The Garden Student Program: taking a look back as we move forward

By Janet Gamble, Garden Student Program Director

Ten years ago, the Garden Student Program at MFAI was a unique training program for farmers, with only a small handful of other programs like it in the U.S. Our program trained beginning farmers in organic and biodynamic agricultural practices. Today, farmer-training programs have proliferated throughout the country, with universities, private colleges, and nonprofit organizations offering farmer-training opportunities. These programs are answering the demand to train the growing number of farmers, who often come from non-traditional backgrounds, in organic and sustainable agricultural production. This onslaught of interest has spurred us to take a step back, assess the situation, and take the next step in our program.

Many beginning farmers lack the opportunity to build equity and experience to start their own businesses. To meet that need, we are expanding our program. We will offer new farmers a place to "incubate" their farming enterprises by offering them land, infrastructure (coolers, greenhouse, washing facilities, etc.), technical support, and mentoring to help build their businesses. Farming incubators offer a low risk opportunity for new farmers to build capital and market equity, while assisting them in finding land for the long term. One student, Andrea Weimer, is building her organic cut flower business, Earth Angel, while taking advanced business courses, continuing agricultural education courses, and receiving mentoring from MFAI staff.

Another change to our program is that we are opening up our curriculum to the general public. Foundation Year students make a seven-month commitment to the Garden Student Program and receive intensive training. However, we recognize that many people cannot attend a seven-month program, and, in response, we created one-and two-day workshops, based on the Foundation Year course material. Through the Workshop Series, aspiring farmers, gardeners and others can now pick and choose courses to add to their repertoire of core competencies. One can even take all of the classes and receive a certificate from MFAI.

Building on the Workshop Series structure, we are offering advanced courses in business development, urban agriculture and alternative greenhouse construction and enterprises. Look for our 2007 course offerings, including Tilling the Soil course offering (January 13, February 3 and 10, and March 3 and 10), SPIN-Farming workshop (March 22-24), our Greenhouse Series workshops (summer 2007) and extensive pre-season courses in February and March, timed for farming interns in preparation for the season to come.

For more information, visit the Garden Student Program webpage or contact Janet Gamble at jgamble@michaelfieldsaginst.org, or 262-642-3303 extension 127.

^ Back to top

Agricultural research for the next generation

By Walter Goldstein, Crop Research Director

MFAI's mission includes conducting on-farm research for organic agricultural production that meets the needs of farmers. Our research program comprises, in part, developing seed varieties that are especially useful to organic crop production. During this year's growing season, orange, yellow, white, and blue corn breeding lines were grown out and selected in East Troy. In September, we had a corn field day at the MFAI, and there were field days with cooperators Laura Krause and Ron Brunk in Iowa. The field days offered opportunities to demonstrate our research to farmers and get their feedback and thoughts on our work. Many farmers tried our corn varieties and hybrids this year and we have heard generally positive reports. Test results in Iowa and in Wisconsin suggest that some of our corn varieties are competitive in yield with conventional corn hybrids.

This year, we had two capable and very helpful Thai interns, Jiraluck and Napha. Their project, funded by the Organic Research Foundation, indicates that our corn varieties and hybrids have become more competitive with weeds than hybrid corn that was selected under conventional farming conditions. This should prove very useful for organic farmers who must combat weeds without synthetic chemicals.

A great deal of emphasis in our work has turned to breeding our corn for better protein quality (high methionine) to feed to organic chickens. Methionine is a major limiting amino acid for poultry production. After October 2008, USDA rules will no longer allow organic farmers to feed synthetic methionine. With funding from USDA and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, we have been developing breeds of corn that have high methionine. This year, Organic Valley fed chickens (broilers) with our corn and found they did not need additional synthetic methionine to grow well. We are growing a nursery of high methionine corn in Chile this winter to multiply seed and to make test crosses. Next year, we hope to enlist many farmers to test our high methionine hybrids in small plots. We?will?also enlist a seed company to produce hybrid seed next year for having ready for farmers in 2008.

For more information on our research, visit our Crop Research webpage.

^ Back to top

Sustainable agriculture policy initiatives: year in review

By Margaret Krome, Policy Program Director and Jeanne Merrill, Associate Policy Director

MFAI's Policy Program brings together farmers and consumers to effectively advance programs and policies that support sustainable agriculture. We do this by seeking increased state and federal government resources for sustainable food and farming, and working to remove existing policy barriers that limit the adoption of sustainable farming practices in Wisconsin and nationally.

