Workshops & Keynotes
Keynotes
Making it Happen
Friday 3:50 P.M. - 5 P.M.
Each year UFFC chooses one farm and one business or organization who are making it happen in Utah. Not an easy task. They will share their story and insights. Learn what they do, why they do it, and what they have learned along the way.
Making it Happen
Friday 3:50 P.M. - 5 P.M.
BUG Farms
Bug Farms has successfully been sold three times, and Zach & Kristen are the current owners. Kristen is a 2nd generation farmer growing up on a certified organic orchard in Paonia, Colorado. A small-scale, mostly pedaled-powered, no-till vegetable diversified farm using organic practices based in the Glendale neighborhood in Salt Lake City. They live in the home they purchased, where they, along with their crew, steward about an acre of large, unused backyard plots in an urban setting to produce food for their family, community, chefs, and over 100 CSA members. They work hard toward improving soil health on the farm by reducing soil disturbance and enhancing soil fertility as one of the only small vegetable farms in Utah using a wide variety of cover crops.
Making it Happen
Friday 3:50 P.M. - 5 P.M.
MoFACo - The Downtown Farmers' Market
The Downtown Farmers Market in St. George had been running for 12 years when Kat took over and continued to run successfully. St George was the only farmer's market in the state that was thwarted from opening summer of 2020. While fighting to get the market open, Kat pivoted to an online market and, against all odds, opened a brick-and-mortar Modern Farm and Artisan Co-op (MoFACo). Since its founding, it has given locals an affordable option to step into their creative calling. Whether it's farming, baking, or making, MoFACo offers artisans access to the facilities, tools, and retail space that is designed to help them grow and flourish. MoFACo offers various workshops, classes, and skill shares to the community.
Her challenges weren't over when there was difficulty opening the market again in the Spring of 2022. Opening months behind schedule, she not only opened but moved to a new, beautiful, better location. As a result, the market more than doubled the number of vendors and tripled the attendance.
Kat has made MoFAco and the Saint George downtown farmers market a place for everyone. Her latest battle against discrimination made the front page of the Salt Lake Tribune. After the location and the sponsorship had already been given, there was an unprecedented city Council meeting held just weeks ago, with the threat of discontinuing the support and the location of the market. However, Kat and her community showed up, and all but one city council member voted to continue to support the market. More on the horizon as Kat continues to build a space for everyone in her community and fight for local artists and farmers.
Water...?
Friday 5 P.M. - 6 P.M.
Moderated by Chandler Rosenberg with Mayor Mollie Halterman, Tony Richards,Brent Hunter, and Stanford Jensen
As the Western United States faces a 1200-year megadrought and Utahns grapple with a drying Great Salt Lake, agricultural water use is top of mind for many. News headlines often reduce this complex issue to oversimplified soundbites that fail to represent the importance of Utah agriculture. In this panel, by centering agricultural voices, we hope to paint a fuller picture of Utah’s agricultural water use and the value of Utah agriculture, and explore how to chart a path forward together that ensures responsible water stewardship, food security for our growing population, and well-being for our rural and farm communities.
Workshops
Friday
10:20 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
IT'S ALIVE: The Soil is an Ecosystem! - The Principles of Maximizing Biodiversity and Keeping Living Roots
Friday 10:20 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
Room 7
Learn how the soil is a living breathing ecosystem teaming with life and how complex the interaction of all living things in the soil serves a purpose. Learn about the carbon cycle and living plants are key to the flow of energy into the soils.
How Biodynamics Works
Friday 10:20 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
Rooms 4 & 5
This workshop is an introduction and overview of Biodynamic farming method. We will explore
the nine BD preparations, how to use them and the Biodynamic planting calendar.
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Introducing the Biodynamic method
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The Biodynamic preparations and how to use them.
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Biodynamic Astronomy and the BD planting calendar
Thinking Outside the Market
with Elliott Musgrove & Amanda Theobald of Top Crops, Copper Moose Farm, and Page Westover of Snuck Farm
Friday 10:20 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
Room 1
Come listen to these farmers on how they have created alternative revenue streams from traditional farmer's markets: online orders, farm stands, CSAs, and more
Finding Success in Growing Tree Fruit
Friday 10:20 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
Theater
Come and learn how to start, maintain, or improve your fruit tree care! This workshop will focus on some
of the basics such as determining which variety and rootstocks to plant, proper care for raising quality
fruit by effectively pruning, thinning, and nurturing your trees, and best practices for harvesting and
storing your fruit.
