First Fruit Tree Blossom of the Year!

February 29th and this brave little plum tree is starting to bloom.  

Will the warm weather hold or is it in trouble?  

Georgia Organics Conference

Fun, good food, learning, growing, community and a great collection of people interested in all of the above.  That is the Georgia Organics Conference, a gathering of farmers and folks interested in food issues that just wrapped up its two day run.  Robert, Brad Fowler and I are just back from the 15th annual conference, which was held in the Columbus Georgia Convention and Trade Center (a wonderfully restored old iron factory on the river).  This was my seventh successive conference and, once again, I came away with the satisfaction of having spent a couple of days learning as well as connecting with others who share a common interest.

At the conference, you become aware that growing healthy sustainable food can be a community building process.  And you leave the conference determined to further share with your community and work on ways to broaden the availability of good food for all.

I focused my time at the conference on the growing process and had a wonderful in-depth first morning learning more about growing mushrooms.  That afternoon I visited a small farm run by a determined young couple. Seminars on the second day provided more information on managing CSA programs for the benefit of both farmers and consumers, best handling and packaging practices of crops post harvest, food safety issues and how to squeeze the most out of a small garden.  Robert and Brad attended some of the same sessions and branched out into other areas involving livestock in Brad’s case (he also made a presentation in one of these workshops) and Robert spent time learning more about raising fruit in Georgia as well as the challenges of bringing fresh produce to food banks.

And then there was the Farmers Feast on the last night: Thought-provoking keynote addresses, lovely food and great company.  It was all good and we all came away feeling we had not only learned, but also realized we were already doing a lot of things right at Elm Street Gardens!

Here’s to the good folks at Georgia Organics and their efforts toward “plowing forward” to fill the food gap that still exists in so many communities,  

Suzy