Farm Walks

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Since 2003 the Tilth Producers of Washington and the WSU Small Farms Program have partnered together to host "Farm Walks", a farmer to farmer educational series where farmers share their innovations, practices and wisdom to enhance the success of farm operations. Tilth Producer's Education Coordinator Angela Anegon says that this year's line up of farm walks is quite diverse. She is here to tell us what today's farm walk from 12:30 to 4:00 pm will entail.

ANEGON: We have Out of the Box Distribution talking about Puget Sound Food Hub at Bow Hill Blueberries in Bow, Washington in Skagit Valley. We'll see how regional food hubs can help increase farm sales, reduce waste and cost, and provide area businesses and institutions with local products. Also we will be touring Bow Hill's WSDA licensed kitchen and hear about their value added products, as well as how they transitioned to organic production.

If you happen to miss today's farm walk at Bow Hill Blueberry farm, you will have nine more opportunities to attend a farm walk between now and fall. The next farm walk is scheduled for June 30 at Brownfield Orchards in Chelan.

ANEGON: We'll be talking about orchard management for direct co-op sales. This is a hands on farm walk where we will tour the mid-sized orchard that produces apples, pears, and stone fruits that are certifiably organically grown and packed.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to have hands on demos of owner Mike Brownfield's Wonder Weeder, a front mounted cultivator, and sprayer calibration system; possibilities for summer pruning and thinning of apples, and packaging of cherries in their packing shed.

We'll be visiting more with Tilth Producers of Washington about future farm walks throughout the summer months. For farm walk times and locations be sure to visit tilthproducers.org.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.