AdAgrA 2022: Sharing the Blessings

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Specialty Crops Track

Jeff Weijohn

Growing Blueberries: Farm to Table

This is the blueberry conference and they told me to start on time and so if you're not meaning to go to the blueberry conference this is probably the most appropriate time to pick up and go it's great if you want to stay.

Let's just start with a word of prayer because I'm not a public speaker and I need God's leading like all of us do.

Dear Heavenly Father, please guide us and help us to see your spiritual meaning in our work and our daily lives.

Help me to share that in the way you would have me to do that.

I pray this in your son's holy name, amen.

So this is not a blueberry that I grew, But it is a large 1 and so we do have a largest blueberry contest on our farm and we have a you pick area.

A lot of times contests like that are very meaningful and helpful.

I am, oh yes, my introduction, thank you.

I am Jeff Weijohn and I am from Washington State.

And I am from the dry side of Washington.

And, and so I guess as, that's a part of my talk actually is who I am and where I live and what I'm doing.

We grow organic blueberries and we do that do this commercially.

We started in 1999 with a test plot and we started growing blueberries commercially in 2001.

There was no 1 available in eastern Washington to process those so we became a processor by default because there was no 1 for the other farmers to go to.

So it's 1 of those things where at first they say we'll take all your blueberries, we want everything you can get, of course everyone wants organic blueberries at first when there's none available.

So we went through that whole issue where Zerkle, a big company close to us, was willing to pay way more than we were getting on the farm.

And so, Terri always loves it when I tell this part, but she said, well how can we afford not to take it to them?

I said, we can't afford to take it to them.

And so we took a different route and it was a hard route and we developed a market ourselves and we developed a packing ourselves.

Within 3 years, within 3 years the Zirkle quit Taking blueberries and all of a sudden all the farmers had no place to go we had developed our own packing we developed our own markets and because of that we were able to Take on a few farmers, and then as they grew we kept taking them on so we have about 20 growers that we pack blueberries for now.

So that's probably the that's not something we actually sought out it's just something we really got pushed into because of that.

So that's my introduction this is This is what we grow is blueberries and we started out as Blueberry Hill Berries.

And I am a third generation farmer that discovered heart and soil.

And the reason why heart and soil is important is because it's a philosophy that I'm going to be explaining to you when we talk about the concept of blueberries.

It's changing on mine, and I'm supposed to be in control, so...

Well, as he tries to figure that out, I'll...

And the reason why we do heart and soil, or just to explain heart and soil since I have a minute here is we believe and I think we probably will have, I will probably have some disagreements with some of you here that chemicals is not the biggest issue But nutrition is the biggest issue.

And I'm not saying that chemicals don't play a part, because chemicals do.

When you take chemicals, you can kill the soil.

I guess my biggest emphasis is in keeping the soil alive.

And the soil is what I'm gonna be talking to you about.

I know you came here for blueberries but it's important to understand the soil.

But to understand the soil I would like, I want to explain myself a little bit and the reason why I've got all this stuff on is I'm gonna take it off here because I'm hot.

The reason I have it I have all this stuff on is because it's about farmers and I guess when we came last time to Ad Agra, there weren't that many career farmers.

And so 1 of the things I just want to mention at the very beginning is career farmers tend to be billboards for a lot of companies.

And we wear hats and we wear vests and we wear things like this and we have all these names that we wear and there's nothing wrong with it but it gives you the idea that there must be some money in agriculture if if these companies are giving away so many pieces of clothing and hats and that type of thing.

So, to finish what I'm saying is we wear things all the time.

We become billboards for other people and we really are advertising for everyone else.

And the thing is if you're advertising for everyone else, what are you advertising for?

You're advertising for something they're selling.

And Heart and soil is a different type of philosophy.

I'm a third generation farmer that discovered heart and soil.

He came to the United States from Canada.

He migrated, well when he was around 14 years old he migrated.

And he was an apple picker and that's, his dream was to farm.

And this picture is a picture of my father.

So this is a background to show you that my father, it was in his blood, farming was in his blood.

My grandpa really felt like if he could do something and farm, that that would be the most wonderful thing in the world if he could farm and just be able to provide food for his family.

So just want you to understand that that was the background that he would have arrived and this is just a picture of him.

This is a picture of his apples that my mother took and he really did provide his whole life.

He provided food for his family and he just loved it.

