So, I’m waiting to talk to Robin Kelson from the Good Seed Company about this years 2018 Free the Seeds Seed Fair and Free Seeds Swap.
Grow Fresh Food All Winter – Laura Behenna, 5th Avenue Farm
Converting Lawn to Garden – Pamela Lund, Planet B Harvest
Dehydration for Everyone – Julie Liang, Twice as Tasty
Fruit Tree Pruning – Barton Morse, The Garlic King of Montana
Growing Your Nutrients – Linda Peterson, Polson Natural Wellness
Home Canning Basics – Kathie Lapcevic
Composting that is Right for You – Patti Armbrister, Agrarian Food Web
Gardening from the Kitchen – Julie Liang, Twice as Tasty
Real Botanicals for Thoughtful Skincare Formulations – Annagret Pfeifer, Kettle Care Organics
How to Garden Like a Farmer – Todd Ulizio, Two Bear Farm
School Gardens 101 – Alli Mitchell, Kalispell Middle School
Grow, Gather & Make Your Own Herbal Remedies – Joleen Barce, Earth Garden Herbs
Growing for Seed Saving – Robin Kelson, Good Seed Company
Beekeeping – Wade Foley, Tamarack Apiaries
Fruit Tree Grafting – Rod McIver
Soil Nutrition – Heather Estrada, FVCC Agricultural Program
Seed Cleaning – Judy Owsowitz, Terrapin Farm
Food Forestry & Managing a Multi-Species Orchard – Leslie Lowe, Beargrass Landscape Architecture
Chickens – Susan Waite, Earthstar Farms
Beekeeping – Allyson Bush, Good Bee Company
All workshops will be held at Flathead Valley Community College in the Arts & Technology Building on March 3rd from 10am-3:30pm. The schedule of times and rooms will be updated here shortly.
2018 Free the Seeds Seed Fair and Free Seeds Swap with Robin Kelson
So I thought well I never posted pics of last year so I’m gonna put them up here. I was probably too busy teaching. This year I would like to give a presentation on my new free garden course Mike and I developed over Christmas. But with teaching and all who knows if I can pull that off?
Anyway the highlight for me last year was Patti Armbrister’s class on Garden Club Education but I also very much enjoyed Todd Ulizo from Two Bear and the kids rooms.
Looks like I actually started out that morning reading an article from wired.com about advertising in podcasting!
Building school Gardens with Patti Armbrister
Montana Adapted Indian Corn donated to free the seeds
Venders Downstairs in the Main Room
Kids Activities
Kids Garden Library
Ag Financial Management Video
Aimee Roberts with Northwest Farm Credit Services walks you through the key steps for successful financial management of your agriculture business.
Financing over 145 commodities anything that chews or grows! Over 19,000 farmers and ranchers in agriculture. Providing financing and related services.
Improving Your Understanding of Soil Mineralization, and why it matters – Todd Ulizio
Todd Ulizio’s talk about soil health
Todd Ulizio’s talk about soil health
as hit has been for the last two years
new workshops
additional booths at this event!
this year like last year we’re gonna have an OPI teacher k-12 training I think there are 7 spots left you can sign up at the PIR Net portal that teachers have access to.
All about how to build and maintain a sustainable school garden
Booths have
Lots of good stuff!
If you are not in Kalispell, Montana you might want to look for something like this in your area!
You’re gonna give out 10,000 packs of seeds and are you collecting seeds this year too?
We are taking in seed collections in the Flathead Valley
donation boxes in all the
one hundred 2nd street east in Whitefish.
you can bring seeds the day of event we will process and put them in packets.We just ask
no hybrids and no GMOs
as much seed as possible
We also video tape all of workshops
want to know we will try to film all our sessions
access info from other years from archives
Obviously the crowds that come. I’m gonna watch the video about Todd Ulizio because that was awesome.
This year he is switching it up doing a new talk on How to garden like a farmer
we have great things going on this year
Dialogue between local chefs and local producers to get more local food on the tables in our
saving our seeds.
I just want to quickly review for my new Progressive Radio Network Listeners. And explain that the first time we were expecting 350 people and 500 people were through the door more by 10am when it started! We had 500 fliers and they were gone! Over 1500 people came.
A lot of times the first time you do something they say plan for only 3 weeks. Your gonna make a lot of mistakes, think next year you can go bigger! And just quick take action!
1900 the second year
my thoughts on this
We were a group of 2-3 people who had enough of an idea to make something happen. We didn’t really know what to do. We did agree to bring 2 people to the next meeting
right away not all of those people didn’t stay to do the work but they knew other people to be interested. Even if only one of you but try to get two other people to sit down with the intention of only brainstorming
for us
everyone
which is a valley
get the word out enough
anyone was interested would have an invitation
outreach
everybody donated time and energy for free
It’s amazing how many people in your community are willing to support this
wasn’t expensive
11 weeks
thought it was gonna be 300
We kind of freaked out because 1500 people showed up!
2% of our county’s population
huge feedback
a few people to put it together!
need in your area and it doesn’t take that much to put in together
I did an awesome interview with Mark Highland and thought I should call Robin!