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Sharing meals brings joy to holiday season

By
University of Missouri
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Lynda Johnson, M.S., R.D., Nutrition and Health Education Specialist, University of Missouri Extension

Cooking and eating together during the holidays are among the simple things that can bring comfort and joy to our lives. Nourishment, health and connecting with others can be as close as our kitchen table. Here are five comforting ways to make food and nutrition a central ingredient of your holiday season.

  1. Preparing food is a soothing way to share time and bring generations together. Talking while you measure, mix, stir and chop can be a time to discuss important issues and concerns. Making a pot of homemade vegetable soup or kneading bread together can be a relaxing experience.
  2. Strengthen your family by making sit-down meals a priority as often as possible. If you live alone, reach out to neighbors, friends or co-workers to have dinner together. Inviting others to join you for a meal creates a sense of community. This is one of the best ways to celebrate the meaning and comfort of the holidays.
  3. Take a break from the TV to enjoy and really experience your meal — use meal time for good conversation. Most of all, savor your food by focusing on tastes, smells and textures. Take comfort in the blessings of nourishing food.

For the complete list, see the full version of this article at http://missourifamilies.org/features/nutritionarticles/nut355.htm

Regional farmers’ market vendor workshops planned

By
Kansas Department of Agriculture
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MANHATTAN, Kansas – Kansas farmers’ markets across the state are doing much more than just providing a fresh food source.  The farmers offering their produce, as well as the consumers taking advantage of the farm-fresh offerings are also simulating the local economy. There are now 130 active farmers’ markets in Kansas compared to the 26 in operation in 1987. The growth in this sector helps provide Kansans with more revenue and more high-quality food choices.

To help assist current or prospective market vendors, five regional workshops will be held sponsored in part by the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s From the Land of Kansas trademark program.  “Expanding local markets allows Kansans the opportunity to boost their local economies. Farmers are able to develop relationships with their consumers, and consumers can be comforted knowing where their food was grown,” said Stacy Mayo, From the Land of Kansas trademark program director.

“Selling food directly to consumers through farmers’ markets provides growers a chance to tell their farm’s story, but has its own set of legal, safety and financial parameters,” said Londa Nwadike, consumer food safety specialist with K-State Research and Extension and the University of Missouri.

Dates and locations are as follows:

  • January 30, 2015 – Hays, KSU Ag Research Center, 1232 240th Ave, Hays, KS, 67601
  • February 7, 2015- Atchison, Highland Community College-Atchison campus, 1501 W. Riley Street, Atchison, KS 66002
  • February 21, 2015 – Chanute, Sanders Hall, Neosho Co. Community College, 800 West 14th Street, Chanute, KS 66720
  • March 7, 2015 – Pratt, Pratt Area 4-H Center, 61 Lake Rd, Pratt, KS 67124
  • March 20, 2015 – Olathe, Kansas State University- Olathe, 22201 W. Innovation Dr., Olathe KS 66061

 

The early-bird deadline to register for these events is Jan. 15, 2015. A fee of $20 a person will cover the costs of the conference, including lunch. A $5 charge will be added to participants who register after Jan 15. Registration forms can be found at: www.FromtheLandofKansas.com/FMConference.

Workshop topics will vary by location. Highlighted topics include:

  • Vendor best practices
  • Creating a healthy working environment
  • Safe food practices
  • Sales tax and Kansas webtax online
  • Accepting non-cash payments

The workshops will run from 9 a.m. and conclude by 3 p.m. Regional workshops are supported by a K-State Research and Extension Epsilon Sigma Phi Endowment Grant, From the Land of Kansas and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Second Annual Kansas Farmers’ Market Conference to be held February 28 and March 1

By
Kansas Department of Agriculture
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MANHATTAN, Kan. – Farmers’ markets are an economic engine for communities across the state. With more than 130 farmers markets in Kansas, markets are food destinations in urban and rural settings. The 2015 Kansas Farmers Market Conference will be held Saturday, February, 28 – Sunday, March 1, 2015 in Manhattan, Kansas.

“The state conference is planned for market managers, board of director members, city and county officials who have a vested interest in the growing success or starting new farmers markets in Kansas,” said Stacy Mayo, From the Land of Kansas director.

The From the Land of Kansas program, within the Kansas Department of Agriculture, has teamed up with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to host the second annual state conference.

“The two-day conference is designed to strengthen markets by providing information, resources and tools to grow market success,” Mayo said.

The conference will consist of a variety of workshops and sessions and is structured to promote success for farmers’ market managers, vendors and community stakeholders. Keynote speakers and breakout sessions will include the following topics:

  • How to engage volunteers
  • Gaining community support
  • Marketing your market
  • Importance of conflict resolution
  • Marketing money promotions
  • By-law development and importance of internal farmers’ market policy

Conference registration is $45 a day or $80 for both days. The early-bird deadline to register for this two-day seminar will end January 15, 2015. After the deadline, a $10 price increase will go into effect. Students will be offered a discounted price of $35 a day.

Registration for the event will begin at 7 a.m. on Saturday, February 28, 2015 with the meeting beginning at 9 a.m. on March 1, 2015 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Manhattan. For more information visit the From the Land of Kansas website: FromtheLandofKansas.com/FMConference. Please direct all questions to (785) 564-6755(785) 564-6755 or [email protected].

“We are also working on a series of five regional workshops that will have information more geared toward market vendors

Careful consideration urged when making ‘one-time decision’ for new farm program participation

By
Frank Buchman
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Farmers, landowners and anyone actively engaged in agriculture production must soon make decisions regarding options that are available in the new Farm Bill.