So these are the things that we've grown alfalfa alfalfa seed apples spearmint peppermint mint roots lima beans corn potatoes concord grapes peas grass seeds I didn't know about peas until I saw this picture, so Grass seed pinot beans blueberries hazelnuts and hazelnut trees, so I had never been spoken of before to me.

This is 1 of the pieces of equipment that we designed for grape harvest, for harvesting, no, for pruning grapes.

It really was a great innovation that made it so that we got about 2 tons per average more.

And so how many of you understand the philosophy that I'm talking about with heart and soil?

It really is an emphasis, so if you keep that, I mean, if you really remember that 1 issue, you're going to be more successful with blueberries.

You're going to be more successful with anything you grow, but it's applying it.

So part of the background in applying it is, I want to is actually I told you about my dad and I told you about my dad's name was Irvin Victor my grandfather's name was Irvin Harrison.

My dad went by Bud you can kind of see why he might do that his sister named him that but I told you about them but I want to tell you about my mom a little bit because this helps explain the heart and soil philosophy.

So I came in 85, started farming and the commercialness of farming is something you just accept.

My dad in the 50s, hush and hush came by, that's a fertilizer dealer, that they had a bag of white substance in the back of their pickup and they said why don't you try this to farm with and in 1950 they really hadn't ever used anything like that and that was nitrogen.

3 products we usually spread and those 3 products are almost all we use and because we only use those products commercially it's commercial because organic farming it's really the same thing.

Adner Abreu

Growing Greenhouse Tomatoes

Well, we'll be talking about growing tomatoes.

So I'll share exactly the way we do it at Eden Valley Farm.

And so and I'll tell you where we get, what we get and everything.

So please, I will be speaking for about 30 to 40 minutes and then write down your questions.

And then at the end, we'll have a Q&A section where I will try to answer some of your questions.

And the name of the class, of course, is Tomatoes 365, the Arts of Growing Greenhouse Tomatoes.

Our Father in heaven, Lord, thank you so much for this opportunity to learn and analyze your creation.

I pray that you may be with us, that you may give us wisdom and understanding.

OK, so 1 thing that I would like to say is that I focus more on the commercial side of things but if you want to grow 1 plant the same principle applies.

Okay so since I grow for farmers market and I we usually tend to last year this last year we planted about roughly about 6, 000 plants of tomatoes so it's a little bit different than a home grower but the same principles apply so we'll be focusing on greenhouse Tomatoes growing you may have a question for outside.

I will try to answer that but since I only have 30 to 40 minutes I need to be very specific and In what I'm gonna say, so Sorry if I don't go deep into something, but if you have a question, write it down.

And at the end, I'll try my best to answer it.

So just an overview, we'll be talking about seed selection, planting methods, fertilization, disease control, pruning, trellising, and then some factors to consider and we'll talk about what those are.

The first things to consider is what's the purpose of the crop and this is something that sometime we miss in a lot of things but in farming is very important.

And 1 of the things with farming is that you need to look ahead and you need to ask the question, what's the purpose of this crop?

With that being said, so why is this important?

Because let's say I want to grow for farmer's market.

I need a variety that has good transportation, that can go back to the market, come back and is still fresh and not mushy.

Now if I want to grow a tomato for my, just for my personal use then I would like to explore a little bit more and be, you know, maybe I wanna try this variety that looks yellow and this 1 that has a little bit more flavor or any of that.

So, or maybe I want some plant tomatoes for canning, which if you plant tomatoes for canning, it's not the same as for salads and things like that.

So the why of the crop, the purpose of the crop is very important to analyze in seed selection.

So for example, I use varieties that have good flavor.

Eat Invalid Tomatoes are very tasty And so we focus on that.

We tried, we select varieties that are just, they're just not just tomatoes.

The other things that I consider is firmness of the tomato.

How firm they are because I want a tomato that I put it in a vehicle as I said and come back and it still look fine or not that I hope never comes back.

But when the public takes that tomato home, that when they sit it on their counter, it can last few days, and they still be appreciative of that buy, so of that purchase.

So That's 1 thing with what's the purpose of the crop.

Now, location, when it comes to seed, it's 1 of the things that you need to consider in getting your variety of the tomato.

For example, I used to grow down in in the south in Arkansas and the tomato variety that did best there was Celebrity.

It's a variety, it's called that, and that tomato does very well.

I mean if you want to grow tomato and not mess around that's the variety you need to grow in the south.

Now when it comes to where I'm at now which is Colorado that tomato is that's okay but not the greatest.

