Farmer Conference

Yesterday morning we woke up in the house that Rebecca and John built in middle Tennessee.  They had a mission when designing this house -- it was going to be LEED certified (super environmentally friendly and energy efficient), made with as many local materials as possible, employ as many local craftspeople as possible, and it would be beautiful and comfortable.  They did it.  And even though this was not a necessary part of the mission, they also made it so there are just about no parallel lines or right angles -- or the architect did. It is a most unusual house. And just a few steps outside is John's very successful blueberry patch.  The house is perched on a steep hill, with a view of their farmland below.

Before her busy day and our lazy day, Rebecca made us breakfast and we sat down together.  (I forgot to say that Sarah made us a delicious breakfast the day before -- we are getting royal treatment every single day). 

The trip to Lexington was uneventful.  We got to serious, rich horse country and knew we were getting close.  Miles and miles of well maintained board fences.  Acres and acres of wide open well clipped fields.  Some horses but not many.  

The plan is for Jon to hang out in the hotel room, mostly working on his computer, while I go to the sessions and listen and knit.  He comes out to join me for meals with various friends that are here -- we had a nice dinner with Carden and JP last night, lunch with Eric and Rachel and Martha today and dinner tonight with Martha and Dolores and Don.  I have had glimpses of Ellen now and then, but we don't need to hang out together in Kentucky. 

I decided to choose the sessions that were taught by people I have heard of for years (oh yes -- Jon and I went to the opening panel discussion on Thursday night and got to see/hear Wendell Berry for the first time ever.  He was the best.) so I can put names to faces and form my own opinions about these sort of famous people.  I generally don't come to conferences to learn the nuts and bolts of farming, I come to make sure I am not missing something important. I did learn today that other people have a spreadsheet approach to crop planning, complete with details like soil temperature requirements and days to harvest.  That is so far from the way we do it -- I just have a calendar in my head that tells me the first and last days to plant certain crops.  But now I see how new farmers can get up and running so fast: there are lots of instruction books.

I like keynote speeches and the sessions that are aimed at generalists the most.  This is the 25th annual conference put on by this organization and they decided to have a series of retrospective panel presentations.  Mildly interesting. Could be better.  But there are apparently 1500 attendees, which is the most ever.

I doubt there will be anything worth reporting in the next day or so.  We plan to leave here early on Sunday morning and drive home in time to get the CSA registration all ready for Monday. It is almost ready but there are some more tweaks that need to happen.