Merry Christmas Everyone! Have a safe and joyous holiday season!
I will be presenting a lecture next month, Please join me!
Summit County – Master Gardeners of Summit County, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization affiliated with the Ohio State University Extension, Summit County, announce their annual Design & Beyond 2012 symposium on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at Zwisler Hall – St. Sebastian’s Church, 348 Elmdale Ave, Akron, OH 44320 from 8:30 am until 2:30 pm. Cost for the day, including continental breakfast, lunch and materials is $40 for all participants, and is open to the public.
Presenters will be:
Dan Soulsby – Local resident, Dan Soulsby is a passionate and avid organic gardener. On his small farm in Hudson, with the help of friends and relatives, over an acre of vegetables and herbs are hand planted. Soulsby’s passion for gardening began during time living in the cramped city Los Angeles where he worked at Disney Studios dreaming of his own little farm. He read almost every book he could get his hands on to educate himself on the principles and benefits of organic gardening. Soulbsy will discuss what he grows, how he grows it, the benefits of organic gardening, and his passion for sharing this information with fellow gardeners. This year he started a garden blog about farm life including witty humor, pictures, and how-to advice throughout the growing season. Recent posts include making tomato sauce, dill pickles, and catching fruit flies that come in with the harvest. Dan, and wife Mindy, created an organization called Project Garden Share. PGS is a non-profit organization linking those in need of food with individuals who own land and will allow others some space to cultivate fresh vegetables and herbs. This will be a great interactive program for all of us who love veggie and herb gardening!
Dan Soulsby will be presenting “Small Scale Organic Gardening and Farm Blogging.”
Bob Jones Jr. – Grew up on his family’s vegetable farm in Huron near the shores of Lake Erie in a family that was born and bred with the love of farming. Hard times and fortunate “accidents” have defined and shaped their purpose and mission: “to grow vegetables slowly and gently in full accord with nature. ®” The Chef’s Garden has dedicated itself to working in concert with outstanding chefs all over America. After graduating from The Ohio State University in 1989 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture, majoring in Horticulture, he worked in sales/purchasing at Farmer Jones Farms – the predecessor to The Chef’s Garden – for three years, before moving into field and greenhouse production in 1995. Bob, known to most on the farm as Bobby, currently works with a team of 12 growers at The Chef’s Garden to produce more than 600 Heirloom varieties of Vegetables, Herbs, and Micro greens for the world’s top chefs. He has served on the board of directors of The Ohio Vegetable and Potato Growers Association for almost a decade; he also served for six years on the Board of the Ohio Produce Growers & Marketers Association, as well as on The Ohio Food Safety Roundtable. He is currently serving on the Board of the OFA, and association of Horticultural Professionals as well as the Ohio Vegetable and Small Fruit Research and Development Program and chairs the Advisory Board of the “Ohio Produce Marketing Agreement” which is a food safety specific marketing agreement.
Bobby Jones will be presenting “Farming for Flavor and Sustainability”
Hanna Rhoades – of Bedford, OH is the owner of Gardening Know How (www.gardeningknowhow.com), one of the leading gardening advice sites on the web which was visited by over 7 million visitors last year. GardeningKnowHow.com aim is to help gardeners at all levels answer their gardening questions. She also blogs about her own gardening experiences on her blog ThisGardenIsIllegal.com, and has a large following who appreciate her candid and amusing reviews of tomato varieties and gardening in general. She has been a presenter at RIPE at the Cleveland Botanical Garden the past two years on Heirloom Tomatoes. Rhodes enjoys using vertical gardening methods to maximize her gardening space, and we will enjoy a step by step Power Point presentation using her own yard as a demo. Vertical gardening has been gaining popularity in recent years as the interest in home food production has increased. Vertical gardening is a gardening technique that utilizes various resources to allow plants to extend upward rather than grow along the surface of the garden.
Hanna will present “Vertical Gardening – Growing UP in the Garden”
Registration must be postmarked on or before January 7, 2012. Late registration will be accepted until January 14, 2012 at the fee of $45. Registrations are transferable. No refunds after December 31, 2011
To receive a registration form: E-mail: Sherry Beam at: summitmgsnbeam@yahoo.com, or: mail a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Sherry Beam, 2633 Hudson-Aurora Rd., Hudson, Ohio 44236-2325
If you have any questions, please contact, Sherry Beam, facilitator – 330-342-0969
Two Barn Farm 