Attended the annual MOSES Conference in La Crosse over the weekend, a large gathering of growers, gardeners and assorted advocates/policy makers who have a strong dedication to organic farming, CSAs and a saner way of producing food for our communities.
This was my first time to MOSES and I have to say it was very inspiring, incredibly well organized, informative and very worthwhile. And, it was not cheap. On the other hand, with most of the meals covered, and the quality of the networking and information high, I recommend getting down to La Crosse over the last weekend in February.
Some notes:
Elderberries. Commercial scale elderberry production was a HOT topic, thanks to Terry Durham of Missouri. Check out his scene at www.elderberrylife.com . Elderberries, it turns out are a kind of native superfruit, prized for its flower, its prodigious, versatile and medicinal fruit and its beautiful growth habit. It doesn’t hurt that it is a native, can handle cold weather and its market is growing by leaps and bounds every year.
Here’s the deal: Europeans love elderberries for its juice, its flowers and its dye. In Europe, artificial coloring in food grade products is limited to using colors derived from 100% natural sources, thus elderberry has a huge market. The flowers are quite large and stand up well in dried arrangements. In addition, the juice has tremendous anti-oxidant qualities and is higher in vitamins and minerals than even grapes. It also makes a great cordial, high quality wine, delicious jelly as well as many other value added products. So, the market continues to expand rapidly and in the United States, 95% of the product comes from Europe, whose variety sambucas nigra, does not have deliver as much anti-oxidant as the American one.
Terry and his organization have been pursuing a valuable elderberry cultivar for 16 years: one that is high in anti-oxidants, has superior berry quality and can take cold weather. And, they have produced some excellent candidates, including Wyldewood, Bob Gordon, York and Nova (the two latter varieties will only be available Fall of 2011). They teach a course in early June, a two-day comprehensive workshop on all aspects of elderberry production, for a mere $25.00, so if you are interested in learning more or starting your own elderberry production, that is the place to go.
In any case, their booth was a mob scene. They brought hundreds of cuttings, if not thousands, along with jelly, cordials, and juice. I’m not sure that they didn’t sell out every scrap and jar and cutting in their whole inventory. RNH now has 25 of the Wyldewood cuttings starting to root out and we are most excited to get these plants in the ground and let the magic begin.
High Tunnel Production. Spent all day Thursday consolidating my learning about high, medium and low tunnel food and flower production. John Biernbaum of Michigan State and Ted Blomgren of Windflower Farm in the Hudson Valley tag-teamed the presentation and loaded about 75 people up with all the latest studies and experience in working with these season-extending technologies. Just a ton of things to know about growing in these environments, tricks, trouble-shooting and pitfalls galore.
The long and the short of it is that tunnel production mitigates risks: from extreme climatic events, insect infestations and disease. Tunnels allow producers to turn out high quality vegetables, flowers and niche produce earlier and later in the season, thus providing income streams, some of them quite profitable, that heretofore were unavailable for local growers.
RNH has a movable high-tunnel already, produced by Four Season Tools of Kansas City, who interestingly, were exhibiting at MOSES. But refining its applications, understanding growing techniques, figuring out better systems and strategies — makes conferences like this extremely worthwhile. The one thing that has really whetted my appetite is to look more at small and mid-size tunnels, sometimes called “caterpillars” — which are much less costly, go up quickly, have mobility and can achieve some amazing results.
John Biernbaum, a veteran organic grower and researcher, was particularly inspiring in speaking about the student-run organic farm at Michigan State: 10 acres, a 48-week CSA, multi-disciplinary ag experiences for a variety of student majors. Just to consider what these young people are doing, and to look around the room at all the producers and CSA operators looking to add season-extension to their repertoires — this is extremely inspiring and hopeful for the future of local food production in the temperate zones.
