Organic Growers School’s Spring Conference offers practical, regionally-appropriate workshops on organic growing, permaculture, homesteading, urban farming, and rural living plus a trade show, seed exchange, raffle, special guests, and pre-conference, on-farm events. More than 150 workshops over the three days including Community Food, Cooking, Earth Skills, Beginning Farmers, Advanced Farmers, Gardening, Herbs, Homesteading, Livestock, Mushrooms, Permaculture, Pollinators, Poultry, Soil, Sustainable Forestry, and Sustainable Living.
The OGS Pre-Conference featured events are happening on Friday, March 6, 2020:
Farming While Black: African Diasporic Wisdom for Farming and Food Justice, Lecture with Leah Penniman on Friday Evening, March 6, 2020, at Jubilee Community Church, 46 Wall St, Asheville, NC 28801.
Mushroom Cultivation at the Farm & Home, All-day workshop with William Padilla Brown & Leif Olson, at Creekside Farms Education Center, 339 Avery Creek Road, Arden, NC, from 9:30 to 4:30.
Healing Our Soils through Compost, and Compost Tea: Safe & Natural Fertilizers, All-day workshop with Troy Hinke at Living Web Farms, 174 Kimzey Road, Mills River, NC, from 9:30 to 4:30.
Chickens & You: From Egg to Table, All-day workshop with with Pat Foreman & Meagan Coneybear, at Franny’s Farm, 22 Franny’s Farm Road, Leicester, NC, from 9:30 to 4:30.
Organic Growers School Spring Conference is a one-of-a-kind event that brings people of all walks of life together for a weekend of learning and networking. Since 1993 the OGS Spring Conference has been the best way to kick-off the season. As the largest grassroots conferences of its kind in the region, Organic Growers School has served to reinforce Southern Appalachians role as a regional leader in sustainable food and farming. Attendees come from 18 states and Canada, and have described the event as a kick start to the growing season.
A sampling of classes includes: Cherokee Traditional Foods; Food Policy/Food Insecurity; Learning from Invasives; Kudzu Basketry; Farmer Mentoring; Small Farm Financial Success; Easy Vegetables for Beginners; Forest Gardening; Plant-based Medicine; Off Grid in Color; Storing Food for Winter; Grain Production; Holistic Goat Health; Medicinal Fungi; Permaculture 101; Sugar Mapling; Solar for Home & Farm; Intuitive Water Dowsing; Rural Justice; Cooperative Farm Models; Water Resiliency; Tiny Houses; Cover Cropping & Soil Management; No-till Methods; Beekeeping; Heralism; Tractor Training for Women; Orcharding; Canning and Preserving; and more.