KSCGA Grower Directory/Networking Platform Receiving Good Response

As we have been talking about for some time, KSCGA has been actively working on building and organizing our database of Kansas growers, markets, and industry rep’s since our early organizational days. With a solid database of over 300 Kansas growers, markets, and related partners, we now have the next phase—an online grower-driven directory and networking platform—in its trial and demonstration phase. Watch for more demonstrations and full roll-out Fall 2023.

With grant support from USDA/KDA Specialty Crop Block Grant program and Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops—and the contributions of our KSCGA members—we’ve been working with WaterGrass, a nonprofit data management platform developer, to build a functional and efficient data management platform from which we can focus our communication and outreach, keep track of membership, provide reports on who’s growing what and where and how our Kansas growers are marketing and selling, and much more. From that, we, with continued work by WaterGrass, have been moving to the next stage—extending our database into a user-friendly online directory and networking platform in which growers can search and connect with other growers and markets to share information and ideas, access and develop production and market opportunities, find product—and find sales and distribution venues for your product, and much more. As simple as that may sound, the extent and complexity of our many data fields has presented challenges in getting this up-and-running. We can, though, now report that the system is in its final pre-rollout phase, with early demonstrations getting a very favorable response from growers, markets, and related partners across the state.

During the recent KS Dept of Agriculture KS Ag Summit—Specialty Crop Session, held online Aug 22, and other regional venues, we’ve had the opportunity to demonstrate the capacity and functionality of the directory system. In those, growers, markets, and other partners saw how they will be able to conduct focused searches for such things as:

• who’s growing peaches in Johnson and Douglas Counties—to build their diversity and supply at their on-site markets

• who’s growing tomatoes and selling them wholesale—giving them the opportunity to sell surplus to a larger grower who can get more product into a wholesale distribution system

• who’s growing mushrooms—so they can reach out directly and get information and advice on how its done

• and much more.

As we move ahead, we’ll be adding fields such as cultivation practices (organic, high tunnel, etc.). and more from suggestions from our grower members.

The full KS Ag Growth Specialty Crop Session is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L5rRq4qzn0; with our organizational update, and the portion on the directory/networking system, beginning at at the 44:45 mark. There’s a lot of good information through the entire session—with KSCGA also contributing in a grower panel on scaling up, with good representation by both small and large growers, starting at the 17:50 mark.

The directory/networking platform will be available to all for a trial period—after which current dues-paying members will have access to the search and outreach functions. We’ll be working out the details on that in the time ahead.

Watch for more updates on the roll-out and input opportunities in the days and weeks ahead—on our Facebook Group page and here on our website.

And please—we need the full support of all of you to keep this work going strong in the year ahead—and beyond. Make sure to join as a contributing member or renew your KSCGA membership at: https://www.kscga.org/membership. Thanks to the generous support from some of our more established growers, a limited number of subsidized memberships are available.

Grower Member/Entrepreneur Selected to Board of Farmer Veteran Coalition of Kansas.

KSCGA grower member Brad Fourby, of Leafy Green Farm of Pittsburg, KS, has been selected for the Board of Directors of the Farmer Veteran Coalition of Kansas. As a veteran farmer and small business owner, Fourby sees the benefit in being a part of a network of grower veterans to support each others’ work in producing local foods and community development.

Brad’s work with Leafy Greens, a hydroponic high-density growing model utilizing reconditioned shipping containers, will be featured in KSCGA’s upcoming Winter 2023 Newsletter—along with a story on another KSCGA grower member who, as a Gulf War veteran, finds renewal in his cultivation efforts, as well as in his 2,300 mile Minnesota headwatere-to-Gulf of Mexico Mississippi River canoe trip

Winter 2021-2022 KSCGA Newsletter

In this season’s KSCGA Winter Newsletter, we feature:

• Garden City area growers face opportunities and challenges in changing community

• December wind events—dust storms and farm damage across the state

• 2021 year in review—and looking ahead to 2022

• KSCGA welcomes business supporters

• and much more

Preliminary 2020 Census Data Reveals Impacts on Regional Food Systems

Thanks to KSCGA member grower Steve Michel—Prairie Wind Aquatics/Farm of Garden City—for sharing preliminary 2020 Census data presented by the Finney County Economic Development Corporation. While parts of rural Kansas may be seeing a continued trend in population decline, Finney County in SW Kansas stands out as one of the fastest growing—and increasingly diverse and potentially undercounted—areas in the state.

