Farm Fair- Urban Gardening Crash Course: 2013.04.27

Via Fresh Fork Market

4 EXCITING COURSES, KIDS GAMES AND ACTIVITIES, ALL FREE

Please join us this April for a 1-day crash course on how to plant your own garden.  Each course will be taught by real farmers, both English and Amish.  These producers will cover topics in four courses:

Soils – understanding your soil, how to improve it, and what will grow in it
Seeds – selecting the right seeds for your garden, when and how to start them, when and how to plant them
Garden Maintenance – watering and fertilizing, identifying diseases and pests, and treating diseases and pests.
Harvest and Post Harvest Preservation – when to harvest and how to enjoy your garden year round, including canning, fermenting, and freezing recipes from local chefs

Each Course will be taught 4 times throughout the day.  This event is designed for those to come and go; however, we guarantee you’ll have a great time if you stay all day!

There will be lots of kids and family activities, including a farmer photo booth with props, composting demo, seed planting area, butter shaking station, face painting, and even an egg toss competition and seed spitting competition.
This event is free to the public but we do encourage you to register online first.  Anyone who registers is entered into a drawing to win a Free 2013 Fresh Fork Market Summer Share (Small).

SCHEDULE:

	SOIL	SEEDS & PLANTING	MAINTENANCE	POST HARVEST
9:30 AM to 10:15 AM	Registration
10:15 AM to 11:15 AM	Junior Yoder & David Raber, GFF		Diane Morgan, Maggie’s Farm	Diane Hiener, Peters Creek
	Multipurpose Room (192)	Cafeteria (162)	Science Room (250)	Science Room (249)
11:30 AM to 12:30 PM	Diane Morgan, Maggie’s Farm	Roman Yoder	Mike Hiener, Peters Creek	Parker Bosley
	Multipurpose Room (192)	Cafeteria (162)	Science Room (250)	Science Room (249)
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM	Lunch Break
1:30 PM to 2:30 PM	Kay Vaughn	Mike Hiener, Peters Creek	Harvey Kempf	Vikki Hamm, Cleveland Crops
	Science Room (250)	Science Room (249)	Multipurpose Room (192)	Cafeteria (162)
2:45 PM to 3:45 PM	Harvey Kempf, Healthy Harvest Farm	Kay Vaughn	Joel Kurtz/Aden Keim	Karen Small, Flying Fig
	Science Room (250)	Science Room (249)	Multipurpose Room (192)	Cafeteria (162)

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

JUNIOR YODER AND DAVID RABER

Greenfield Family Farms, Fredericksburg OH.   Teaching Course 1:  Soil at 10:15 AM in the Multipurpose Room (Room 192).

Junior and David always have dirt under their nails.  In fact, that’s a requirement for soil consultants.  As members of the Greenfield Organic Farms co-op, they work with approximately 30 farmers in Northeast Ohio to manage the nutrient program for those farms, including approximately 400 acres of farm land.

Junior and David will discuss building soils and finding the most healthy balance of air, water, biology, and humus through organic methods, including getting the right PH to make nutrients available to the plant, encouraging biological activity to break down organic matter and release nutrients, and perfecting your tilling and rotation techniques to keep the soil healthy and productive into the future.

DIANE MORGAN

Maggies Farm, W-61st and Storer Ave Cleveland OH
Teaching Course 1:  Soil at 11:30 AM in the Multipurpose Room (Room 192)

Diane is on a crusade to transform empty lots on the near-west side of Cleveland into bountiful, healthy organic farms.  Unlike many of our other presenters today, Diane isn’t fortunate enough to have well manicured and productive agricultural soils.  Instead, she is relying on technology – creative, adaptive soil building techniques and high-density companion planting – to create healthy harvests from her small plots.

Come learn from Diane about how to build raised bed gardens and improve your soils through compost, companion planting, and compost tea.  Diane teaches Course 1 at 11:30 AM in Room 192.

I the morning, Diane will discuss garden maintenance, including proper watering, weeding, and pest control during Course 3:  Garden Maintenance.  This course is in room 250, the Science Room above the gym.

KAY VAUGHN

Maize Valley Farm, Hartville OH
Teaching Course 1:  Soil at 1:30 PM and Course 2:  Seeds at 2:45 PM.

If I haven’t heard it a thousand times, I haven’t heard it once.  ”You can have it good, fast, or cheap.  But you can only pick two.  Now what will it be?,” demands – loudly demands – Kay Vaughn of Maize Valley Farm in Hartville.

Kay has been farming full time since the early 70s.  His experiences are vast – dairying, commercial hog production, field crops (corn and soybeans), wine grapes, and today, specialty produce, including Northeast Ohio’s best sweet corn, beautiful peppers, and exceptional beets and carrots.

In his nearly 50 years of experience, Kay has seen ever trend come and go.  Through this, he has been able separate the bull from the…you know what.  He’s convinced that you don’t need fertilizers.  What you need is biological activity to build healthy soil.  Kay’s understanding of commercial fertilizers and their relationship with the plant is tremendous.  He is also exceptionally knowledgable about seeds, GMOs, and hybrids.

HARVEY KEMPF

E&M Produce and Advancing Eco Agriculture, Middlefield OH
Teaching Course 1:  Soil at 2:45 PM in Room 250 (Science Room) and Course 3:  Maintenance at 1:30 PM in Room 192 (Multipurpose Room)

At the age of 23, Harvey is one of the most experienced organic farmers in Ohio.  His family is a pioneer in nutrient dense farming techniques.  While Harvey focuses on the production on the family farm, his older brother, John, spends his time studying the latest research on organic production and traveling the world (literally) coaching farmers on their soil fertility and nutrient plans.

