You can register today for South Georgia Growing Local 2016, to be held all day Saturday February 6th at Pine Grove Middle School. Chris Beckham was struck by the variety: corn, chicken, fruits, goats, soap, composting, water, worms, solar power! So many different topics in six tracks, “but all indigenous to South Georgia.”

Gretchen replied,

Indeed, when this conference started six years ago, we just had two tracks. One was about cooking, and one was about growing, pest control, and fertilizing, and how to have your garden be successful in the special conditions of south Georgia and north Florida. Because our conditions here are different than they are in north Georgia or on the coast, or farther south in Florida where it never freezes. We sort of have a very special environment here, and so this conference is geared towards that.

Lots of new and repeat talks; see the draft schedule. Individual sessions are being blogged daily. Some that Gretchen mentioned are Bread 101 by Arica Griner, Lesser known crops of the coastal plain by Bret Wagenhorst, Tips and Tools by Christine Hagen, Country cure meats, by Derrick Dawson, Sr., and Goats and soaps at Serenity Acres Farm, by Julia Shewchuk. Many not yet blogged, including Valdosta City School Gardens by Joshua Dawson, on introducing children to fruits and vegetables, when many of them have never seen a blueberry, and Urban Farming by Stewart Douglas.

As Gretchen said, it’s about food, and it’s about economy and community! And please register today for South Georgia Growing Local 2016 so she can tell the caterer how many are coming.

Here’s the video:

Video: Gretchen Quarterman on Chris Beckham radio, WVGA 105.9 FM, 20 January 2016
about South Georgia Growing Local, Pine Grove Middle School, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 February 2016
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms (OPF)

What they’re chatting about before the show starts is the WWALS Watershed Coalition paddle on the Little River the previous Saturday, on a warm cloudy winter day, that I had discussed with Chris on the air the Friday before. Gretchen mentioned the campers stranded on the Alapaha River by high water, and that water from upstream affects Valdosta and Lowndes County, including the need for retention ponds in Tifton and elsewhere.

-jsq

Short Link: