Last week Randy and I attended the Mississippi Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association conference in Jackson, Mississippi. What a decadent pleasure to be able to leave the farm for three days! I would have enjoyed it much more if I wasn’t still getting over a nasty stomach flu that set in around Thanksgiving. My biggest regret is that I wasn’t feeling well enough to order Chinese take-out on the night we arrived, something we just can’t get in Ashland. Still, that Hilton hotel sure has comfy pillows, and it was nice to take a leisurely shower without running out of hot water.
These conferences are always a bit dangerous because they are full of so many new ideas of things we could be doing. We came home excited about growing microgreens. In fact, I’ve already got four experimental trays of microgreens sprouting in the greenhouse. I also learned how to graft tomatoes (to give disease resistance and vigor to finicky heirlooms) and was assured that melons can be grafted in the same way (to protect watermelons from fusarium wilt). You can bet that I have already ordered the rootstock. We also got some good tips for the blueberries and blackberries we’ll be planting this spring. Unfortunately, there were no revelations about dealing with the squash bugs or yellow margined plant bugs.
I was also surprised and pleased to see so many small and organic farmers and gardeners at the conference. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been. Of the three “tracks” the conference offered, one was organic and sustainable. Clearly the organization is evolving to mirror the realities of fruit and vegetable growing in Mississippi – that more and more organic farmers are proving that you can grow without synthetic chemicals in the south. We saw some of the same people we met at SSAWG last year and made some new friends.
