Were any of you part of the Driftless Bioregional Network? This is page one of a newsletter that went out in early 1984. Note the Viroqua address. I would love to hear stories…
Driftless Bioregional Network
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Category Archives: Marketing & Communication – The Driftless Identity
Register now for the 4th Annual 2017 Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch!
Are you looking for an easy way to celebrate Farm to School Month, support your local farmers, and have a good reason to party?! Look no further than the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch on Thursday, October 12. This fun, easy, and flexible event encourages you to purchase local apples and ‘Crunch’ into them at the same time with over one million other Crunchers across the region. We already have 250,000 Crunch
ers registered at over 700 different sites in Wisconsin, and we hope that you will join us! Register today to help us keep track of our #OneMillionCrunch goal. When you register you get a copy of the Crunch Guide to help you source local apples and plan your event, and you can get FREE CRUNCH STICKERS (sticker deadline October 2)! Everyone at K-12 schools, early care centers, farms, hospitals, agencies, offices, non-profits and more is encouraged to participate. Find more information and registration at the links below, or contact Vanessa Herald (vherald@wisc.edu) with any questions.
Website & Registration: www.cias.wisc.edu/applecrunch
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/greatlakesgreatapplecrunch
Making More From Milk!
Have you ever thought about adding value to the milk you produce on your farm? This May, join with other farmers to learn about value-added dairy, including visits to retails that specialize in specialty cheeses, and visits to farms that are making cheese and ice cream from their milk. Cow, sheep and goat milk dairies and cheese makers are featured, especially those producing artisan and raw milk cheeses from grass-fed animals.
This is three full days of on-site expert introduction to value-added dairy. The event fee of $695 includes:
- 3 farm visits,
- 3 processor visits,
- 5 retailer visits,
- 5 seminars with industry experts,
- 3 lunches,
- ground transportation to visits,
- Translation to Spanish.
There are also optional cheese making opportunities on Thursday May 4.
- Option one – make cheese with an award-winning cheese maker in a small factory setting. $425.
- Option two – make cottage cheese with professionals from the University of Wisconsin. $525.
The event runs Monday May 1 at 8 am to Wednesday May 3 at 3:30. Seminars are offered in Madison, WI and tours are concentrated in the Fox Valley.
Register at https://fs3.formsite.com/8onTH0/form1/index.html
For more details on the program, go to http://globalcow.com/making-more-from-milk/
Contact Karen@globaldairyoutreach.com to register. 866-267-2879
Cooperative Board Leadership Roundtable
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Strengthen your values-based supply chain connections
Remember the talk about a trade association for regional food? the Local Food Association, based in Lexington, KY, is organizing just such a service! The director bio is awesome and they have a great board of directors. They are hosting a first conference November 6th for supply chain businesses, including farmers / shippers, to meet and do business.
http://www.infoinc.com/LFA/0814.html
Two new reports : regional food transportation and climate
CIAS and USDA-AMS transportation division just released our report: Networking Across the Supply Chain http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/AgTransportation We are continuing this work, hoping to host a meeting next spring in Chicago for the logistics and transportation sector. If you are working on freight transportation and values-based food supply chains, I would love to hear your thinking on this.
I’ve also been working with the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters on a report we released last Friday: “Climate Forward: A new roadmap for Wisconsin’s climate and energy fuuture” https://www.wisconsinacademy.org/sites/default/files/ClimateForward2014.pdf The Academy will continue its work on this area into 2015. We hope to link CIAS faculty, students, staff and our many community partners (that means YOU) to it through our work on perennializing agriculture.
Time to register – growing woody perennials
Time is short to make the registration deadline for this workshop – one that you won’t want to miss! Check out the draft agenda and handouts we are preparing for the event! Registration information here.
(ps: more than 60 people turned out for the aronia field day in Soldiers Grove at Star Valley — see previous post)
8:30-9:00 a.m. Welcome & introductions
9:00-9:45 a.m. Principles of ecological gardening
9:45-10:30 a.m. split into 2 groups:
- Small group discussion/Functions worksheet: What are the functions you want fulfilled on your land? What are your land’s needs, yields, characteristics?