At the national level, we coordinate the sustainable agriculture movement's annual grassroots appropriations campaign, whose goal is to secure needed funding for key sustainable agriculture programs. Priorities are set through a movement-wide process and implemented through the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and with partners such as the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Priorities for the year included the Conservation Security Program, Value Added Producer Grant Program, Farmers' Market Promotion Program, and others. This year has been especially busy with congressional elections delaying in final action on 2007 fiscal year funding.

In Wisconsin, we promote federal agriculture programs so that farmers and others are able to access resources to support sustainable agriculture. Among those programs is the Conservation Security Program (CSP), the country's first "green payments" program. CSP financially rewards farmers for good conservation practices that protect the environment. Jeanne is working with USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service to host workshops this winter to educate farmers and conservation groups about CSP. She also works with partners on outreach for USDA's Value Added Producer Grant program, which funds farmer-based agricultural enterprises.

We were excited to expand our state policy work this year. Margaret was appointed to the Working Lands Initiative (WLI) committee of the state agriculture department to study remedies to loss of farm and forest lands in the state. We are working with others to advance the WLI's recommendations legislatively.

One strategy for preserving farmland is to increase farmers' profits, which helps keep farmers on the land. To advance farmer profitability, Jeanne participated in the creation of the state's proposed Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin initiative. Once funded, the initiative will provide financial and technical assistance to farmers and others working to increasing local food markets in their region. We are also working with partners at the UW-Madison to further develop the Agricultural Innovation Center's role in supporting new and expanding agricultural enterprises in the state.

Another strategy for keeping Wisconsin's agricultural community profitable and environmentally sound is the practice of managed grazing. This July we released a report, The Future of Managed Grazing, which reviewed barriers to practicing managed grazing for beginning and conventional farmers and offered recommendations for steps the state agriculture department and university could take to eliminate such barriers.

As we look toward 2007 and beyond, we will continue to strive for an agriculture that builds positive bridges between urban and rural communities, keeps farmers on the land, and protects the environment.

For more information on the , including our internships, please visit the Policy Program webpage.

^ Back to top

Whole farm research

By John Hall, Farming Systems Agronomist

This season's activities in the Integrated Farming Systems Program area included the completion of the 16th year of the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST). WICST, a collaboration with UW-Madison researchers, compares different farming systems for productivity, profitability and environmental impact.

This year, one highlight of our research was the improved weed control resulting in higher corn and soybean yields in the organic rotations than in the past few seasons. We attribute this mostly to better timing of tillage operations and the use of a flex tine weeder in addition to the rotary hoe.

It was also a good year for forage production, with good moisture conditions most of the season. The productivity of pastures and the grazing dairy heifers was better than ever, and will likely result in very favorable economic comparisons with other land use options when the analyses are complete.

We only recently completed corn harvests in the on-farm trials that are part of the Linking Farms Project. These trials are designed to promote a landscape approach to nutrient management by integrating manure from livestock operations into cash grain operations. Results indicate that dairy manure is a good substitute for chemical fertilizer in cash grain rotations to achieve high yields, and that the impact of manure applications on soil compaction and weed pressure are minimal. We intend to expand this research next year to include feed production contracts with livestock operations to improve the nutrient cycle.

The long-term outcome of this project will be improved stewardship and profitability on both livestock and grain farms due to improved nutrient management. We feel this approach will become increasingly important as fertilizer prices increase, and manure management regulations become more stringent in response to the problem of high soil test phosphorus levels in many areas of the state.

^ Back to top

Fields Best: creating local food connections at the Milwaukee Public Market

By Julie Jasinski, Chef and PJ Johnson, Fields Best Manager

The first year of Fields Best, our store in the Milwaukee Public Market, provided a wonderful venue to offer customers quality organic and locally grown produce, and an opportunity for us to discuss local food issues.

At Fields Best, we have developed important partnerships with local farmers, including Pine Hold Gardens in Oak Creek (one of the last working farms in Milwaukee County), Jen Ehr Farm in Sun Prairie, Igl Potato Farm in Antigo, River Valley Mushroom Growers in Burlington, Barthel's Orchard in Mequon and Nieman Orchard in Cedarburg. We were pleased to also offer beautiful flowers from Earth Angel Flowers, the business incubator project of second year garden student, Andrea Weimer.

In May, we added of a juice bar and prepared foods deli cooler, which was met with enthusiastic response. A major feature of the juice bar is wheatgrass grown at MFAI. Many customers are pleasantly surprised at its "green" flavor and comment that it is far tastier than wheat grass tried elsewhere. Chef Nate Chappell, who directed the start-up of the juices, developed some unique blends, including fresh strawberry and mint lemonade that became customer favorites. Our deli's "field fresh" green salads included pea shoots and sunflower sprouts, for unique flavor and crunch, grown in MFAI's greenhouses.

