Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association 2012 Conference

North Texas is very lucky to have the TOFGA conference in Mesquite this year.  Browse the list of speaker topics below and you will quickly understand how GREAT this is!

Don’t miss your chance to attend to 2012 TOFGA Conference, Feb 17-19 in Mesquite!   Have you seen the program for the conference?  It’s truly amazing.  Register today!

– Hotel rooms are filling up!  Reserve your room today.

– Keynote speaker Mark Winne, community food activist, writer, and trainer

Look at these session topics and fabulous speakers!!     Register today!

Organics on a Budget – Justin Duncan, Prairie View A&M
Building a Compelling Business Plan – Steve Carlson, Slow Money DFW
Rainwater Harvesting – John Smith, SARE
First Steps for Farm to School – Andrew Smiley, Sustainable Food Center
GMO’s – Judith McGeary, FARFA and Cameron Molberg, Coyote Creek Organic Feed Mill
Soil Biology and Improvement for Growers – Michael Bosco, Soils Alive

Agricultural Valuation – Get that Exemption! – Sue Beckwith, TOFGA and Brad Stufflebeam, Home Sweet Farm
Poultry Production – Jules Assata, Shades of Green and Jennifer Huf, Slow Food Farm
Interns and Volunteers on the Farm – Amanda Austin and Dan Bernsworth, Cardo’s Farm Project
Greenhouse Management – Pamela Hornby, Boggy Creek Farm
Integrated Pest Management – Thomas Harr, Earthwise Organics
Goats and Lamb – Ty Wolosin, Windy Hill Farm

Growing from Seed for Home and Market Gardens – Kim Martin, Barking Cat Farm
Intro to Aquaponics – Dave Pennington, Synergyfish
Heirloom Tomatoes –  Marilyn Simmons, Garden Inspirations
Community Gardening – Amanda Vanhoozier, Coppell Farmers Market & Community Garden
Beating the Drought – Brad Stufflebeam, Home Sweet Farm
Microgreens – Hans Hansen, Twin Persimmons Farm

The Why and How of Establishing Local Fruit Plant Nurseries for Organic Growers – Guy Ames, NCAT
Organic Vegetable Gardening – Howard Garrett
Soil Biology and Improvement for Gardeners – Michael Bosco, Soils Alive
Drought Management Resources – Alyssa Burgin, Texas Drought Project
Texas Food Laws – Judith McGeary, FARFA
Serengeti Grazing – Sabino Cortez, Erath Earth

Edible Ornamental’s for North Texas – Leslie Finical Halleck, Halleck Horticultural
Garden Design for Beneficial Insects and Pest Control – Lucy Harrell
Berries in North Texas – Sue Newhouse, Aunt Sue’s Barn
Marketing the Food You Grow – Brian Cummings and Rick Shoen, Eat Green DFW
Retail and Restaurant Marketing – Chris Romano, Whole Foods and Cynthia Chippendale, Potager
Dairy Management Roundtable – Texas Daily Harvest, Veldhuizen Dairy, County Line Dairy

High Tunnel Construction Demonstration – Steve Chaney, Tarrant County AgriLife
Organics for Professional Landscapers – Howard Garrett
Seed Saving – Dr. James Veteto, UNT, Southern Seed Legacy
Organic Fruit Production in North Texas – Guy Ames, NCAT
Social Networking and Website Optimization – Ty Wolosin, Windy Hill Organics, and Mike Newhouse, Impyre
Additional On-Farm Income  – Erin Flynn, Green Gate Farm

Low Tunnels – Dr Obadiah Njue, Ext Hort Agent
Small Scale Urban Agriculture – Andrea Bithell, Oak Cliff Organics and Paul Quinn College
Urban Backyard Chicken Keeping – Leslie Finical Halleck, Halleck Horticultural
Vermicomposting – Heather Rinaldi, Texas Worm Ranch
Papercrete for Root cellars – Stuart Veldhuizen, Veldhuizen Cheese
Mycchorizae Fungi – Larry Simpson, MycoApply

Cover Cropping – Brad Stufflebeam, Home Sweet Farm
Technology for Farms – Sue Beckwith, TOFGA and Kestrel Lancaster, GreenGate Farms
Homeopathy on the Farm – Maureen Hansen, President Homeopathic Society of TX
Transplanting Sweet Corn – Larry Butler, Boggy Creek Farm
Certified Naturally Grown – Pamela Klein Johnson, Rose Creek Farm
Farmscaping:  Plant Diversity on Farms – Justin Duncan, Prairie View A&M

Beekeeping – Brandon and Susan Pollard, Texas Honeybee Guild
Grass Fed Beef Roundtable – Matt Hamilton (Genesis Beef), Ty Wolosin (Windy Hill Organics), Robert Hutchins (Rehoboth Ranch)
Permaculture on Small Farms – Brian Gallimore
Farm Bill Session – Judith McGeary, FARFA

Questions?  Please call Lee at the TOFGA Office:  512-656-2456

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Invite: School Gardening Community

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Citizen Gardener Class in Oak Cliff – February 2012

 

Citizen Gardener Class #3 will be in the Oak Cliff area at Repotted (700 W Davis St. 75208).  The class will consist of two sessions held on Saturdays (2/4/2012 and 2/11/2012) from 10am to 2pm each day.  For more information about the class and to sign up, visit www.northtexasvegetablegardeners.com/cg.

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A Subversive (garden) Plot

Here is a good video about backyard vegetable gardening and food safety.

Roger Doiron is founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a network of people taking a hands-on approach to re-localizing the global food supply. Doiron is an advocate for new policies, technologies, investments, and fresh thinking about the role of gardens. His successful petition to replant a kitchen garden at the White House attracted broad international recognition. He is also a writer, photographer, and public speaker.

TEDxDirigo – Roger Doiron – A Subversive Plot: How to Grow a Revolution in Your Own Backyard

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How To Post Pictures in the Forum

Posting pictures in the forum is easy, here is how to do it:

Step 1

Log in with your username and password (have to be logged in as a real user before you can post anything)

Step 2

 

Start a new post or reply to a post by pressing the ‘New Topic’  or ‘Reply’   button.

Step 3

Choose a method for inserting pictures into the body of the post:

  • Method A (simpler, limited in picture size and number of pictures) – upload the picture to the forum
  • Method B (more steps, more versatile, unlimited resolution and quantity) – upload to webhost and embed link

Step 3A1

Press the ‘Additional Options’ button near the bottom of the text entry box.

Step 3A2

Press ‘Choose File’ button to upload your picture.  Note that the file size must be small, and that it only lets you attach a few pictures to each post.  My favorite programs for re-sizing pictures are irfanview and picassa.  Sizing your images to less than 600 pixels will usually make the file size small enough.

Step 3B1

Upload your pictures to a hosting service or server of your choice.  (I like picassaweb best)

Step 3B2

Copy the link to the file and paste it in the body of the forum post.  (the link must be THE FILE, and not to a webpage, you can tell it is a file because it will end in .jpg, .gif, or .png and look like http://somewhereontheweb.com/somefolder/somefilename.JPG)  (from picassaweb, the link is found by clicking on the ‘link to this photo’ and checking ‘Image only – no link’)

Step 3B3

Highlight the link to your picture in the body of the forum post and press the ‘IMG’ button  which adds the proper BBcode to the link so that the forum software will display the picture instead of displaying the link to the picture.

Step 4

Press the ‘Post’ button  to publish.  The end!

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