Local Larder

Workshops are a great way for folks of all experience levels to expand, diversify, and grab some hands-on experience with organic farming and gardening. Workshops on farm sites can really boost your gardening skills and open your eyes to methods that aren’t mainstream, but super helpful and efficient. When dealing with organic pest control and insect issues, I call a farmer who knows. So, if you don’t have your own farmer to contact, get out there, take some workshops, and shake some of the finest gardening hands right here in our Appalachian Region.

Upcoming Events and Ongoing Resources:

West Virginia:

West Virginia Urban Ag Conference

Thurs. September 17 - Sat. September 19, 2015, WVSU, Institute, W.Va

2015 Women in Agriculture Conference

Fri. October 23rd- Sat. October 24th, Davis, WV

Southeast WV Regional Foodshed Gathering

Monday, November 2nd, State Fairgrounds, Fairlea, WV

WVU Extension Ag & Natural Resources

The Agriculture & Natural Resources page of this site can be used to find information on any type of farming and gardening issues you encounter. From apiary events, to farm equipment sales, WVU’s extension has served as a great resource for a long while. Check out their website, and monthly Market Bulletin for a calendar of events.

Virginia:

Young Grower Alliance of Virginia Meeting

The Young Grower Alliance of Virginia is a support group for up-and-coming fruit and vegetable growers. Drawing upon Virginia’s rich history and promising future in produce, the YGA consolidates industry information to present it in a manner that encourages and prepares young, beginning, or next generation growers for a career in horticulture.  Old Hill Cider in Timberville, VA, August 27th,  2015

Broadened Horizons Organic Farm 

Workshops are available by request.

Fall Permaculture Design Course

October-December, Blacksburg, VA

Allegheny Mountain Institute 

This non-profit offers a 6-month education program in all things agriculture, including permaculture, fermentation, urban farming, orchard management, and much more. Staunton, VA

Kentucky:

KY Farm Start

A program of the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, KY Farm Start is a resource including online trainings and in-person events.

KY CRAFT 

Kentucky’s Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training is a program to train farm interns through educational events and farm tours.

UK’s Center for Crop Diversification

The University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment hosts a number of fruit, nut, ornamental, and crop workshops. Keep them in your radar because they’re constantly adding learning opportunities to their list of upcoming events. Click on the link above.

Other Locations:

2015 Young Farmers Conference

December 2nd-4th, Stone Barns Center, Pocantico Hills, NY

Future Harvest CASA

This non-profit offers a year-long program that provides both classroom instruction and shoulder-to-shoulder on-farm training for beginning and transitioning sustainable farmers in the Chesapeake region (Mission area covers Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC.)

Stone Barns Center 2015 Young Farmers’ Conference

December 2nd, 2015 

Good Food Festival and Conference

You’ve heard about the Local Foods Movement sweeping the nation. Phrases like, “I am a member of this legit organic CSA...” and “I just joined a local lacto-fermentation/pickle share..” are whispered by foodies in Asheville, NC, in coffeehouse corners of Denver, Colorado, and scaling a plethora of other famed progressive communities. We’ve reached the point where it’s not just gourmands spreading the word about the need for local production and market support, though. It’s now your neighbor who is recommending local restaurants who serve delicious local dishes. And it’s the unanimous West Virginian, who may not be a farmer, but who knows a few. 

The Greenbrier Valley Local Foods Initiative, is excited to announce the valley’s very first, all inclusive, “Local Food First” challenge. ASAP’s Get Local Campaign was a valuable model for us to inspire to, but in the grand scheme of Local Food Movement activity in recent years, it’s a ripple. Similar to their campaign, our challenge is focused on featuring seasonal produce monthly, grown in and around our small communities. Though this challenge is not expected to be broadcasted by national news stations, we see it as an opportunity to further motivate each other to improve our local food economy. We hope that this is the spark that ignites the fire, or rather, food frenzy across the Greenbrier Valley, in homes, restaurants, and (imagine this) in grocery stores.

It wasn’t long ago that we had the identity as a region of mountain, homesteading, farmers who provided for our families, literally putting food on the table. If there’s one thing to learn from the trending Local Food Movement, it’s that we can return to our old way of life, but with new tactics. With support from challenges like this one, our produce can appeal to restaurants, our neighbors, and surrounding communities. If hundreds of pounds of fresh produce can be grown on apartment rooftops in Chicago, imagine what we can do in a lush back yard of the Greenbrier Valley!

The culture our ancestors started years ago, is not yet lost. We can revive our heritage by first utilizing our modern consumer demand influence. Ask your favorite restaurants about local items on their menus. It may be a lofty desire, but it’s not impossible to replace our Mexico, Idaho, and California grown groceries with local products. Together, we can make great change to feed our hunger for fresh, healthy, local food first.

