Hangin' with my Peeps

A few days ago I attended the Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers meeting in Ankeny. It is an event for people like me that grow things like I grow. Even though I've had the patch now for 19 ! (holy cow) years, I have never attended. I've known about it but it never worked out to go.

So this year I did go and it was very interesting and worthwhile. I attended sessions on pest, weed, and disease management and social media. Claire was able to sit in on the social media sessions so that was nice. We were able to get new insights on marketing. There are going to be a lot of changes to Facebook soon and it was good to talk that over with each other. A couple speakers that told us how their farm works. It was interesting to see how other people approach management and innovative ideas.

I met growers from around the state and even a couple from the Brookings, SD area. There were booths from the seed companies. It was nice to put a face with the people I had spoken with many times. There were various extension type booths too and I found a couple fun things that I will be able to give to schools when they bring their littles to visit the Patch. All in all, a fun learning experience.