Released: March 23, 2006

Workshops to Help Market Gardeners Hone Skills, Exchange Information

OLATHE, Kan. – Two workshops for experienced and would-be market gardeners are on the books for early April and May. Both will focus on raising vegetables.

The workshops are part of the series now being offered each year by the Growing Growers Training Program – which works to improve the quantity and quality of produce grown within the Kansas City “food shed” (easy driving distance, about 200 miles).

The April 3 workshop, “Plant Production for the Vegetable Grower,” will feature Lewis Jett, Extension vegetable crops specialist with the University of Missouri. The program will cover greenhouse, high tunnel and field production processes, including Jett’s discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of seeding directly and using transplants in greenhouse production.

Following the program, participants will tour KC Community Farm and its 2-plus acres of certified-organic vegetables, fruits and herbs. In addition, farmers Dan Dermitzel and Katherine Kelly will provide an overview of their production planning and planting schedules.

The workshop will start at the Emerson Park Christian Church (1501 S. 40th St.) in Kansas City, Kan., and run from 4 to 7 p.m. The cost to attend is $15 for registrations by March 27 and $18 thereafter.

Registration information is available by calling 913-488-1270 or e-mailing growers@ksu.edu.

The May 8 workshop, “Equipment and Farm Safety for Vegetable Growers” will center on ways to make market gardening less hazardous and physically demanding. As part of that, it will address such on-farm safety issues as farm equipment use, central U.S. weather and the ergonomics of “stoop labor.”

The 4-7 p.m. workshop will be at Kansas State University’s northeast Horticulture Research Center (35125 W. 135th St.) in rural Olathe, Kan. The center’s farm manager, Terry Schaplowsky, will follow the program with a tour of the wide array of equipment the research scientists have used in vegetable and flower production trials.

“Over the years, we’ve accumulated a real cross-section of equipment designed to make production faster and more efficient. Some of it’s geared toward small-scale production and some for large,” said Ted Carey, Growing Growers Training Program coordinator and one of the K-State Research and Extension horticulturists based at the Center.

The cost to attend this workshop is $15 for registrations received by May 1 and $18 thereafter.

More information about the entire 2006 training series is available on the Web at http://www.growinggrowers.org/workshop.htm. That page also contains links to a mail-in registration form for each workshop.

For June through October the program has planned workshops that will cover such subjects as harvesting and handling produce; “selling” nutrition and taste; getting started in community-supported agriculture; managing diseases, pests and weeds; diversifying a market garden operation; and managing a small-farm business.

The Growing Growers Training Program is a cooperative effort of Kansas State University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Kansas Rural Center and the Kansas City Food Circle (a consumers’ organization).

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Kathleen Ward
kward@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News