Tag Archives: Food

SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference

I think this is the third year of a fascinating conference that started when some people in south Georgia realized nobody else was going to talk about what it takes to grow local sustainable food here below the gnat line in this longleaf pine land of tea-colored rivers, acid soil, and rich gardening traditions. -jsq

Red Earth Farm Janisse Ray present:

SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference

A day-long, information-rich, action-packed, affordable conference designed to get you healthier and save you money.

facebook event

When and Where:

9AM to 6PM, Jan. 26, 2013
Tattnall County High School,
Highway 23/57 South,
(1 Battle Creek Warrior Blvd)
Reidsville, GA 30453

Registration:

PDF, Word
$30 before Jan. 15;
$45 afterwards.
Includes lunch.

Many do-it-yourself workshops in homesteading and country living: mushroom culture, beekeeping, backyard chickens, soil-building, small fruit production, economics, gardening for wildlife, charcuterie, natural cleaning, fermentation, herbs on the menu, natural cleaning & body care products, making jams & jellies, vermiculture, weed management, marketing, everything you need to know about small farming. Ladies Homestead Gathering, seed-saving. And so much more….

Conference actually starts on Friday with a potluck, reading & a showing of the film “Grow.”

For more information see Registration on the left here, or email redearthfarm at yahoo.

Gretchen Quarterman will be giving a workshop at the Growing Local conference: Beginning lesson on home made jams and jellies. What you’ll need (not much) to start making delicious sweets from fruits that are easily available.

Inspirational gardener & naturalist Ellen Corrie of Tifton, Ga. will be teaching a workshop on Gardening for Wildlife at the Growing Local conference Jan. 26. This presentation will look at how gardening for wildlife makes your garden (whatever size) healthier and helps restore habitat and preserve biodiversity. There’ll be an overview of factors which need to be considered to attract and keep any wildlife or beneficial general. I’ll focus on pollinators and specific practices and plants to attract them. — with Leeann Drabenstott Culbreath and Dan Corrie.

Albert Kipple Culbreath will be teaching a Mushroom-Growing Workshop at the conference. Inoculation and care of logs for production of shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Will include information on where to obtain supplies, how to handle logs, which type logs to use, care for the logs, and culinary uses. Sign up now. — with Leeann Drabenstott Culbreath.

Native plants in your yard for native wildlife

Nature is not something out there, apart from people. It never was, and nowadays people have built and farmed and clearcut so much that wildlife species from insects to birds are in trouble. In south Georgia people may think that our trees make a lot of wildlife habitat. Actually, most of those trees are planted pine plantations with very limited undergrowth, and in town many yards are deserts of grass plus exotic species that don’t support native birds. Douglas Tallamy offers one solution: turn yards into wildlife habitat by growing native species. Since we are as always remodeling nature, we might as well do it so as to feed the rest of nature and ourselves, and by the way get flood prevention and possibly cleaner water as well, oh, and fewer pesticides to poison ourselves.

Douglas Tallamy makes a clear and compelling case in Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants

…it is not yet too late to save most of the plants and animals that sustain the ecosystems on which we ourselves depend. Second, restoring native plants to most human-dominated landscapes is relatively easy to do.

Some of you may wonder why native species are so important? Don’t we have more deer than we can shoot? Maybe so, but we have far fewer birds of almost every species than we did decades and only a few years ago.

Some may wonder: aren’t exotic species just as good as native ones, if deer and birds can eat them? Actually, no, because many exotic species are poisonous Japanese climbing fern on native Smilax to native wildlife, and because invasive exotics crowd out natives and reduce species diversity. From kudzu to Japanese climbing fern, exotic invasives are bad for wildlife and may also promote erosion and flooding by strangling native vegetation.

All plants are not created equal, particularly in their ability to support wildlife. Most of our native plant-eaters are not able to eat alien plants, and we are replacing native plants with alien species at an alarming rate, especially in the suburban gardens on which our wildlife increasingly depends. My central message is that unless we restore native plants to our suburban ecosystems, the future of biodiversity in the United States is dim.

Tallamy had an epiphany when he and his wife moved to 10 acres in Pennsylvania in 2000:

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Okravore supper

Pork chop, squash, brocolli, all from within 100 miles, and corn and sweet potatoes from our field:

Pork chop, corn, squash, brocolli Sweet potato pie

Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2012-11-15.

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Gretchen with okra

Gretchen the farmer and Gretchen the Rotarian with okra and peppers and Brown Dog and Yellow Dog:

20121031 111820 Gretchen the farmer with okra and peppers and Brown Dog and Yellow Dog Gretchen the Rotarian with okra

Gretchen the farmer with okra and Brown Dog and Yellow Dog

Gretchen the farmer and Rotarian with okra and peppers and Brown Dog and Yellow Dog.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 31 October 2012.

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Corn in trailer with rising moon

Finished picking a trailer full of corn; now cover it.

Close Picker chute and moon

Cloud colors, picker, trailer, and moon:

Cloud colors, picker, trailer, and moon

Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 September 2012.

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Terry Davis and the Red Corn

Terry Davis selected the red kernels last year, planted them this spring, and now he’s picking them.

Movie: Corn picking (4.5M) Movie: Coming up the corn row (74M) Movie: Second corn (8.1M) Movie: Finishing the second row (30M)

Here’s a video playlist.

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Sweet potatoes

Gretchen will be selling these sweet potatoes at Valdosta Farm Days tomorrow morning, Saturday, 15 September 2012, 9AM to 1PM, at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse.

Digging

Displaying:

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Zucca to Valdosta Farm Days

Zucca, okra, and sweet potatoes to Valdosta Farm Days this morning, 9AM to 1PM (and pumpkins and peppers), down at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse, Central Avenue between Patterson and Ashley.

Zucca, okra, sweet potatoes Cards and dogs

Where did she get those zucca? The dogs helped.

John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Pictures and videos by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 1 September 2012.

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Trying out the solar dehydrator @ Okra Paradise Farms 2012-08-04

Testing out the solar dehydrator with okra, tomatoes, peppers, and a thermometer:

Vegetables, fruits, and a thermometer Door closed

Pictures of Gretchen Quarterman with the solar dehydrator
by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 August 2012.

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