Policy Corner
Friday 10:20 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
Room 2 & 3
What does the law allow you to do? What's on the horizon? Do you want a law or rule changed? If you have asked yourself any of these questions and are interested in hearing how to make a change in legislation this is the place to gain insight and ask questions.
11:40 A.M. - 12:50 P.M.
Small is Profitable - Introduction to Profitable Biointensive Techniques
with Jean-Martin Fortier
Friday 11:40 A.M. - 12:50 P.M.
Theater
Key elements to a successful market garden :
* Share a technical trick & tip for some of these key elements
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Good farm design - Standardizing beds, infrastructure are close, map of farm
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Size matters : Growing better not bigger, work on efficiency before anything else
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Good planning - Set benchmarks. Number of dollars per acre: 100 000k per acre
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Use the right tools. Do the same chores but faster, get the right tool for the right job. If the tool makes you more efficient, you are making money that way.
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Favor a rich ecosystem: living soils, minimal tillage practices, using tarps and organic procedures
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Direct sales
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Right work life ratio : Believing, working hard, putting the time AND learning to stop…
Mother Nature, Such a Modest Dresser - The Principles of Soil Cover and Disturbance
Friday 11:40 A.M. - 12:50 P.M.
Room 7
A deep dive into the principles of keeping the soil covered, and minimizing disturbance. We will discuss the importance soil cover plays in soil health, and how to improve soil cover through practices such as cover crops and understand carbon-to-nitrogen ratios as part of maintaining lasting cover. Understanding what is a disturbance (it's not just tillage) and how to minimize and mitigate its impacts, planning for a transition to minimize disturbance system, tips, and tricks to going to no-till. Chemical disturbances and how to wean yourself off them.
The Money's Out There
Friday 11:40 A.M. - 12:50 P.M.
Room 4 & 5
Anne Dunaway with UDAF will discuss the best ways to find grants, to understand eligibility, and how to manage grant funds once you receive them.
Lisa Roach, a SNAP/EBT specialist, will give an overview of how the MarketLink grant program assists Direct Marketing Farmers and Farmers Market with accepting SNAP. With information on the MarketLink grant and SNAP application process, an explanation of what is provided through the MarketLink grant for eligible farmers and farmers markets, and additional MarketLink projects, such as eWIC/FMNP/incentives, and Online SNAP.
The Healing Energy of Biodynamics
with Kristi Albright
Friday 11:40 A.M. - 12:50 P.M.
Room 1
Much of biodynamics is centered on a “Farm Organism” to keep the cycle of fertility and life within the closed circle of its operation, but what about those who do not farm but would like a biodynamic garden? Kristi addresses the issue of creating a “Community Organism” with an open circle that focuses on the “energy” of biodynamics, bringing people together to learn to create resiliency through strengthening our land and bodies with BD nutrition, making preps
together, blessing the land with BD healing techniques, Creating festivals and generating income from the garden. This session focuses on:
a. Principles of biodynamics in the garden and the kitchen (Calling all chefs!)
b. Strengthening the land through intent and working in others’ gardens: The Law of Reciprocity
c. Addressing drought with BD methods as regenerative healing agriculture (Calling all healers!)
d. Creative Flexibility: Celebrations, Festivals, and gratitude for the elementals (Calling all parents with children!)
e. Generating income: Hosting classes and workshops (Calling all entrepreneurs!)
2:20 P.M. - 3:30 P.M.
A Farmer, a Cow, and a Protozoa Walk Into a Bar: Livestock a Key to Soil Health - The Principle of Integrating livestock
Friday 2:20 P.M. - 3:30 P.M.
Room 7
So a Farmer and Cow and a Protozoa walk into a bar and the Bartender says ...... The integration of livestock as a key principle of soil health, including the cycling of nutrients, and effects on soil biology and the carbon cycle. Learn why livestock is a critical component of a healthy soil ecosystem and how integrating them is not as simple as it sounds.
From Planting 500 Apple Trees to Selling Hard Cider
Friday 2:20 P.M. - 3:30 P.M.
Rooms 4 & 5
A Template for Value-Added Agriculture
Keeping Community Alive Through Green-spaces and Backyard Gardening
Friday 2:20 P.M. - 3:30 P.M.
Room 1
Come listen to...
