July 10, 2013 Essentials of Organic Grain Growing
Lineage Farm, 492 Route 217, Hudson NY 12534
2:00-6:00pm.
Registration Fee:$10/person and $15/two or more people per farm
Pre-Registration Deadline: 5:00 pm July 5. To pre-register and pay, please contact the Registration Coordinator, Stephanie, by phone at 585-271-1979 ext. 509, by email at register@nofany.org, or shop online at http://tinyurl.com/nofanyevents.
Yes, you can grow grains on your small farm! Learn how to make good use of your land with grain rotations using heritage and modern strains of wheat, rye, field corn (for milling), and more. At this workshop designed to help you plant a crop as early as fall 2013, Lineage Farm’s Jen Carson and Jon Ronsani will show off their fall-sown wheat and this year’s polenta corn. NOFA-NY Grain Coordinator Robert Perry and OGRIN’s Elizabeth Dyck will be walking the fields with Jen and Jon. They will all contribute to a thorough explanation of the essentials of organic grain growing, including variety and seed sourcing, planting and monitoring the crop, and harvesting at the appropriate point for processing. Find out how to assess your grain crop’s quality and its potential for direct marketing, wholesale to millers and malt houses, or even for animal feed. To top it all off, we’ll see some small-scale grain-growing and processing equipment in action, and talk about making use of the equipment and on-going education available through New York’s grain-growing community.
Jen Carson and Jon Ronsani farm together at Lineage Farm, providing several communities with fresh produce through their CSAs. Vegetables aside, their hope is to plant and harvest enough grain to provide even more components of a healthy local diet through their CSA. The farm follows principles and practices of biodynamic and organic agriculture, with permaculture principles and ideals as a guiding light. Robert Perry has worked as a grain farmer, NOFA-NY Grain and Field Crops Coordinator and NOFA-NY Certified Organic, LLC Organic Inspector for decades. Elizabeth Dyck coordinates the OGRIN project, “Value-Added Grains for Local and Regional Food Systems” bringing together research entities, farmer organizations (including NOFA-NY), and a marketing not-for profit around their shared educational and outreach goals.
Sponsors: Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, USDA, #2011-49400-30510 and USDA NIFA Organic Research and Educational Initiative (OREI Project, "Value-Added Grains for Local and Regional Food Systems"