When I first came to work with the Greenbrier Valley Local Foods Initiative, I was sad to see that the topic of local foods was only buzzing inside on the computers and around meeting tables. With the help of GVEDC staff, coworkers of the Greenbrier Valley Local Foods Initiatve, and a few hired hands pushing a tiller, we now have a garden. Most seeds and starts were donated by GVLFI staff and family members. We have had issues with potato beetles and deer thus far, not to mention blight starting in on the tomatoes, but look forward to posting updates and learning how our readers (that’s you!) would deal with these issues in their own gardens. On the bright side, we now have some of our lunch items coming from right outside the door, and as far as we're concerned, you can't get much more local than that!

Above, are the before and after photos. All we need now is some bright colored signage in that blank space above the door!

There are many pests that can plague your garden. Growing organically can seem like a barrier at times, especially when you’re fed up and ready to combat these demons with real force! Having encountered several pests in my own garden, I understand the anger and desperation associated, so I’m going to try and help before things get out of hand.

Let’s take a look at the possible suspects (after microbes are ruled out). It’s best to come at your enemy when you’ve done your research. Following, I’ll list pests from greatest to smallest, regarding size only, not actual threat.

LARGE:

For deer, bear, coyotes and other wild dogs (never heard of the latter being an issue but apparently if they’re desperate enough, they’ll eat your melons), a fence is about all that will work. Again, it depends on how hungry they are, but I’ve heard of folks adding a strand of electric wire along the top of a fence.The fence should be erected using chicken wire or galvanized steel, depending on your budget. Ideally, if you’re combating deer, you’ve got to have a fence over 8’. If deer are your only issue, however, you can simply sprinkle blood meal around your beds and the smell will deter them. Deer seem to hate fish emulsion and blood meal. I’ve heard of people having success using human hair, dog hair, soap, blood meal, rotten eggs, hot pepper, or predator urine spread around (not directly on) plants. Of course, a dog tethered close is guaranteed to keep deer and sometimes, bear, away. Be wary of using blood meal if you have coyote problems, because they actually like the smell. If you grow fruits or berries and haven’t had a problem with bears yet, make sure to take preventative measures now. These mostly include securing trash, and keeping food scraps/compost buried, away from house, or in containment.

MEDIUM:

I’ve heard many repellent suggestions here, including but not limited to human or dog hair, chili powder, blood meal, fish emulsion, jalapeno, cayenne, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and of course store bought concoctions. In the end, one of the most effective ways to keep these buggers at bay, is to install adequate fencing. A fence of chicken wire dug at least 10” underground will keep digging pests from entering the garden, but be sure to bend the bottom outward (this tends to confuse diggers). Regarding height, the fence should be at least 4’ tall to keep most small animals out. The exception of raccoon requires either electric wire at the top or barbed wire. If raccoons are eating your corn and you’re going mad, it’s not worth building a fence, in my opinion. Instead, the havahart trap is a wonderful alternative to deterrence. This trap with two metal doors, at each end, allows you to catch the varmints and release them elsewhere (or kill them). This trap comes in many sizes and can work to catch about any animal if you bait it properly (you may have to sacrifice a few veggies to save many). I’ve also seen people catch rabbits in these. Once you have a bunny caught, you can move the trap across clover patches and collect the poo pellets for fertilizer. Rabbit pellets can be put directly on plants and is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potash. P.S. Rabbits hate onions.

SMALL:

It has recently been brought to my attention that subscription food services like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh are growing in popularity among folks in the Greenbrier Valley. Though these businesses thrive in bustling lifestyles where consumers choose ease over natural values, there are many ways to reduce the hassle of shopping locally. Positive results of a strong local economy can be seen much quicker on a small scale than on a large urban scale. 

Unfortunately, businesses that ship “fresh” food to your door market their products using words that suggest local harvest in accordance to you, when in fact, many of the produce included in your delivered boxes traveled thousands of miles to reach you. We’re smarter than to think this food is local, and we’re not just someone who doesn’t have time to read more than a few words and purchase an order. After all, you can’t be local to nationwide! 

Here are a  few reasons for buying local food first!

We all know that buying local food helps create a robust local economy. The economy you encourage will provide stable benefits for your needs through local businesses; How wonderful! 

Something else we know is that buying local food helps support local farmers. Whether you buy local produce from markets or farmers directly, the money circulates within the community allowing farmers to keep farming instead of supporting an overgrown, impersonal, international, system that requires chemicals, low working wages, and many natural resources.

Did you know that buying local food can create independence from international food insecurities as well as food imports? While this is true, it takes longer to see than the bountiful plate of fresh veggies and meats you can whip up in a night after visiting a local farmers’ market. 

Though we understand how buying local food is a beautiful act, it’s easy to run into issues with buying only local food or finding the ingredients year round that recipes call for. So, let’s go over the why and how of buying local food first...

