need some okra?

-jsq

Mutant Pigweed vs. Glysophate-Resistant Corn, Soybeans, and Cotton



It’s a funny thing about monocultures. They’re highly vulnerable to anything
that affects that particular variety.

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho writes:

The scene is set at harvest time in Arkansas October 2009. Grim-faced farmers and scientists speak from fields infested with giant pigweed plants that can withstand as much glyphosate herbicide as you can afford to douse on them. One farmer spent US$0.5 million in three months trying to clear the monster weeds in vain; they stop combine harvesters and break hand tools. Already, an estimated one million acres of soybean and cotton crops in Arkansas have become infested.

The palmer amaranth or palmer pigweed is the most dreaded weed. It can grow 7-8 feet tall, withstand withering heat and prolonged droughts, produce thousands of seeds and has a root system that drains nutrients away from crops. If left unchecked, it would take over a field in a year.

Meanwhile in North Carolina Perquimans County, farmer and extension worker Paul Smith has just found the offending weed in his field [3], and he too, will have to hire a migrant crew to remove the weed by hand.

Here’s the good news:

Continue reading →

Monsanto Cropdusters




Monsanto Does ‘Dust and Ditch’ Destroying Local Organic Farm, and a farmer trying to sue discovers a shell corporation which promptly goes bankrupt:

A fellow cropduster, Bob Howard didn’t see what the big deal was.

“If everything was Roundup Ready it would be the greatest thing in the world, if they would all go to Roundup Ready or all go back to conventional farming it would sure be a lot easier on us.”

It’s stunning that someone so obviously shortsighted was able to obtain a pilot’s license. His apathy toward his community and flagrant self-centered simple-mindedness are indicative of the unconscious conspiracy to which so many are a party. They have all been bamboozled into believing in “Better living through chemistry.” So much so, in fact, that the methods most farmers have used for a mere few decades are called “conventional,” and the few who practice farming as it was done for millennia are the outliers. Monsanto’s website even claims that they are “Growing yield sustainably.”

Yeah, what’s the big deal? Who needs the birds and the bees,
and the frogs and the fish,
and humans not coughing and getting respiratory diseases from
the dust.