As we drove, Roy (my husband) and I chatted about the Community Food Program and all of the things I'm working on getting accomplished with the program. He was very excited. We were also able to brainstorm some really great ideas that could be used in the future of the program. He also had some really great resources for builders and construction places that might be able to donate services, supplies, and assistance in getting some of our necessary fences built. oh... those pesky deer and other varmint.We were amazed at what a beautiful day we stumbled upon and how perfect the fall weather was as we wove up the hillside to the event location. The event was mainly sponsored by Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. There were many other vendors and sponsors as well who made teh day a wonderful event.
There were a ton of vendors there who had all different kinds of information.
My favorite meet of the day was the Worm-Guy. He was super excited about getting involved in the project and helping us get in some positive composting bins. Plus I know I will end up getting some worms myself for my own compost bin.
Second great potential resource was the husband and wife team that was there talking about sustainable development and inter-cropping. They were super neat and will likely be great resources for the future.
I also found a local business that is devoted to edible landscaping. VERY cool! I picked up their catalog and hope to be able to support the local businesses in Virginia as I plan for the gardens, and my own home garden.
Not only did I meet great vendors and try some great produce that was being sampled, but I also went to some great workshops. I went to a seed saving workshop for beginners. It was very interesting and taught me some things I hadn't know before about how to dry the seeds before storing.There was an exhibit by the local Master Gardeners that showed rain collection barrels. They also had a workshop sign up about making barrels and using them around the garden. This one was neat as it showed how it worked, with active water (there was a pump cycling it around).
I also went to a neat workshop on Permaculture: Concepts and Design. This workshop talked about how to plan a garden using the methods, why goal setting in the garden space is so important that how to go about executing the plan. Overall it was a very interesting day. I collected lots of great knowledge ranging from different people to get in contact with, to methods of gardening, resources to tap into and different venues to talk to about what we're doing. I was also pointed towards new resources and groups who are doing similar things in different areas.
One thing that Roy and I collectively noticed as we made our way through the Gathering, was the lack of people from a low socio-economic bracket. There were MANY middle, middle-upper and upper bracket people, it seemed. Now we did not stop and take a poll of people, but everyone drove, it was at a location that the local transportation does not readily go to, especially on the weekend. Even by the price of things, it did not play to a crowd that was not well off financially. which then makes me think, how DO we get people involved and interested? It is something to think about and truly an issue that will need to be addressed as the program goes forward. Why does it seem that people of a low socio-economic standing are not interested in or maybe not able to attend such an event, that ultimately could provide them with benefit if they learned the techniques and implemented them in their own backyards. Some food for thought.
All in all a very productive day.
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