KSCGA is working with growers and officials in the Garden City area in pursuing opportunities to expand production, visibility, and market reach for local/regionally produced fruits and vegetables. With its increasingly diverse and growing population—compounded with the likely undercount of some of the diverse demographic groups—putting remarkable strains on the predominant food distribution systems, work in Finney County may offer models for others in the coming year.

Watch for more on our work with Finney County and other Kansas growers in specialty crop production and distribution addressing changing needs and demographics. Please, if you have not already done so, become a new member or renew your KSCGA membership and help support the work ahead.

Deadline for New/Renewing memberships for raffle for premium coffees

Many of our grower members can appreciate a genuinely good cup of coffee through the morning rounds and tasks on their farms, orchards, vineyards, and gardens. KSCGA is offering incentive gifts of premium direct-trade coffee for those who join or renew their memberships and/or complete a short Kansas grower survey between November 1 , 2021 and January 12, 2022. Thanks to generous contributions from direct-trade coffee roasters around the country, we’ll be raffling off over 20 bags of premium coffees for those responding to our fall campaigns.

While many of us actively work to promote and strengthen direct relationships between growers and customers in our own communities, we’d like to take that principle and acknowledge the care and work of those producing some of our commodities, and some of our little pleasures, such as coffee, in communities far away. In the end, everything is local somewhere.

Take a moment in these fall days to join or renew your KSCGA membership for the year ahead.

• First people to join as new members and first to renew their membership at $10 and first to complete a short (9 questions) Kansas grower survey will each receive one bag of coffee from our generous donors

• First two to join at the $50 supporting level—receive a 1lb bag of cafe Campesino Chiapas, the really good stuff

• Each subsequent $10 new or renewing membership will have their name added to the raffle pool x 1

• Each $50 supporting membership will be added x 3

• Increase your odds and help KSCGA build a picture of the vision and impact of specialty crops, and specialty crop growers, by completing a short Kansas grower survey, and your name will be added x 1 (those taking the initiative to submit their surveys in earlier runs will be added to the raffle pool)

• Raffles will be held November 12, 26, December 10, 30—and January 12.

• Each participant eligible for one bag—everyone participating will have pretty good odds!

We look forward to working with all of you in the year ahead! Thanks—for all you do.

And thanks to the direct-trade coffee roasters/distributors who’ve generously donated to the KSCGA fall campaigns, including Equal Exchange, Just Coffee Cooperative, and Cafe Campesino.

Photo Credits (clockwise from top left): FairTradeProof.org, FairTradeProof.org, rhoadsroast-coffees.com, OneGreenPlanet.org, CityExpress.com, KoinoniaFarmStore.com, EqualExchange.coop, FairTradeProof.org, FairTradeProof.org

Summer 2021 KSCGA Newsletter

In this season’s KSCGA Summer Newsletter, we feature:

• Kansas vineyards and wineries expand production and reach

• Independence, KS member grower building mushroom cultivation and distribution

• KSCGA looking ahead

• and more

Many Applications in K-State Horticulture’s Hügelkultur Projects

KSCGA Project Manager Peter Pierson was recently given a tour by students and staff at K-State Horticulture’s Willow Lake Student Farm north of Manhattan. Among the research projects that stood out was their work in Hügelkultur practices. While their current work focuses on lettuce and wildflower ground cover, side and future research may yield timely information on Kansas specialty crops ranging from peaches to mushrooms.

