EVENT CALENDAR

MARCH

Agriculture marketing expert Jane Eckert will offer ideas on how to successfully direct market farm products in the current economy and will also help direct marketers learn how to use social networking sites effectively. Her presentation will include how to bring more customers to your website and how to convert those site visitors to more on-farm customers and sales. Eckert is credited with developing her family's apple orchard into one of St. Louis, Missouri's most popular tourism destinations, attracting over 400,000 guests each year. She is the recipient of many agritourism and marketing awards and is a past president of the North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association. Advance registration is required by March 4th. Register online or call 651-633-4987.
Time: 9:30am - 2:30pm
Location: Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) offices, 625 North Robert Street in St. Paul. For the first time ever, additional video conferencing links will be provided at Central Lakes College in Staples and Lake Superior College in Duluth.

Three days of fantastic programming at a new location! A must attend event for local farmers, artisans, foodies, investors, industry trade professionals, and food policy advocates. Thursday and Friday feature business-to-business connections. Saturday's seminar schedule will be jampacked with cooking demos, interactive seminars and a busy Kid's Corner. Learn more online. Registration opens in January.

The Conference will provide research-based information to prospective, beginning, and experienced hazelnut growers and provide an opportunity for growers to network and work together to advance the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Industry. The Friday afternoon session will focus on hazelnut processing. This session will be a great opportunity to learn how others are harvesting and processing. The Saturday session will provide information and research updates on hazelnut establishment, marketing, pest management, propagation, and breeding. Download the brochure to learn more and/or register. Registration deadline: Friday, March 5, 2010.
Cost: Full Conference: $55 / Friday: $10 / Saturday: $50

This presentation introduces the forest gardening vision and presents living examples of gardens as well as a sampling of perennial edibles you can grow. It shows how the underlying ecology of forest ecosystems can teach us ways to organize our own communities and cities to meet the challenges of the future right here, right now. We will also ask what role our species can and should assume in our local and global ecosystems and how that translates to concrete action where we live. The evening will end with a panel discussion about bringing sustainability to our community. Register online at www.backyardabundance.org.
Cost: $10 per person
Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Learn about Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), meet and sign up with farmers to purchase shares for the upcoming growing season. The event is free, and there will be door prizes and activities for all ages. For more information, contact Jamie Ferschinger at 414-964-8505 or jferschinger@urbanecologycenter.org.
Time: Noon - 4pm
Location: The Urban Ecology Center, Riverside Park, at 1500 E. Park Place.

Are you interested in turning your passion for growing flowers into a small business? This two-day workshop is designed to help new and beginning growers learn how to start a cut flower business, grow flowers using organic and sustainable practices, and market cut flowers. Limited enrollment. Apply early. For more information contact John Hendrickson at 608-265-3704 or jhendric@wisc.edu or visit the CIAS website.
Cost: $195, includes lunch and refreshments
Location: University of Wisconsin-Madison campus

Dave Jacke is known nationally for his groundbreaking research on innovative ways to sustainably grow food, improve water quality and increase the resiliency of communities. He is the author of the award-winning book entitled Edible Forest Gardens. He has designed, built and planted sustainable landscapes for homes, farms, universities and communities in the United States and overseas. The workshops will focus on using nature's ecosystems as models for food production and community design. Because healthy ecosystems maintain, fertilize, and renew themselves naturally, mimicking them can help us create landscapes of high productivity. The result is a resilient, highly collaborative community that uses less energy and produces little pollution. Register online at www.backyardabundance.org.
Time: 8:30am - 5:00pm both days

Farmers! Tired of paying high energy costs? Are you interested in learning how your farm could produce energy to run your on-farm operations? If so, please join us for a day of practical information and demonstrations! To register contact Melanie Baumgart at 715-834-9672 before March 11, 2010. Download a flyer for more details.
Time: 9:30am to 3:30pm
Location: The Opera House, Independence, WI
Cost: $10 and includes hot coffee and rolls in the morning and lunch.

Want to explore how improving your record keeping can improve your farm's profitability? Laura Frerichs of Loon Organics, a six-acre organic vegetable operation near Hutchinson, MN, and Linda Halley of Gardens of Eagan, a 100-acre, urban-edge, organic vegetable farm, will give presentations on financial and production record keeping on their farms. In addition, Jerry Hurrle of the USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) will discuss how record keeping is essential for receiving financing through the FSA and what type of alternative records are needed in the application process. Christopher Barnier, an organic certifier with the Midwest Organic Services Association, will discuss the record keeping requirements for organic certification. Participants will be provided with the examples and templates needed to begin to develop a record keeping system relevant to their own farm situations. To reserve a spot, please pre-register by March 10th. To register or for more information, contact LSP's Nick Olson at 320-269-2105 or nicko@landstewardshipproject.org.This workshop is presented by LSP's Farm Beginnings program, a farmer-led beginning farmer-training initiative. For more information on Farm Beginnings, visit www.farmbeginnings.org or call 320-269-2105.
Time: 6:30pm-9:30pm
Location: Church of the Holy Spirit, 2405 Walden Way, St. Cloud, MN.
Cost: $10 for LSP members and $45 for non-members.

2010 National Women in Agriculture Educators Conference

The goal of this conference is to broaden risk management educational programming for women in agriculture, to encourage new programming efforts, and to strengthen existing programs. Lisa Kivirist, MOSES Rural Women’s Project Director, will be presenting on "Planting Fresh Seeds: Resources, Opportunities & Inspiration for Women Farmers and Ecopreneurs"...more.