1. Does your supermarket look like this? Well, it should.

If we all realized how much control the consumer (that’s us) has over what lines the shelves of our supermarkets, we could start a healthy, happy, local food revolution! Ok, stepping back, we could seriously make a few changes so we wouldn’t have to drive to the farmers’ market to get fresh greens, drive to Kroger to get “fresh” seafood and a big jug of olive oil, and then drive to a local bakery for some fresh bagels just to make our own lunch. 

If we all start with asking our local supermarket staff, “Where is all the local food? Where are the local potatoes and tomatoes? You don’t have them?! Why not? “, we could collectively make significant changes in the food marketplace.

2. Your local restaurants should serve local food. It should look like...

Photo taken at Stardust Cafe in Lewisburg, WV

If you’re not aware of Greenbrier Valley Grown, you should be. This branding certification connects consumers with farmers AND restaurants that serve local dishes. If you want to buy local food but are wary of searching for ingredients at the local farmers’ markets and then having to cook a whole new recipe, go out to eat at one of our many restaurants that serve local food and get a taste of what is possible with food grown and raised here! Aren’t you ready to stop going out to eat and paying outrageous prices, just to have some bland meal over seasoned after being shipped frozen from who knows where??

3. Foods taste best when they’re harvested ripe.

Photo taken at Bootstraps Farm in northern Greenbrier County, WV.

Make your own menus based on what is in-season. We can help! Launching next month, you’ll see signs of our Local Food First campaign around the Greenbrier Valley. Foods that are being harvested each month will be featured across the valley in numerous restaurants so be on the look out. Meanwhile, there are a ton of books and websites available with recipes for cooking in-season foods. Check out All Recipes’ Season Cooking Recipes, or BBC’s food seasons page.

4. Preserving food is easy.

Vacuum- sealed, frozen fruit. 

The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association has put together some useful Organic Enterprise Budgets updated for 2015. CLICK HERE TO VISIT.

Here are the crops they have budgets for:

Watermelon

Broccoli

Tomato

Sweet Potatoes

Summer Squash

Spring Greens

Spring Cucumber

Spring Cabbage

Potato (Irish)

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT.

There are a ton of farmer resources out there, a ton of podcasts folks send into the ether trying to spread the word about resources, and then a ton of us who are continuously attempting to decipher the long list of “not quite what I’m looking for” pieces. 

For all you farmers who don’t have time to be inefficient, especially inside on the computer, this is the podcast for you. I was informed by another beginning farmer, and now I’m passing the key of knowledge to you. 

This podcast has loads of dialogue from actual farmers as well as videos to watch. You can browse the episodes page to see a multitude of topics covered. Hope you enjoy as much as I am.

This week, we were lucky enough to find a large patch of nice sized morels in Greenbrier County, WV. Last weekend, at the Wild Edibles Festival, many mushrooms, edible plants, berries and medicinal plants from West Virginia’s bounty was discussed. Keep up with our blog for more on wild edibles in the coming weeks. I have been diligently searching and waiting the past few weeks for these tasty mushrooms and finally they are here! 

Send in your own pictures and recipes. Here is the most loved morel recipe of the fellers in my family:

FRIED MORELS

Rinse morels in cold water after cutting the dirty bottoms off. Soak in bowl of water with a bit of salt in fridge for a few hours or over night (this will get the bugs out).

This makes enough batter for about 25 morels (depending on size)...

Mix 2 eggs and 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl.

In another bowl, mix 2 1/2 cups cornmeal, 2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp salt. You can add any other seasoning you want but we keep it simple to keep the flavor of the morels strongly observable. Some people like tarragon, cumin or even italian seasoning (thyme, oregano, etc.)

Slice the morels in half lengthwise and let water drain off. Meanwhile, fix your pot of oil. You can use olive oil (which I like to use for frying not deep frying). For deep frying (like my brothers do), pour veggie or canola oil into a stainless steel pot until it reaches approximately 3 inches deep. Turn this on med-high. If you have a thermometer for cooking, let the oil reach somewhere between 350 and 375 degress F.

Dip the morel halves in the egg, drop them into the cornmeal mix and roll them around until covered, then drop them into the hot oil. Keep a close eye, and use a slotted spoon, something like this to get them out when they brown on both sides:

They should look like this when you’re done:

But if you’re not into frying, for health concerns or what have you, here are some other interesting ideas (click on the names to see the recipes):

MOREL, SPINACH, TOMATO PIZZA

RAMP PASTA WITH MORELS

SCALLOPS WITH MORELS & RAMPS

MOREL, FIDDLEHEAD MARSALA ON BEET FETTUCCINE

CREAMY MOREL BISQUE

From Southern Exposure

As a follow-up of last week’s blog, here are some images from our completed garden planner diagram for the garden we will plant here at our GVLFI office in Maxwelton. Realistically, we may not have as much variety in plant species but this planner gives a good idea of what your garden might look like, with room designated appropriately based on plant seeding recommendations. Note the space in between rows and try not to cram plant spacing without room for you to walk through to water or pick.The second diagram shows what dates to plant based on frost dates. (The program does this one for you based on your plant selection!)