WV Small Farm Conference

The 8th Annual Small Farm Conference was held on March 1, 2 and 3 at Waterfront Place Conference Center, in Morgantown, WV. Thursday, March 1st was an opportunity to spend an entire day in a specific workshop. These day-long workshops included Energy, Agri-Tourism, High Tunnels, Poultry, Youth Entrepreneurship, Food Business, and Grantwriting.The Winter Blues Farmers Market was held that evening, and offered a multitude of vendors selling their products. The Market income was tallied at just over $18,000. The Country Dine Around was also held that evening, featuring 12 of the state’s highest rated chefs serving samples of their product to attendees.

Friday (March 2nd) and Saturday (March 3rd) were filled with shorter sessions on a variety of topics from beekeeping to backyard flocks to farm tax information and non-timber forest crops. All meals and breaks for the conference were sourced from local farmers and prepared by the enthusiastic staff at Waterfront.

Please stay tuned for our “Conference Snapshot” as we compile evaluations and comments.

Areas of interest from previous conferences have included:

• Fruit and Vegetable Production
• Value-adding
• Beginning Farmers
• Agri-tourism
• Energy
• Farmers Market Management
• Animal Production and Marketing

The conference tracks are designed to accommodate the diverse mix of experience, age, crop enterprise and interests of the region’s small farmers.

Be sure to plan to attend the “Winter Blues Farmers Market” hosted by the WV Farmers Market Association. Last year’s market grossed $9,200 for the participating vendors.