So that's some of the things that you need to look for those things.

So when growing tomatoes, you need to look at several things, not just the soil or the time of the year.

Which those 2 things are important, but there is a complexity of things.

And this is important as well, Because in the catalog, you will find the varieties like resist, resist to mildew, or forserium, or any other fungi that you have around.

So if you, for example, you live in an area that there's a lot of fungi problem and a lot of disease, you want to look for those varieties that actually have that resistant.

So that way you're giving yourself an advantage point.

So now, the next 1 is when it comes to seed selection, Hybrid or not?

And that's, you know, let me explain a little bit what hybrid is.

Hybrid is actually something that happens naturally out there in the environment.

So, but, and what happens is, is that the pollen and variety A and variety B comes together and you have variety C.

And when farmers like variety C, and they like that variety all the time, so they keep variety A around, they keep variety B around, and they produce variety C every year.

And that's what then, like this tomato right here, it's 1 that's called Geronimo, and that variety is great.

Other ones like Big Dana, that's what we use at Eden Valley.

Big Beef, some of you have heard of that 1 too.

Those are varieties that are hybrid and farmers want to go back to that.

Because of the components that are in that variety that they like.

And so the reason why we use hybrid, for example, is that it has the consistency.

I know it's resistant to certain disease and things like that.

It's just simply hybrid, first generation.

Now, another reason too is because, for example, variety A may be cold resistant.

And variety plant A may be cold resistant and plant B then may be like disease resistant.

So you want a plant that does well in the cold and is resistant to disease.

So anyways, any questions, save it for later.

You can, but you gonna come across, you can come across with problems with those a lot easier than with hybrids, because those are a little bit unpredictable.

I just need a variety where my position is I need to deliver.

I need to bring that product to the market and a lot of things involved.

So I need to make sure I actually have something that will have my back.

So when it comes to selecting the seed, I need top quality.

OK, The other thing is indeterminate versus determinate.

Indeterminate variety means that their main line, like their head, just keeps going up, and just keeps going up, and keeps going up.

And those varieties don't produce as heavily as the determinate in the short term.

In determinate variety, they do better in the long term.

Determinate variety don't do as well in long terms, but they do very well in the short terms.

So for example, if you like companies that produce ketchup, they grow the term in a variety, a well-known 1, which is Roma.

And Roma, it just, all of them at the same time, all their eggs, and you lift up their plants, it's like they're loaded.

And so, and they use that variety to get their harvest all at once and all the tomatoes are ready at the same time.

So like if you're planning to do produce tomato for sauce and canning and things like that then a determinate Roma type variety that's what you need.

If you have a variety that is indeterminate, then you will get a tomato today, another tomato tomorrow, and then you will spend all summer collecting 10 pounds of tomatoes.

But with the determinate, it's a lot easier.

Christina Ford

Advanced Flowers: Surviving Precipitous Profusion

I have to give you a little bit of a disclaimer.

1 of my friends was asking me this afternoon, what does precipitous perfusion even mean?

And they asked us for our titles back in August.

In August, I'm not even thinking about classes yet.

So I came in from the field 1 day and I was like, ''Oh, that sounds like a fun title.'' But precipitous, meaning sudden and perfusion meaning Prolific growth rapid growth right and that's that's based the basics behind This class, But mostly we're just talking about flower farm marketing and how to stand out in the crowd.

So I guess by way of introduction, I'm Christina Ford.

And I have a tiny little flower farm in Leavenworth, Washington.

And I grow on about a quarter acre and grow flowers for multiple different markets, and I really, really love it.

I love the arranging more than the actual growing, but the 2 go in hand in hand, so it's a very vital part of what I do.

So without further ado, let's get started.

The day I decided to become a flower farmer, I thought I came up with the most genius, most original business idea ever, because I thought that I'm like, small veggie farms are everywhere, right?

So I thought I was venturing off into uncharted territory, but it didn't take long to pop my bubble because neighbors started coming by and inviting me to come to the local flower co-op, grow-op thing.

And As it turned out, I was 1 of about 10 flower farms in about a 40 minute radius from where I live.

So there's a lot, and where I live is a very small town, so there's a lot of competition for the same thing where I am.

And we see this happening across the board.

In 2019 the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers announced that they had 1, 600 registered members.

Fast forward 3 years later and they have said that they have 2, 500 members so that's a growth of 900 members but I want to add that that's after I dropped my membership in 2020 so you know there's more growth than it even looks like.