Accompanying the produce sales at Fields Best, we offer cooking demonstrations and food tastings. Chef Julie's cooking demonstrations provide an opportunity to talk with consumers about food and cooking issues. This year, customers had the opportunity to taste items they had never tried before, including rutabagas, chard or fresh ginger.

A highlight of the year for us, at Fields Best, was the visit by Anna Lappé, co-author of "Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen." Anna came to town for book signings with the Brady Street Artisan Food Festival, which MFAI co-sponsored this year. As part of the festivities, Chefs Julie and Nate were honored to cook a six-course meal for Anna and MFAI invitees at the Milwaukee Public Market. It was an ideal opportunity to put a Wisconsin accent on the premise of her book that "grub" should be universal, delicious and allow people to embrace a healthier relationship to food.

Chef Julie's educational efforts at the Milwaukee Public Market will continue into the New Year with a series of free cooking classes. The theme of the classes is: "Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions: Healthy Cooking." A different topic will be covered each week for six weeks, beginning on Jan. 11th. Classes will be scheduled for an hour on Thursdays at Noon and 5 pm as well as Saturdays at Noon. Details will soon be available at the Milwaukee Public Market website.

^ Back to top

Book review: Of Time and Place by Richard Quinney

By Barb Clemens, whose son, Charlie, is an alumnus of the Garden Student Program who worked on the Quinney farm this past summer

In Of Time and Place: A Farm in Wisconsin, Richard Quinney tells the story of his family and their farm from the time of his great grandparents fleeing the potato famine in Ireland to the present. He is the Quinney family's historian, archeologist and philosopher. His descriptions of family members tell their stories in their time and place. Not everyone stayed on the farm in Walworth County, Wisconsin and through marriage, other families became part of the Quinney history. Pictures from family albums found throughout the book add much to the story.

Richard Quinney writes of his own life on the farm, which was abundant with the basic necessities and included his loving and contented parents. It was a life of peaceful coexistence that Quinney feels has been a lasting influence on his life. Growing up on a farm meant helping with tasks that contributed to the successful operation of the farm. Being able to make these meaningful contributions provided the author with a tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as well as an appreciation and desire for learning.

Life on the farm in Walworth County was not without contact with the greater world. Trips, postcards and radio expanded the world of the Quinneys. Richard writes about learning that farm life is earthbound, yet open to the spaces beyond. He writes of how, while working in the fields, his father would often sing, "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm After They've Seen Paree?" Richard eventually did leave the farm for a career as a college professor. Quinney now commutes to the farm on a weekly basis. He and his brother, Ralph, have hopes that the farm can be preserved. Their vision is a natural habitat where the land is farmed using methods that do not harm the environment.

Of Time and Place: A Farm in Wisconsin is beautifully written and is an inspiration to the reader to record one's own family history. Richard Quinney states in the Prologue, "we are an intimate part of those who have come before us." Those are the words of a fine writer and reflect his love and gratitude for his family and the time and place they gave him.

^ Back to top

Vegetables close up

By Anne Sylvan, Vegetable Production Technician

The pleasure of lingering in the organic produce aisle at the supermarket often caused me to wonder how, in our bottom line world, organic food had became a big industry. While I was glad it was available, I was not glad that most of it came from California. Even well-traveled organic food tastes better, and is more nutritious than its conventional counterparts, but anyone could learn that much from eating and reading. I wondered if it could be both better organic AND local.

This curiosity led me to volunteer in the gardens at MFAI. Like any good education, two growing seasons for me have dispelled myths as well as given insights:

Myth: Farmers produce vegetables

Reality: Plants produce vegetables; growers just help them. It didn't take long to learn that plants are willful and exuberant. Once in the earth, seeds and seedlings grow into a veritable Eden in days. Then the harvest begins: tub after tub of vegetables are collected and prepared for local subscribers and stores.

Myth: The most important work in vegetable production occurs before the harvest.

Reality: Harvesting is a form of adoption. The plant created and sustained what we call produce to perpetuate itself. When they harvest, organic growers take on the responsibility of keeping the produce as alive, or fresh as possible until it reaches someone's table. As exacting as organic harvesting is, it can only postpone the demise of produce freshness.

This garden education offered many more fascinating realities for me, and led to one big conclusion: as essential as plants and growers are, they alone cannot drive market demand for local food. Consumers are the third part of the equation that will make local food production a thriving reality available to all. Consumers vote with their dollars, and in these more local stakes, as in our local elections, each vote counts. The path to sustainable food production does truly begin at home.