Georgiana Griffith-Yates, Executive Director at Wasatch Gardens with Julie Kiser from The Grow Together Community Garden and Jessica Collette, Back-Farms Program Director at Green Urban Lunch box to speak about how they have kept their community alive through community gardens.
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Natural Beekeeping: Let the Bees Lead
with Shanon Brooks
Friday 2:20 P.M. - 3:30 P.M.
Theater
In the world of sustainability and even more so—regenerative living—the 3-decade
decline of the US and global honeybee population is a serious concern. All of agriculture
and the global ecosystem in general, are absolutely dependent on the existence of
hundreds of millions of vibrant, thriving, bustling honeybee colonies.
This presentation shows you how to keep bees in a way that is so simple you may have
troubling believe it. Keeping bees naturally is easy, non-technical, calming to the soul,
and harmonious with man’s second best friend—the honeybee.
The Natural Beekeeping Philosophy we use is an approach to beekeeping that
encourages minimal manipulation and as hands-off an approach as possible.
• No chemicals
• No medications
• Use local bees
• Very little human contact (2 hive visits per year)
• Natural hands-off propagation
• Use proper hive for the climate
Join us and the world of the honeybee.
Planning a Year for the Flower Farmer
with Shelly Zollinger
Friday 2:20 P.M. - 3:30 P.M.
Room 2 & 3
Crop Making decisions
Crop Planning
Sales projections
Enterprise budgets
Succession planting
Overview Of The Years Bloom Season
Saturday
9:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.
Agricultural Astronomy - Planting Between Earth and Cosmos
Satruday 9:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.
Powell Room (Downstairs) 1
A presentation on working with the beneficial rhtyhms of the mood and the stars relationships and plant and soil health.
Using the Biodynamic Calendar as starting point, we will explore the best times for seed starting, planting, and fruit tree work.
Drought Mitigation Using Nature-Based Solutions - Building Soil Carbon and Resilience with Biochar
with John Webster
Satruday 9:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.
Dominguez Room (Downstairs)
Will cover the regenerative soil health practice of including biochar in management strategies. Will also cover USDA NRCS Code 336 Soil Carbon Amendment which is a federal program that pays to purchase and to install biochar in soils.
Integrating Cover Crops on a Small-Scale Vegetable Farm
Satruday 9:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.
Powell Room (Downstairs) 2
Join Bug Farms for a candid conversation about how we're learning to integrate a variety of cover crops in small-acreage veggie production. We'll share how cover crops have become our main soil fertility source on the farm over the last four years, and what we've learned through our experiments, trials, and errors on this journey.
Accelerating Customer Adoption of Locally Grown Food
with Tyler Taggart
Satruday 9:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.
Theater
Approximately 80% of U.S. consumers say that they would prefer to buy local, however only 20% actually end up buying local food on a regular basis. What is the reason for this gap? Consumer behavior research can give us the answers. Join us to learn more about existing consumer behavior, and how you can match your farm's offerings to that behavior to increase direct customer sales and satisfaction.
10:10 A.M. - 11:10 A.M.
Sharing Seed Wisdom
Saturday 10:10 A.M. - 11:10 A.M.
Dominguez Room (Downstairs)
Learn from and find out what's happening in the world of seed saving from 3 of the best seed savers in our region.
How to Never Take a Break - Winter Growing in the High Desert
Saturday 10:10 A.M. - 11:10 A.M.
Theater
Want to defy nature's rhythmic impulse to slow down and rest? TK and Sara of Red Acre Farm will share their ground-breaking strategies for keeping fingers, hoses, and crops from being irreparably damaged by high desert winters.
Learn how to keep production going using primarily primitive, unheated hoop houses, with details on how to build your own economical hoop house, or how and why you may wish to purchase a kit with the aid of grants from the NRCS.
Growing through winter is slow, and the decrease of sunlight leading up to the winter solstice and its return following the new year require careful planning of planting. Strategies for having a continuous harvest of leafy greens and carrots will be elaborated on, as well as germinating seeds and starting seedlings in the dead of winter.
School Meals: How to Create Change
with Kate Wheeler
Saturday 10:10 A.M. - 11:10 A.M.
Powell Room (Downstairs)
Most people have an opinion about school food, but very few folks have knowledge about the resources and requirements involved in these programs. Because almost every kid in the state has access to school meals, they can be a powerful aspect of the good food movement. Come to this workshop to learn about the potential for quality food in your local school system, and how you can help them get there.