Today was actually a day Off the Farm. Madeline and I attended a luncheon in Ames for alumni of the Grow Your Small Market Farm program. I was there not only as an alumn, but also as the newly-volunteered chair of a steering committee which will expand upon the program and develop a state-wide business network for sustainable farmers and specialty food producers. Boy was I nervous! I don’t consider myself much of a public speaker. I tend to rattle on, repeat myself a lot, and forget half of what I actually wanted to say.
Madeline had never been to anything like this, and I think she enjoyed herself. I think she was inspired as everyone present took a turn at telling what’s going on at their farm, what challenges they’ve faced and what new things they’ve got going. She turned to me said, “Maybe I’ll go into agriculture.”
It’s a fantastic thing that farm conference season coincides with number-crunching season. The conferences renew my enthusiasm and hope, buffering the downer effect of number-crunching. Next weekend is the Practical Farmers of Iowa conference. Anyone else out there going to that one?
Looking ahead, February 1 & 2 is the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture’s 13 Annual Local Foods Conference in Cedar Rapids. Not sure yet if I’ll make that one, but they have a couple of really interesting keynote speakers lined up for it.
2 years ago:
Us versus possum, day 2
I wish I had the opportunity to attend things like that. Makes me want to live in Iowa. 🙂
I would love to see more farms and less of those ugly houses they throw up on farm land. Farmers are a very special lot. My grandmother and grandfather were farmers. A whole lot of hard work and most of it was done by hand way back then.
I am sorry to say that I won’t be able to make the PFI event 🙁 But, I’m still thinking about the Small Farm Business thing … I need to see if it will fit my schedule and if they still have spots! I will say that I think it sounds like an AWESOME program.
susan sophia – now that caucusing is over in Iowa it’s a great place to live. Come on over :)sandy – I hear ya. Click on the left side of my website to The Farmers Wife. She does an amazing job of documenting how the farms in Illinois are quickly being developed out of existence.ethan – I just found out that the hotel for the PFI conference has free wireless internet access. So I’m hoping to do some live blogging from the conference. Fun!