Similarly in 2018, Florette said that she got a record-breaking 3, 107 applications for her floret flower farming course and it was a big deal that she had that many applications.

Well, the next year she had 4, 000 applications and this year in thousand applications and this year in 2021 she got another record-breaking number of 6, 464 applications for a flower farming course.

So y'all this is 6, 464 new flower farmers this year Just starting out so that's a pretty mind-blowing number if you think about it every year.

We're having this many So I had to face the facts no I did not start in on a super original untested idea I just joined the latest fad so With flower farming becoming more and more popular though the question that I'm hearing on the street all the time is, will the market become oversaturated?

Like, are we going to be able to sell our flowers?

I think the underlying question behind this is that everybody wants to know like with all the farms happening all over the place is there a place left in the market for me and I think the answer to that is yes and I hope that in this class that we can show that.

So first I want to jump into a little bit of the floral industry as a whole, and then talk about how COVID has shaken things up a bit and given us more of an opportunity.

And then I want to leave you with a simple road map of things that I've learned from my own experience that can be helpful in marketing your flower farm, making you stand out in the crowd.

Florist industry is valued at roughly 10 to 13 billion dollars in the US.

So that's florists who sell to weddings and funerals and all the different things.

Compared to the fast food industry, it's not very much, but it is a pretty big number and a whopping 85% of that is international imports and So that leaves American grown flowers a pretty small piece of the pie.

70% of the American grown flowers are produced by massive farms in California, nothing against California here, but it's it's the facts, leaving us only with, so we have 15% of American grown flowers being used in the u.s.

10.5% of that 15% is less left to us small flower farmers So that you know looking at the numbers in that kind of order, it kind of makes it seem like a really small number, but when you crunch the numbers, it actually turns out that there's enough for us to each have a piece of our own pie.

So, then 2020 just jumped in there and mixed up all the stuff, right?

So, I don't know if you guys were following the news like I was, in early 2020, but do you guys know what this is?

So all of a sudden, grocery stores stopped buying flowers, right, and they restocked their shelves with toilet paper and water.

And so with grocery stores being the most major buyer of flowers, all of a sudden there was no place for all these, you know, what was it, 85% of all the imports to go to.

And so the flowers weren't selling and they just started dumping them like crazy just making huge piles of flowers and I thought oh no this is going to be very very bad and it was But it actually opened up opportunities for small growers.

So I was reading an article here, I just want to read a little excerpt from it because I think that they sum it up better than I could ever could.

It says, when the pandemic struck, the grocery stores stopped buying flowers.

Grocery stores are 1 of the largest buyers of cut flowers so when they stopped purchasing disruption was swift.

Overnight hundreds of thousands of weddings were put on hold and events were canceled.

This combined with the laws surrounding COVID caused commercial flower farm closures.

So what they actually did was they went and uprooted all the plants, okay?

So All their employees are laid off their plants are uprooted these flower farms are shut down Beyond that not Just on the farm level, but in the global supply chain side of things, we have air travel that was reduced by 60%.

And so all the planes that were coming from Ecuador with the flowers were redeployed to other parts of the world.

They're not even flying those routes anymore.

And so on the state side of things, the transportation system was just as complicated.

So getting flowers, say from California to Ohio, there was no truckers because truckers all of a sudden had more compensation to sit on the couch at home than to sit in the truck cab.

And so then you have trucking companies who were training people closing down.

So you can't train more truckers and the ones who are already truckers aren't trucking, so do you see how 1 thing is just leaning to another and we're just like having a total collapse right here?

So in the middle of all of that, people suddenly realize they need connection to people and they're being isolated from other people and so how can they how can they reach out to someone without actually going and seeing them?

So all of a sudden we go from this dramatic decline in the market to all of a sudden everybody wants flowers all at once and they need them now.

And but the problem is is that once you've hit that stop button on a farm when you've ripped out all the plants You can't just hit start and let the cycle keep going, okay?

There's a lag time that you have to account for.

And so, supply shortages, I guess, is What was the result of that?

To further complicate things again giant companies started buying up farms that were already supplying the grocery stores So the big suppliers for the grocery store bouquets are now in control of these farms and so these farms can't also provide to wholesalers now they're just owned by these companies and do 1 thing.

So again we have another restriction on our supply.

Another thing that happened was that weather was not playing in favor.

There was floods and drought and all kinds of things in Ecuador.

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Specialty Crops Track

Baby Greens: How to Scale Up

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