Learning with a community of farmers at EcoFarm
The winter is not only for harvesting winter veggies and planning for the summer, it also is conference season.
Last week, Andrew went to the EcoFarm Conference in Pacific Grove. The conference is a gathering of regenerative and sustainable farmers and farm advocates focused on creating a more sustainable and just food system.
Since 1981, started in Winters by Amigo Bob Cantisano and more locals farmers, it has grown to over 1500 attendees every year,
The day before the conference begins, there is a tour of a few local farms and ranches. This year we visited Paicinies Ranch, JSM Organics, and Live Earth Farm.
It was so fun seeing all the tools Live Earth Farm uses and got some inspiration on how to set up some tools. It is very different farming there, as they farm in a little valley and all the fields are on slight slopes.
A few of the sessions included one very detailed one about how to deal with gophers and ground squirrels. Both are big pest issues that damage our crops and we are going to make a few changes to hopefully deter them.
There were sessions that helped on mechanization on the farm, cover crops, weed management and so many more topics.
In addition to some practical sessions, there were many philosophical sessions about what does the future of farming look like.
The best part of the conference isn’t the sessions but the side conversations among farmer friends. Over meals or just talking with them after sessions, you can learn some key tips or just how other farms do things.
Like most conferences, there was a some businesses' showing off their products and talking about how they can help the farmers. Whether it is sales software or farm crop management or even a little robot for use on the farm. It is always interesting to see whats new and being able to talk to them in person instead of looking at a website.
The conference is a full time full of learning and inspiring. Lots of small ideas on how to make some improvements for the farm.
On the farm we have been preparing to start planting out in the field. Mowing, spreading compost and then getting the beds ready. Yesterday we seeded our first round of crops outside including carrots, radishes, beets, spinach, turnips and arugula.
Along with the field, we continue to seed in the greenhouse and have gotten more tomatoes seeded along with eggplant, peppers and onions. It is exciting watching the greenhouse get filled with more seedlings.
The seasons are changing slowly as we are soon going to see more blossoms on the trees, the earliest flowering ume trees just blossomed and many more will come.
