Backyards, Lots, and Small Plots
Friday
Workshop Session I: 9:15-10:30 a.m.
Getting Started with Organic Beekeeping
Ross Conrad, Dancing Bee Gardens
Hear an overview of what to know and consider in order to start beekeeping in a natural and organic manner. Explore choosing an apiary site, sourcing bees, equipment and tools requirements, and tips and suggestions for the rank beginner.
Workshop Session III: 1:30-2:45 p.m.
Freeze Drying Fundamentals
Shari Gallup and Candace Heer, OSU
Freeze drying has become popular, but there is limited education-based information available. Explore the fundamentals of freeze drying, including the basics, best practices, cost comparisons, and supplies. There will also be taste testing of freeze dried products.
Workshop Session IV: 3-4:15 p.m
Solar Applications for the Home or Farm
Tom Rapini and Valerie Garrett, A’s and O’s Farm
From lighting a path to powering your entire house, there are many ways you can bring solar-generated electricity into your life. Learn how you can apply to energy-demanding tasks around your home or farm, such as lighting a shed or operating a fan on a hot greenhouse. There will also be a hands-on opportunity to wire solar components yourself so you can tackle a do-it-yourself solar project.
Saturday
Workshop Session V: 10:45-Noon
Seed Library Starters
Donnetta Boykin, Endigo’s Herbals & Organics, Florentina Rodriguez, Miami Valley Seed Commons
There’s more than one way to start a seed library. If you’re interested in helping your community enjoy the benefits of growing healthy foods and resilient ecosystems, learn creative ways to begin sharing seeds! Seed education and sharing is an accessible entry point for new growers, and preserving and passing down seed stories is a powerful tool for intergenerational learning. This session offers examples of how to start and manage a seed library from pitching a partnership with your local library to setting up your independent traveling version.
Workshop Session VI: 1:30-2:45 p.m.
Creating Ecology-Based Food Communities
Debra Knapke, The Garden Sage
Imagine creating a functional food garden designed to model a forest ecology. It would have a diverse, yet complementary, palette of trees, shrubs, perennials, and vines that offer food and nutrition to each other, their associated fauna, and to us. A food forest or forest garden is the practical application of regenerative practices for the gardener who wants to work with nature and put healthy food on the table.
Workshop Session VII: 3-4:15 p.m.
Homestead Scale Staple Crop Production
Eleanor and Scott Hucker, Great Lakes Staple Seeds
Based on their lived homestead-scale experience cultivating staple crops using common equipment, manual labor, and minimal off-farm inputs, this workshop shares methods to help growers throughout the North Central region enjoy success in their pursuit of sustainable, ecologically grown staple crops.
C A N C E L L E D
Perennial Vegetables for Your Plot
Dani Baker, The Enchanted Edible Forest at Cross Island Farms
Why plant, weed, cultivate, and water annual vegetables when you can grow perennials that mimic the annuals, plant them once, and harvest them year after year with minimal labor? Learn about highly nutritious perennial vegetables, herbs, flowers and leaves, and become inspired to try your hand at growing these carefree food plants.
* This session was not recorded due to its conversational aspect.
t This session's recording had technical issues.

Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association
NEW ADDRESS
150 E. Wilson Bridge Rd. Suite 230
Worthington, OH 43085
OEFFA: (614) 421-2022 (614) 421-2022
OEFFA Certification: (614) 262-2022 (614) 262-2022