- Tour at Nature Nooks — motivation and philosophy, species selection for food production, wildlife buffer, riparian plantings, visual screens, ecotourism
10:30-10:45 a.m. Break
10:45-11:30 a.m. Small Group discussion /Tour at Nature Nooks
11:30-12 p.m. Lunch
12-12:30 p.m. Travel to Cullen and Micaela’s Long Arm Farm
12:30-2:30 p.m. Tours at Long Arm Farm with 3 groups :
- philosophy, context & background, plant selection, how to plant different species (sheet mulching, etc.), plant selection for hedgerows, what is working well, markets
- animals, chicken tractor and rotations, plants for fodder, cheese cave, markets
- plant varieties, plant selection, propagation, what to grow along riparian zones & edges, sun/shade, guilds, juglones tolerant plants
2:30-3:00 p.m. Travel to Mike Breckel’s Hawkstone Vineyard
3:00-4:15 p.m. Tour at Hawkstone Vineyard – motivation and philosophy, elderberry production, processing and markets
4:15-5:00 Elderberry tasting (tentative), Wrap Up
Handouts:
- Definition of Terms – perennialization, forest garden, agroforestry, permaculture, organic/gardening/farming, sustainability, resiliency, food security
- Functions worksheet– what are your goals (hobby farm, supplemental food or income, primary income, etc.), what things do you need to consider on your land? What functions do you want fulfilled?, Do you have specific goals? Land use plan? Biz plans? Markets in mind? Philosophy about land?
- Observations & Basic Principles worksheet — aspect, sun/shade, slope, water, soils, cycling, stacking functions, interrelationships, relative location, species selection (needs, yields, characteristics), guilds, animals
- Plant Lists – fruit and nut varieties, native plant lists from the UW Arboretum, permaculture guilds
- Plant Nurseries
- Participant List
To register, use using
the form available on the CIAS website at www.cias.wisc.edu and send with payment to Michelle Miller at UW-Madison CIAS, Attn: Growing Woody Perennials in the Kickapoo Region, Ag Bulletin Building, 1535 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706. Contact Michelle with registration questions at mmmille6@wisc.edu or 608-262-7135. For workshop questions, contact Marian
Farrior: mlfarrior@wisc.edu, 608-265-5214.
Marketing the Native Understory
Thursday, June 27, 2013 9:30-4pm
Viroqua & Viola, WI
Hosted by: Rooted Spoon Culinary, Viroqua, WI and New Forest Farm, Viola, WI in collaboration with the Hazelnut Development Initiative, the Midwest Aronia Growers Association, and the UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.
Two panel discussions will address the marketing of hazelnuts, aronia and mushrooms. Chefs will speak to their experience working with forest products from local growers. Hazelnut and aronia growers, and a mushroom forager, will share their experience marketing to local restaurants.
After a lunch at Rooted Spoon Culinary highlighting some of these forest products, the venue will shift to New Forest Farm in Viola, WI (about a half-hour drive). Here, attendees will tour the largest hazelnut planting in Wisconsin situated within this perennial permaculture farm. Please, no sandals on the farm tour.
Marketing the Native Understory agenda
9:00-9:30 Sign-in, registration, coffee
9:30-9:45 Welcome and introductions – Norm Erickson, hazelnut grower and Master of Ceremonies. Also, Dani Lind, chef; Brady Williams & Michelle Miller, UW-CIAS
9:45-10:45 Grower Panel: Norm Erickson, Rochester, MN , hazelnuts; Michael Mathiasen, St. Charles, IA, aronia; Joe Skulan, Lodi, WI, foraged mushrooms.
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-12:15 Chef Panel: Chef Ryan Boughton, One Eleven Main, Galena, IL; Monique Hooker, chef and author of Cooking with the Seasons: A Year in My Kitchen; Brad Niemcek, Kickapoo Culinary Center
12:15-1:00 Lunch and informal networking
1:00-1:20 Lessons from value-added nut enterprises in the Midwest: 5 case studies –Brady Williams Click hazelnut businesses for the power point presentation
1:20-1:40 Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative, Jeff Jensen, President Minnesota Hazelnut Foundation (invited) and Jason Fischbach, UW Extension – Bayfield County (invited) and Midwest Aronia Association, Phil Mueller.
