Rutherford County Growers’ Interest Meeting: We will be attending a meeting at the Rutherford County Annex in Rutherfordton on September 8 to talk with farmers about opportunities to grow and market organic grains in the western Piedmont and Mountains of NC. For more information about this meeting, contact Jan McGuinn at 828-287-6015.

Organic Canola and Spelt Project: We are gearing up to start planting organic canola and spelt trials this fall. We are trying out a couple of new canola hybrids and are going to look at the effect of seeding rate on weed suppression. In the spring, we are going to do a demonstration of swathing as a harvest technique for canola, comparing it to direct combining. We also have some spelt varieties we are testing for yield, quality, and disease resistance. On November 19 we are having a field meeting at CEFS in Goldsboro, NC with interested growers and organic canola and spelt buyers. Please contact Molly Hamilton at 828-273-1041 (or molly_hamilton@ncsu.edu) for more information.

CFSA (Carolina Farm Stewardship Association) has planned three workshops on organic grain production for this fall. 
September 3:  Marketing Your Organic Crop
October 8:  Production Issues in Organic Grain
November 12:  Organic Grain Storage
More information about these workshops

Mark your calendar!   The 2nd annual NC Organic Commodity and Livestock Conference will be held January 20-21, 2011 in Oxford, NC at the Santa Fe Tobacco warehouse.  For more information, contact:  Carolina Farm Stewardship Association at: 919-542-2402