Harvey’s farm is one of Fresh Fork Market’s largest producers. When I asked him if he could talk about garden maintenance, including how he gets rid of pests on the farm, he chuckled and said “I’m not qualified.”   I asked, “Why not?”  His response:  ”I don’t use pesticides.”  Yep, he’s prefect for Course 3:  Garden Maintenance.

Harvey’s focus across the board is on healthy soils.  With a healthy soil with bustling biological activity, his plants are healthier, more productive, and produce more complete sugars and proteins, therefore becoming more difficult for diseases and pests to attack.  Beyond his understanding of soils, Harvey also has some unusual techniques for controlling insects – weeds.

ROMAN YODER

Yoder Produce Supply, Fredericksburg, OH
Teaching Course 2:  Seeds at 11:30 AM in the Cafeteria, Room 162.

Roman and his family have one of the most popular produce grower supply stores in central Ohio, Yoder’s Produce Supply.  They are the place to go for the commercial growers in the greater Holmes County area.

As a result, Roman understands seeds.  What’s a good seed and a bad seed, where to find them, how to start them.

MIKE AND DIANE HIENER

Peters Creek Farm, South Dorset OH
Teaching Course 2:  Seeds at 1:30 PM in Room 249.   Teaching Course 3:  Garden Maintenance at 11:30 AM in Room 250. Course 4:  Harvest and Post Harvest Preservation at 10:15 AM in Room 249.

Mike grew up on a well drained, sandy river bottom farm in Marietta, Ohio.  He then moved to Ashtabula where the clay is thick and nearly impermeable.  He was eager to talk about soils, but I had to sting back, “Mike, you are eager to wine about your muddy soils.”  ”Dang,” proclaims Mike, “always cracking the whip Clatterbuck.”  Mike’s a good going guy and we joke back and forth pretty hard.  He usually out-wits me and throws in a West Virginia joke (based on my origin).

In Course 2, Seeds, Mike will be discussing seeds, where to buy them, and how to read a seed catalog.  What are days to maturity, degree days, sapling vigor, and soil temperature requirements?  Mike’s presentation will include examples of transplants that he has started throughout the winter and how you can imitate this at home.

For Course 3, Garden Maintenance, Mike admits, “as farmers, we have to continually change our approach to pest and fungal management.”  In short, the diseases and pests change and sometimes adapt to the more conventional applications.  From year to year, farmers face different, often unpredictable challenges.  Mike will help you learn how to identify these diseases and what some possible solutions are.

For Course 4, Diane Hiener will talk about some of the ways that her and Mike enjoy the food they grow year round.  Her presentation will include information about canning and freezing and some of their favorite recipes.

JOEL KURTZ

Wholesome Valley Farm, Wilmot OH
Teaching Course 3:  Garden Maintenance, 2:45 PM in Room 192 (Multipurpose room)

You may say that Joel is a disciple of the Kempf Family’s work.   Nutrient density and chemical free farming are his focus.  Joel’s work includes farm manager at Wholesome Valley Farm, a start-up organic farm and farm attraction in Wilmot OH.  Joel’s vision for the farm, from the begging, has been an education center for consumers and farmers alike to learn about sustainable production methods.  Further, the facility will serve as a hub for the community.  Today, this is all true as Fresh Fork Market works with several farms in relationship to Wholesome Valley Farm.

Joel’s discussion will enforce the importance of healthy soils in making garden maintenance easier, cover crops for fertilization, minerals, and even water quality.

PARKER BOSLEY

Fresh Fork Market, formerly Parkers New American Bistro, Cleveland OH.
Teaching Course 4:  Harvest and Post Harvest Preservation at 11:30 AM in Room 249.

If you have been to any of the Fresh Fork Market events before, you have likely seen Parker around or teaching.  I asked him about instructing this course and he chuckled, “Why me? A lazy old cheater who just freezes his vegetables?”  Me:  ”Yes Parker.  Do you think a family with 4 kids has time to not be lazy?”

Parker’s presentation will focus on selecting the right products to put away for the winter, including peaches, tomatoes, beans, and more.  He’ll then demonstrate blanching and pealing, removing seeds, and freezing. In conclusion, he’ll demonstrate a few of his favorite recipes using frozen produce.

KAREN SMALL

Flying Fig Restaurant, Cleveland OH
Teaching Course 4:  Harvest and Post Harvest Preservation at 2:45 PM in the Cafeteria, Room 162.

If you live in Cleveland and don’t already know about the Flying Fig in Ohio City, then you really don’t get out much.  Karen Small is one of the original local food gurus in Cleveland and today is still as devoted as ever to local. That means that she has to work with an excessive bounty in the summer and put it away for the winter and then turn it into something outstanding for her diners.

Please join Karen Small as she demonstrates some of her favorite recipes for canning vegetables and fruit preserves.

FOOD

Umami Moto
Motor Mouth 

VENDORS

Healthy Harvest Farms
Wholesome Valley Farms
Peter’s Creek Farm
GreenField Family Farms
Clark Pope Catering
Hive and Coop
Yoder Produce
E & M Produce
Filtrexx
Greater Cleveland Beekeepers AssociationGrace Brothers
Rain Barrels N’ MORE
Groundz Recycling