Paula Vohs representing Cargill Crop Insurance was most emphatic in her opening remarks for the special luncheon discussion hosted by Webb & Associates Auctioneers and Appraisers at Overland Park, prior to Johnson County land auctions conducted there.

First question among the three dozen producers in attendance likely may have been: “Why is Cargill talking about the Farm Bill?”

In anticipation, Vohs clarified: “We want to help you make better informed decisions, and understand the tie between the 2014 Farm Bill and crop insurance policy to best utilize both and plan marketing around them.”

Continuing, Vohs explained: “The Agricultural Act of 2014 offers new programs and more choices than ever before. To better understand and make the right decision concerning these options, everybody involved must get an appointment as quickly as possible at the Farm Service Agency office serving the agriculture land that is identified only by a farm number.”

In previous Farm Bills, the decisions to participate in various commodity and crop insurance programs were not necessarily intertwined.

“However, with an ever-increasing focus on risk management and a strong emphasis on crop insurance, the Farm Bill introduces new interactions between commodity and crop insurance programs,” Vohs said.

Direct payments provided to crop producers regardless of financial loss in the three previous Farm Bills are gone.

To effectively manage risk in their operations, producers should consider analyzing their entire farm and risk management “portfolio,” which would include projected market revenue, farm commodity payments, and crop insurance indemnities, the speaker said.

“Most importantly, enrollment in the new commodity programs will be a one-time, irrevocable decision this month, or early 2015, so it is essential for producers to go to their Farm Service Agency office immediately to determine the mix of programs that offers the most effective safety net over the next four to five years, versus the program with the largest government payment in a particular year,” Vohs pointed out.

Unlike the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program in the 2008 Farm Bill where payments were tied to planted acres of covered commodities up to the number of base acres, the new commodity programs are paid on base acres of covered commodities.

Choices for covered commodities include:

1) Landowner chooses to retain or reallocate base acreage.

2) Landowner chooses to retain or update payment yields.

3) Producer or landowner chooses to enroll base acres in Price Loss Coverage (PLC), farm-level Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC), or county-level Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC).

4) Producer chooses to purchase an individual insurance policy on planted acres.

5) If producer is not enrolled in farm-level or county-level ARC, there is an option to purchase a new supplemental insurance product, called the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), on planted acres.

Direct payments that have been a key component of the producer safety net since 1996 have been eliminated as have Counter-Cyclical Program payments available since 2002.

Initially, crop producers and landowners will need to decide whether they want to reallocate their base acres which would serve to more closely align base acres to recent plantings. The major decision is whether they want to choose farm-level ARC, county-level ARC, or PLC.

“Since this decision will stay with the farm for the life of the Farm Bill, producers are encouraged to consider which choice they feel the most comfortable with over the next five years rather than which might provide a short-term payment,” Vohs restated.

Each producer will need to make this decision for every covered commodity grown on each farm. Once this decision is made, payment yields can be updated for any commodity enrolled in PLC.

“While these decisions may seem complicated for even an average size farm, it is important to note that the safety net provided in this Farm Bill can be especially strong if producers will take the time to tailor their farm program choices to each of their farms. Once these decisions are made, there are several crop insurance changes that can also be considered,” Vohs said.

“Information on the 2014 Farm is always changing and still being defined, while additional rules are being written. This is a one-time opportunity to determine the future of your farm for the next five years.

“Farmers, landowners and anyone actively engaged in agriculture production must go to their Farm Service Agency office and discuss options that are available in the new Farm Bill,” Vohs concluded.

Col. Dave Webb served as announcer and bid taker, as Col. Kevin Borger representing Webb & Associates Auctioneers and Appraisers of Stilwell conducted two successful Johnson County real estate auctions. Later that evening, the firm hosted a reception for Pioneer Bluffs at Matfield Green.

More than just for Christmas — trees that survive ‘trial by pasture’

By
University of Nebraska
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Enjoying a Christmas tree indoors is one of the true pleasures of the season – the smell of fresh pine or fir, a plant-filled and suddenly-green living room, sparkling lights from morning to bedtime. In terms of sustainability though, not so much.

 

A well-placed conifer in your landscape, however, can provide green all year long – and for decades to come as well. If you can place it near a large window where it’s visible inside as well as out, even better. Decorated with some lights and birdseed ornaments, it may be the only holiday tree you’ll ever need.

 

Nurseryman Todd Faller of Faller Landscape & Nursery in York has been testing conifers for almost two decades. He plants them in a seven and a half acre pasture, mulches them, waters them once and never pays attention to them again except for an occasional yearly spray of roundup for weed control and an annual pruning of double leaders or broken branches. Faller said, “Plant and walk away is my motto. If the tree has to be babied, then it tells me a lot about its character, its longevity, its will to make it here in the Great Plains.”

 

What has he learned from this “trial by pasture”?

 

Faller has planted Korean, Alpine, Fraser, Canaan, balsam, Manchurian and concolor Fir, “many varieties we’re told that shouldn’t be planted in this type of situation.” He’s also planted Norway, Black Hills, Serbian and blue spruce, white, Austrian, Scotch, lodgepole, lacebark, pinyon and border pine, as well as a handful of cultivars of these species. To his somewhat expected but pleasant surprise, “most varieties have done well, even with recent drought and some dry years 2000-2004.” For him, Fraser Fir struggled the most but he said “that’s not surprising since it and balsam fir are native to cool, moist and more temperate environments.”

 

He doesn’t recommend that homeowners put trees to the same “Survivor” reality test but he does think many of our trees can take more than we give them credit for. Faller recommends taking into account a tree’s native range and the conditions it’s accustomed to, and then using that as a guide to run a few trials of your own, “Every landscape is ultimately an ongoing test and together we can learn what plants are hardiest in regional conditions.”

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