Join experienced vegetable, herb, and seed growers Ira Wallace and Pam Dawling for an afternoon of workshops and a book signing. Pam Dawling will present on Year Round Vegetable Production and Ira Wallace will present on Seedkeeping, Cooperation and Community Building: Everyday Acts of Resistance in Agriculture.
There will be opportunity for Q&A, snacks and refreshments provided by The Nashville Food Project, and a book signing to follow.
About the speakers:
Ira Wallace is a worker/owner of the cooperatively managed Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, which offers over 700 varieties of open-pollinated heirloom and organic seeds selected for flavor and regional adaptability. Wallace serves on the boards of the Organic Seed Alliance, the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association and the Virginia Association for Biological Farming, and is a 2023 James Beard Leadership Award recipient. She is a member of Acorn Community, which farms over 60 acres of certified organic land in Central Virginia. Wallace is an organizer of the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, a fun, family-friendly event featuring an old-time seed swap, local food, hands-on workshops and demos, and more. She also writes about heirloom vegetables and seed saving for magazines and blogs including Mother Earth News, Fine Gardening and Southern Exposure. Her book, “The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast,” is available online and at booksellers everywhere.
Pam Dawling is the author of The Year-Round Hoophouse and Sustainable Market Farming. She has worked in the vegetable gardens at Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia for 30 years, growing vegetables for 100 people and training many members in sustainable vegetable production. She often presents workshops at sustainable agriculture conferences and events. Pam is also a contributing editor with Growing for Market and writes for other magazines, and she does consultancy work and teaching. Pam writes a weekly blog post on her website www.sustainablemarketfarming.com.
Presentations:
Seedkeeping, Cooperation and Community Building: Everyday Acts of Resistance in Agriculture
by Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Black and brown people are integral as workers in food and agriculture but are largely missing from the stories of cooperative organizing in agriculture, heirloom seeds and seed savers. Be inspired by historic accounts of black cooperative action and learn how tradition, taste, place and storytelling can work to preserve biodiversity and reclaim the place of black and brown people in issues of food sovereignty, farming, heirloom varieties and regional cuisine today.
Year Round Vegetable Production
by Pam Dawling of Sustainable Market Farming
An introduction to strategies and techniques for making year round vegetable production possible. This workshop starts with caring for the soil, which is vital in intensive cropping. Crop rotations, cover crops, compost making and organic mulches are introduced. Direct sowing, transplanting, succession planting and inter-planting are explained. Season Extension in hot weather and cold weather is covered, with various options for crop protection. A cold-hardiness table of winter vegetables is provided to help growers decide which crops to grow.
Event Schedule:
1:00pm - Welcome + light snacks
1:15pm - Pam’s presentation + Q&A
2:30pm - Break with snacks
2:45pm - Ira’s presentation + Q&A
4:00pm - Book signing
5:00pm - Close