Polk Small Farms: Reminder: Monday, October 12, 2015 for SWFSFN Meeting at Geraldson CSA Urban Farm in Manatee County

Hello, everyone. This is your friendly reminder of the upcoming October 12^th meeting of the SW FL Small Farmers Network (SWFSFN) – see below for details. We hope that you are making plans to network with regional farmers at this visit to one of our premier organic farms.

I also want to announce that we will also have a special feature with a presentation of the initiation of a statewide program of 'Farm Hack' (see http://farmhack.org/app/). The idea is to promote the sharing of farmer-inspired appropriate technology and tools for a more resilient community of food producers. The presenter will be Mike Meire of Ground Floor Farm in Stuart, FL (see http://www.groundfloorfarm.com/). Mike recently announced its initiation at the Sept 18-20, 2016 FL Local Food Summit in Gainesville. You can also find out more about FL Farm Hack at his Facebook called FL Young Farmers at https://www.facebook.com/groups/750652891730508/

Therefore, in the spirit of this special presentation, everyone who is already a 'Farmer Hacker' is invited to bring an item that they have designed to demonstrate and share. Let's get the FL Farm Hack movement started in our SWFSFN!!

As always, please, forward this email to anyone who would like to join us at this meeting and network w/ regional farmers. And don't forget to register at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/swfsfn-onfarm-meeting-tickets-18585497724

Thanks,

Robert

Robert A. Kluson, Ph.D.

Agriculture & Natural Resources Extension Agent III

UF/IFAS Extension Sarasota County

Community Services Business Center

6700 Clark Road, Sarasota, FL 34241

rkluson@scgov.net

(941-232-3090 (c)

https://www.facebook.com/robert.a.kluson

From: Robert Kluson
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2015 9:58 AM
To: Robert Kluson
Cc: mbhenry@ufl.edu; Beckford, Roy; 'mcampbell@pinellascounty.org'; 'szcrmchz@ufl.edu'; Crystal Snodgrass (crys21@ufl.edu); 'Mitchell, Ralph'; Carolyn Wyatt (chwyatt@ufl.edu); 'Kirby, Christa L.'; Fluech,Bryan A
Subject: SAVE THE DATE: Monday, October 12, 2015 for SWFSFN Meeting at Geraldson CSA Urban Farm in Manatee County

Hello members & supporters of the SW FL Small Farmer Network (SWFSFN)! We are very pleased to send you this announcement and invitation to the next meeting of the SW FL Small Farmers Network (SWFSFN) on Monday, October 12, 2015. We are providing you this event for the 2015-16 growing season to support your sustainable, small farming and local foods enterprises in SW Florida.

We are very fortunate this time to being hosted by Christa Leonard of the Geraldson CSA Farm in Manatee County (see http://geraldsoncommunityfarm.org/). It is a 20 acre Certified Organic CSA urban farm located in Bradenton, Fl. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a unique relationship of mutual support and commitment between a farm and community members for an entire growing season. CSA members purchase a share of a wide variety of organic vegetables, herbs and flowers for the growing season, November-May. Their production practices include field and protected agriculture, and their marketing practices include farmers markets, as well as CSA. For more background information, see the videos at http://geraldsoncommunityfarm.org/videos/

Date: Monday, October 12, 2015

Time: 9:30 am – 3:00 pm

Location: Geraldson CSA Farm, 1401 99th Street NW, Bradenton, Florida 34209

Cost: free

Note: bring folding chair & eating utensils, and home-made/home-grown food to share at the pot luck lunch

RSVP: Yes, register at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/swfsfn-onfarm-meeting-tickets-18585497724

We are sure that you will not want to miss this opportunity for social and business networking with your fellow small farmers in SW FL. Come meet your fellow producers and purveyors who are making our local food systems a reality! Remember to bring seeds to share for our Seed Swap activity and help promote such collective actions of SWFSFN members. Finally, we are planning to have another spectacular pot lunch so bring your locally-grown foods prepared with you special recipes of your seasonal crops!

AGENDA:

9:30 – 10:00 Registration

10:00 – 12:00 Farm Tour

12:00 – 1:00 Pot Luck Lunch; Seed Swap

1:00 – 2:00 Farmers Networking Meeting (introductions; discussion of challenges & opportunities in production & marketing, as well as regulatory issues in SW FL)

2:00 – 3:00 UF/IFAS Extension Session (talk of use of trap crops & banker plants in IPM; county education announcement and SFAE Program conference reports & announcements)

Please, feel free to pass along this announcement to your fellow small farmers and local foods entrepreneurs & promoters who would be interested in the activities of SWFSFN and meeting our regional farmers. If they are not familiar with SWFSFN, please, refer them to both our webpage (see http://sarasota.ifas.ufl.edu/AG/swfsfn.shtml) and Yahoo Group (see http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SW_FL_Small_Farms/). The SWFSFN is a farmer-driven initiative of the of the UF/IFAS Small Farms and Alternative Enterprises Program (see http://smallfarms.ifas.ufl.edu/).

Thanks and we really look forward to seeing everyone next month at the Geraldson CSA farm in NW Bradenton . . .