Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

I had the opportunity to represent Peaceful Valley at the 2009 PlacerGrown Conference (Feb. 7 in Lincoln, CA). It was a great event attended by the “who’s who” of small scale agriculture in Placer and Nevada Counties. There were many workshops focused on the following “Strands”, or topics: Community, Getting Started in Farming, Miscellaneous (included workshops on honeybees, producing firewood, and carbon sequestration in agriculture), Farming & Ranching as a Business, Marketing, Interns, and Livestock. Workshop facilitators included Dan Macon, Roger Ingram, Keith Crabtree, Cindy Fake, and Carol Arnold, all very reputable and knowledgeable people involved in agriculture.

Jim Gates (“Meat Jim”), High Sierra Grass Fed Beef

I was especially excited by the Keynote speaker, Micheal Dimock of “Roots of Change” (ROC), a collaborative of people intent on establishing a sustainable food system in California by the year 2030. ROC has a strategy to get critical people and groups working together to establish political momentum, informational links, cohesive vision, and needed grant money. His talk was both intellectual and inspiring; I walked out with a larger view of the complexities involved but hope of the real possibility of a sustainable food system. Check out the website http://www.rocfund.org/, and be sure to endorse the “Declaration For Healthy Food and Agriculture”.

I’d encourage anyone in the Placer/Nevada County area interested in local agriculture to attend next years’ conference!

We have a fantastic lineup of workshops for 2009… come by our store and glean some gardening wisdom from some excellent speakers.

February 7
Hands on Pruning & Planting Tips (FREE)

Linda Nowak-Carlson, Peaceful Valley Nursery Manager

February 14
Growing Cool Season Veggies; Starting Summer Veggies
Linnie MacNaughton, Green Blessings

March 7
All About Soil: Microbes, Nutrients & Testing
TBA

April 4
Attracting Native Bees
Randy Oliver, Golden West Apiaries

May 2
Making Compost & Compost Tea
Marney Blair, Fulcrum Farm

June 6
Integrated Pest Management including Weed Control

Luci Wilson, Garden Coach

June 13
Intro to Permaculture
Paul Racko, Sierra Permaculture Design

July 11
Summer Cover Crops; Summer Pruning
TBA

July 18
Growing Medicinal Herbs

Kathy Keville, Oak Valley Herb Farm

August 1
Fall Veggie; Fall Cover Crops
Willow Hein, Peaceful Valley Freshman Farmer

September 5
Intro to Landscape Design

TBA

October 10
Fall Planting; Focus on Native and Deer Resistant Plants
Carolyn Singer, Foothill Cottage Garden

November 14
Fruit Trees; Winter Pruning and Care
Ellen Solomon, Arborist

December 5
Wreath making; Live Christmas Tree Care ($20)
Janet Jensen & Linda Nowak-Carlson, PVF&GS

Twenty years ago, walking or biking to courses at Humboldt State University, I passed a local donut store and inevitably, if it was between 10 and 11 A.M., the dairy farmers were stretched out inside escaping the fog. Unlike myself, my future husband has a fondness for donuts, so I began to find myself on occasion actually inside this donut haven at the same hour as my farming neighbors. Both Mike and I came to enjoy the snippets of local color and conversation much more than the donuts.

As a recent hire to Peaceful Valley, there was something very familiar about the 10 to 11 A.M. hour in the retail store. It didn’t take long to realize, these foothill farmers may not be working dairy cows or escaping the coastal fog, but the morning conversation after what has probably already been a long morning is undoubtedly universal. Farmers are not like fishermen, who protect that secret hole, special bait and times of day they find productive. Farmers do not “compete” – they readily share their wealth of knowledge and are the first to acknowledge what confounds them. They have access to the internet and professional journals, but are old-fashioned enough (be they “young” or “old” in actual years) to value human dialog and how it might just bring about an interesting option worth considering.

From 10 to 11 A.M. most days at PVFS store is my favorite time of day. At first it made me feel nostalgic. Now it keeps me centered, trying to overhear snippets of conversation from our local farmers who seem to find this the best hour to pick up their orders or grab some cover crop before going on their way.

Perhaps we can open an “organic” donut store on the premises? Remember, I don’t like donuts myself, but I could sure use more time with some of these local farmers.)

On Tuesday I got the opportunity to go up to Andrew Meyer’s farm, Wild Grace Organics. Andrew is the very first participant in Peaceful Valley’s “Freshman Farmer” program.

Andrew Meyers at Wild Grace Farm

Freshman Farmer is an initiative that Peaceful Valley took based on our understanding that farmers not only aren’t getting any younger, but younger people aren’t looking to farming as a valid career move either. So we’re “sponsoring” Andrew’s farm this year, giving him the equivalent of an employee discount on supplies that he needs to get started, and to grow a CSA for the season.

I’m making short videos to go along with his website, which is freshmanfarmer.groworganic.com. (as of this moment, March 13, there is not yet content, but keep on the lookout, an intro video is coming real soon!)

We will be checking in with him throughout the season to see how things are coming along, and what challenges and successes he is facing.

He will also be keeping a blog, regularly letting everyone know what is happening up at Wild Grace.

It’s such a cool program, one I’m really proud to be a part of. Each year we will be giving a young farmer a boost and interacting in a very positive and long term way, not just with the organic community, but with the community as a whole.

Other great things are coming out of this too, some I can’t talk about yet as they are not written in stone, but some, such as our retail store’s cooler being a drop off point for his boxes of veggies, that could really assist in making local food available and affordable for this community. Perhaps we will learn enough to be able to pass lessons we learn along to others.

Let us know what you think, if you’ve heard of anything similar regarding CSA’s, and if you have any questions!