While most food is traditionally grown in the fall, summer and spring seasons, one local farm has become a model for successful winter agriculture.
Green Edge Gardens and Rural Action have teamed up to create a program called “Season Creation,” which will provide educational workshops on the farms’ season extension techniques, said Tom Redfern, sustainable agriculture coordinator for Rural Action.
Rural Action and Green Edge were awarded $75,000 from the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education organization’s Professional Development Program for a two-year project to educate agriculture and natural resource professionals about the “Green Edge Season Extension” system, Redfern said.
Season extension is when the growing season is sustained through the winter months, he added.
“It is an opportunity for people who teach farmers, such as extension agents and Natural Resources Conservation Service employees, to learn successful farming methods from farmers here in the Athens area, and teach these methods to farmers in other areas,” Redfern said.
The program provides grants based on how well the applicant exemplifies its mission of research and education on sustainable agriculture, said Marie Flanagan, spokesperson for the organization.
“(Green Edge Gardens) is definitely what we want for our grant awards,” Flanagan said. “We’re interested in anything we can support that helps to educate people about sustainable agriculture.”
Rural Action and Green Edge have collaborated for years but have specifically been working to plan and format the “Season Creation” workshops for several months, said Becky Rondy, owner of Green Edge.
“Teaching extension agents about our method of season creation will allow them to teach other farmers in their given locations to produce fresh and local produce in the winter months without the cost of a heat source for the growing,” Redfern said.
She and her husband, Kip, offered a season extension workshop at their farm in December of last year, which she said had an “overflow” of participants.
“When there were so many who were turned away at that time, we decided to present another one with the help and funding of Rural Action,” Rondy said.
This year’s first workshop, which will be held Feb. 21 at Green Edge Gardens, is already sold out, Rondy said.
Redfern said the workshops include high tunnel design, marketing, crop management, crop selection and more.
He added that high tunnels are similar to greenhouses but have a simpler design, with crops plated directly into the ground.
“Athens County continues to be one of the poorest counties in the state of Ohio,” Redfern said. “Sustainable agriculture businesses such as Green Edge are a bright spot in our local economy.”
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