1:40-2:00 Unstructured networking
2:00 Leave for Mark Shepard’s New Forest Farm in Viola to tour hazelnut and aronia plantings and learn about permaculture systems.
The registration fee for this event is $10. Space is limited to the first 80 people to register. Register on-line
Some of the businesses sending representatives include:
- Weaver Gardens, Altura, MN
- Proudspirit Farm, Viola, WI
- Ecker’s Apple Farm, Trempealeau, WI
- The Root Note, LaCrosse, WI
- Walnut Bluffs Farm, Canton, MN
- Star Valley Flowers, Soldiers Grove
- Bellbrook Berry Farm, Brooklyn, WI
- Strause Farms, Rio, WI
Representatives from the following towns and cities have registered:
- Waunakee, WI
- Cedar Rapids, IA
- Milwaukee, WI
- Spring Green, WI
- Necedah, WI
- Prairie du Chien, WI
- Johnson Creek, WI
- Luana, IA
- Decorah, IA
- St. Charles, IA
- Rochester, MN
- Stoddard, WI
- West Bend, WI
- Black River Falls, WI
- Highland, WI
- Rib Lake, WI
Register now – Marketing the Native Understory
Marketing the Native Understory: Selling Driftless Hazelnuts, Aronia and Mushrooms Direct to Chefs
June 27, 2013, Viroqua / Viola, Wisconsin
9:30-4pm
Hosted by: Rooted Spoon Culinary, Viroqua, WI and New Forest Farm, Viola, WI in collaboration with the Hazelnut Development Initiative, the Midwest Aronia Growers Association, and the UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.
Hazelnuts and aronia are newly emerging, cultivated woody perennial crops in the Upper Midwest, and wild mushrooms are part of a long tradition of foraging in this region. These “forest products” can help chefs create locally-sourced signature dishes, and can help landowners supplement and diversify their income.
Selling direct to chefs may be an important way for growers and foragers to get their products to market, invigorate production and develop the necessary processing infrastructure. One of the main barriers to chefs purchasing local products is a lack of information about crop attributes or availability. With this in mind, the UW-CIAS is working with local partners to connect chefs and growers from around the Driftless Region at this event. Throughout the day, growers and chefs will have opportunities to develop contacts with potential buyers and suppliers.
Two panel discussions will address the marketing of these crops. Chefs will speak to their experience working with forest products from local growers. Hazelnut and aronia growers, and a mushroom forager, will share their experience marketing to local restaurants.
After a lunch at Rooted Spoon Culinary highlighting some of these forest products, the venue will shift to New Forest Farm in Viola, WI (about a half-hour drive). Here, attendees will tour the largest hazelnut planting in Wisconsin situated within this perennial permaculture farm. Check back for updates on the agenda and participating organizations.
The registration fee for this event is $10. Space is limited to the first 80 people to register. Visit our web page, where we will post agenda updates and participating organizations. Or, if you are ready, you can register on-line.
Inspire(d)
At more than a few meetings in the region, we’ve heard people talk about the need for a unified Driftless identity, a way of communicating the high quality of life and the Region’s unique cultural identity. It looks like folks in Decorah are taking the lead.
We like what we see in Inspire(d) Driftless magazine, subtitled “Positive News form the Driftless Region”. Based out of Decorah, the magazine’s summer issue has an emphasis on the food and farming scene west of the Mississippi. It has a beautiful calendar, features local artists and recreation highs.
They are looking for contributing writers from Southeast Minnesota, Southwest Wisconsin or south of Decorah. I think they aspire to serve the four state region so, whaddaya say? Lets help them out! Contact editor Aryn Henning Nichols with a writign sample or commit to advertising your business or event in their pages.
You can like them on Facebook at Inspire(d)Media and visit their web site at theinspiredmeda.com. They distribute the magazine free or you can subscribe for $25. Wouldn’t it be nice to see this magazine available free throughout the region?