{"id":4141,"date":"2016-01-24T21:53:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T02:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/?p=4141"},"modified":"2016-01-28T16:10:49","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T21:10:49","slug":"south-georgia-growing-local-on-the-air-and-on-the-ground-at-pine-grove-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/south-georgia-growing-local-on-the-air-and-on-the-ground-at-pine-grove-middle-school.html","title":{"rendered":"South Georgia Growing Local on the air and on the ground at Pine Grove Middle School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 2016-01-28:<\/strong>\r\nVideo of Gretchen on Talk 92.1FM Scott James show<\/a>. \r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\r\n

\r\n\r\nSouth Georgia Growing Local on the air and on the ground at Pine Grove Middle School\r\n<\/strong>\r\n

\r\nHahira, January 25, 2016 — Tuesday morning 8:30 AM, Gretchen\r\nQuarterman will be on the Scott James radio show,\r\n\r\n\"Local!\"<\/a>\r\n92.1 FM, talking\r\nabout South Georgia Growing Conference, happening again at Pine\r\nGrove Middle School, all day Saturday February 6th.\r\n\r\n“This has really turned into a thing!”<\/a> as Chris Beckham said on his 105.9 FM\r\nradio show when Gretchen was on there last Wednesday, “So many\r\ndifferent topics in six tracks, but all indigenous to south\r\nGeorgia.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nGretchen explained:\r\n\r\n “Indeed, when this conference started six years\r\nago, we just had two tracks. One was about cooking, and one was\r\nabout growing, pest control, and fertilizing, and how to have your\r\ngarden be successful in the special conditions of south Georgia and\r\nnorth Florida. Because our conditions here are different than they\r\nare in north Georgia or on the coast, or farther south in Florida\r\nwhere it never freezes. We sort of have a very special environment\r\nhere, and so this conference is geared towards that.” And all\r\npromoting local food, community, and economy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThis is the third year in Lowndes County, where this conference\r\ndraws attendees from as far away as Savannah and Orlando. Individual\r\nsessions include “Bread 101”<\/a> by Arica Griner of Waycross, and “Goats\r\nand Soaps”<\/a> by Julia Shewchuk of Serenity Acres Farm in Madison\r\nCounty, Florida. Those are just a few that have been blogged so far,\r\nas speakers send in their session descriptions.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCulture and tradition are alive at South Georgia Growing Local. The\r\nannual Ham and Eggs Show in Lowndes County is one of only two\r\nremaining in the entire U.S. One of that Show’s longtime organizers,\r\nDerrick Dawson, Sr. will tell us some secrets of “Country cure meats,”<\/a> such as how much salt, sugar, time, and “What supplies do I\r\nneed?”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThis conference promotes the local economy, and many presenters will\r\nhave tables with their products for sale. Like Dawson, Terry Davis\r\nhas been farming locally for many decades, and he will talk about\r\n“Planting by the Moon,” plus you can buy some of his unmatched cane\r\nsyrup.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLocal Buying Club Dirt Road Organics has a hard time keeping up with\r\nall the customers they’re gaining, as they collect local foods and\r\nother products from them across south Georgia, and sell them through\r\nweekly pick-up points in Camden County, Waycross, Valdosta, and\r\nDouglas. Farmers get wider distribution at fair prices, and buyers\r\nget fresh local food at reasonable prices.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nNew this year, Vanessa Flucas of the Valdosta City Downtown\r\nDevelopment will ta lk about Community Resources, and there will be\r\na talk about Valdosta City School Gardens by county extension agent\r\nJosh Dawson.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nEven the sessions repeated from earlier years are always different.\r\nAfter all, “If I knew then what I know now,”<\/a> as Christine Hagen of\r\nBerrien County’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Hagen\r\nHomestead wrote about her talk on “tips and tools for market farming\r\nand gardening in general”.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nContinuity is aided by new crops, such as the surprising variety of\r\nfruits and vegetables Bret Wagenhorst grows in Tift County, some of\r\nthem apparently tropical. His talk, “Lesser Known Crops for the\r\nCoastal Plain”<\/a>, will include “what has sold well at the local\r\nfarmers market for me, what I find tasty, what I find easiest or\r\nhardest to grow and ways to preserve these crops for later\r\nconsumption.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nPlus Rainwater Collection by Marilyn Dye and Solar Energy by John S.\r\nQuarterman are among the over 20 sessions attendees can choose\r\namong. Water and sun join with our loamy soils to grow local foods,\r\ncommunity, and economy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nJoin us at Pine Grove Middle School for \r\nSouth Georgia Growing Local,\r\n9AM to 5PM, Saturday February 6th, 2016!\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAnd meanwhile catch Gretchen interviewed by Scott James on 92.1 FM\r\nthis Tuesday.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nContact:\r\n<\/H4>\r\n

\r\nGretchen Quarterman\r\n
\r\n 229-834-1945\r\n
\r\n gretchen.quarterman@gmail.com\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nYou can register today on the web, at Okra Paradise Farms (OPF),\r\nwhere you’ll also find the draft schedule for all the tracks: \r\n
\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/s-ga-growing-local-2016<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nYou can keep up with conference events on facebook, at South Georgia\r\nGrowing Local:\r\n
\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/south.ga.growing.local\/?fref=nf<\/a>\r\n

\r\nYou can join the facebook event to let everybody know you’re coming:\r\n
\r\n \r\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/428548680677222\/<\/a>\r\n

\r\nBut remember to register soon through the OPF web page<\/a>, so Gretchen\r\ncan tell the caterer how many to expect.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n===\r\n<\/P>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Update 2016-01-28: Video of Gretchen on Talk 92.1FM Scott James show. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE South Georgia Growing Local on the air and on the ground at Pine Grove Middle School Hahira, January 25, 2016 — Tuesday morning 8:30 AM, Gretchen Quarterman will be on the Scott James radio show, 92.1 FM, talking about South Georgia […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,2849],"tags":[2721,3,23,5,2,2760,2114,2113,2848],"class_list":["post-4141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-okra-paradise-farms","category-sogalo16","tag-92-1-fm","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lowndes-county","tag-okra-paradise-farms","tag-radio","tag-scott-james","tag-sogalo16"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Gj0O-14N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4141"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4155,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions\/4155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}