^ Back to top

Workshops

Tilling the Soil, an entrepreneurial training workshop. MFAI kicks off the 2007 Garden Workshop and Farm Tour Series with Tilling the Soil: Entrepreneurial Training for Agricultural Business Owners, starting January 13th. For more information or to register, contact our partner for this segment, the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater's Small Business Development Center, at: (262) 471-3217. (Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS)

SPIN Cities: Farming Where We Live workshop. SPIN stands for Small Plot Intensive agriculture. But it also stands for new hope for independent farmers and shows the way to accelerate the shift to a more locally based food system. From March 22nd through 24th, the developer of the revolutionary new sub-acre SPIN-Farming method will show you how farming can fit into any lifestyle or life cycle, and how to achieve levels of productivity and financial success that many agriculture professionals claimed were impossible.

Workshop series: To all farm interns, home-gardeners and beginning farmers: February and March at MFAI is the time to get ready for the upcoming growing season, so join us for a segment or all of the Pre-Season Workshop Series. From soil fertility and greenhouse management to crop production planning and enterprise development workshops these one to two-day workshops offer it all! Workshops are minimally priced with a variety of agricultural educators offering in-depth classes.

Our full-season Garden Student training program also still has openings available. Please contact us for more information.

For more information and to register visit the Garden Workshop webpage or contact Janet Gamble at jgamble@michaelfieldsaginst.org, or 262-642-3303 extension 127.

^ Back to top

Upcoming event: Wisconsin Local Food Summit

On January 4th in Stevens Point, farmers, farm group leaders, nonprofit advocates, Extension agents and others will gather to share information on efforts around the state to expand Wisconsin's local food markets. The one-day Wisconsin Local Food Summit will be the first gathering of its kind to build upon the growing demand for locally produced food. If you are a part of a local food effort, the Summit will offer an excellent opportunity to share your experienced and learn from others around the state. Download registration form [pdf 340kb].

For a full list of upcoming events, please visit the event calendar

^ Back to top

Recipe: Roasted root vegetables with sautéed pear

By Chef Julie Jasinski

Root vegetables are excellent winter additions to your vegetable repertoire for their varied, subtle flavors and healthful properties. They are high in vitamin C, potassium, folic acid, many essential minerals and contain beneficial carbohydrates in the form of fiber. They've also been consumed historically for their medicinal properties including as a diuretic, revitalizer and digestive aid.

Good culinary partners include fresh herbs such as sage, rosemary, thyme, savory, marjoram and fruit, such as pear, apple or cranberry. The preparation below would work well as a side dish to chicken, pork or a firm fish. It could also be served with rice or another high protein grain or with a crunchy green salad containing spinach or spicy greens dressed with a simple vinaigrette.

• 12 cups diced root vegetables (any combination of rutabagas, turnips, parsnips, celery root, winter radish)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 Tablespoons, or more, of a fresh herb
• 3-4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Fresh ground pepper
• Salt
• 3-4 pears, sliced or diced; firm brown-skinned Bosc pears recommended
• Butter or combination of butter and olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a large shallow roasting pan with oil. Combine the diced root vegetables and onion in a large bowl. Drizzle with the oil and toss lightly. Sprinkle in the chopped fresh herb and a light bit of salt and pepper and gently toss again to evenly distribute. Transfer to the prepared pan and arrange in a single layer. Roast for 25-40 minutes (depending on how small the dice), stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are fork tender.

Meanwhile, when the roots are nearing the completion of their roasting, slice or dice the whole pears. Heat some butter (or butter and oil combination) in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet. When the butter is hot, place sliced or diced pears in skillet in a single layer. Cook briefly so they lightly brown on the bottom. Turn once and brown.

Remove root vegetables from the oven. Return to the large bowl and combine with the softened. Taste and adjust salt, pepper or sprinkle or bit more diced herb in and combine. Serve and enjoy.

Chef Julie Jasinski offers cooking classes regularly at the Milwaukee Public Market. For more information, visit the Milwaukee Public Market website or call 414-336-1111. Free tastings from the kitchen of Chef Julie are also held at the Milwaukee Public Market every Friday from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

^ Back to top

Support MFAI

Please consider making a donation to the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. We rely on the generous contributions of individuals, like you, to make our work possible. You can make a donation online, or if you prefer to send your donation by mail, please send your check to:

Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
W2493 County Rd ES
PO Box 990
East Troy, WI 53120

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call us at 262-642-3303, extension 4.

^ Back to top