“Grow Your Voice” ASAN Will Host a Forum in Florence

MONTGOMERY-The Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network (ASAN) is thrilled to announce its 2013 series of Regional Food & Farm Forums in September and October:

South Alabama: Weds, Oct 23 at Borden Farm in Ramer, AL

These Regional Forums are intended to open the floor for rich dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and relationship-building across ASAN’s network of members and friends. Each Regional Forum will feature a morning of roundtable discussions on a wide variety of topics, including: training the next generation of farmers, community gardens, eating for good health, raising fruit and nut trees, seed saving, hydroponics and aquaculture, increasing direct-market success, food preservation and fermentation, culinary and medicinal herbs, and much, much more.

Each Forum will also include a delicious locally inspired lunch, exhibits from Forum sponsors, and plenty of time to meet and network with fellow participants. In the afternoon, participants will choose from several hands-on opportunities, including farm tours, demos, and crop mobs. A crop mob is a group workday in the spirit of old-fashioned barn-raisings. For example, previous ASAN crop mobs have put participants to work pulling up a field of old plastic mulch, inoculating shiitake logs, potting up tomato seedlings, and repairing the plastic roof of a high tunnel.

For more information and to register, go to www.asanonline.org/blog/post/rfff. Registration is just $5 for ASAN members, and $20 for non-members. You can become a member at the individual supporter level AND register for the Forum for just $30.  Registration scholarships are available for those who need financial assistance, and ASAN may be able to help with travel by providing carpool options. Contact Alice Evans at alice@asanonline.org or 256-743-0742 for more information.

ASAN is a grassroots membership organization working to strengthen the state’s food system through farmer training and support programs as well as consumer outreach and local-food marketing. ASAN’s work – and the work of its broad-based community of members and supporters – promotes healthy people, healthy communities, a healthy environment, and a healthy economy for the state of Alabama.