A practice dating back hundreds of years in Europe, Hügelkultur involves building mounds, or elevated rows, of wood debris, mulch, compost, and soil for planting. In theory, the practice takes advantage of elevated temperatures in the decaying layers and varying sun exposure for frost/freeze protection and multiple crop rotations with extended growing seasons offered on some exposures. Willow Lake Student Farm’ east-west oriented rows are built with small and large stumps and logs covered with mulch, compost, and soil.

With the general east-west orientation of the rows, K-State’s Willow Lake current planting and research focuses on different local exposures’ impacts on lettuce, with soil evolution work with wildflower ground cover. They’ll also be watching for potential autumn mushroom development from spores and mycelium in the decaying wood as a companion crop with potential commercial applications.

Timely options for Kansas fruit growers may be found in anticipated future Hügelkultur research in peaches and other fruits that are prone to damage from cold temperatures and late freezes. Taking advantage of the varying sun exposure offered in this elevated row planting method, peaches may become more resistant to the extremes in weather that have taken a heavy toll the last several years. The Willow Lake researchers’ theory, though, may catch some as counterintuitive. Rather than focusing primary on the impacts of a southern exposures, Willow Lake anticipates looking at peach tree health and production on the north side exposure of the elevated rows—where spring bloom may be delayed, thus reducing the damage done by late frosts and freezes.

KSCGA will follow the work and research at the Willow Lake Student Farm and keep Kansas growers up to date on their findings and applications in your growing efforts.

Among Kansas Specialty Crop Growers Association’s immediate goals and objectives, we are in the process of developing an enhanced Kansas grower directory system in which member Kansas growers will be able to effectively network with each other, sharing information on crops, growing practices, marketing and sales, and much more.

KSCGA depends on your support to continue building our grower networking and outreach efforts. Please take the step to become a member or renew your membership today. To strengthen our reach and engagement, KSCGA membership begins at a minimal $10 contribution. For more on membership opportunities and our vision for the year ahead, please visit our website at www.kscga.org/membership.

It's That Time!

As growers across the state move into the seasons of markets, u-pick events, and other activities and efforts, Kansas Specialty Crop Growers Association would like to help promote your products and events. Drop us a line to info@kscga.org with information, links, and pictures of what you’ve got going on in your operations—and the well-deserved results of your efforts, like a piece of cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. We’ll get it out to our active and growing public Facebook page promoting specialty crops in the state. As we look ahead, KSCGA is working to greatly expand our capacity to help promote and market your products and connect you with growers across the state.

In that, KSCGA is currently working with database developers and other potential partners in developing an online directory that will not only connect member growers with a growing customer base looking for local/regional produce and other ag products, but will also connect Kansas growers with their fellow growers to share information, seek help and advice, explore new crops and practices, and simply support each other in our efforts. We’re excited about the possibilities for what envision to be an accessible, user-friendly, extensive, and genuinely effective platform to promote your operations and sales and connect you with the diverse network of growers under our KSCGA umbrella.

March 2021 KSCGA Newsletter

In our March 2021 KSCGA Newsletter, we cover:

• Vision, goals, and objectives for KSCGA in 2021 and beyond

  • Step up engagement and outreach among our grower members

  • Enhanced online directory format and capabilities to connect growers with buyers, and growers with each other

• Highlights from 2021 Great Plains Growers Conference: Navigating changing markets and marketing platforms

• KSCGA working with retail grocers and shipping industries in Buy Local-Buy Fresh campaign

• and more

Read More

Kansas Buy Local Campaign-2021

KSCGA Working with Retail Grocers Association in Buy Local Campaign

KSCGA is working with Liberty Fruit Co and the Retail Grocers Association of Greater Kansas City in creating a sales and marketing effort promoting regionally-grown produce, offering Kansas specialty crop growers of all sizes access to distribution and sales networks that can increase market reach.

As a network of growers, this program would offer large and small operations the opportunity to increase the scale and efficiency needed to expand their commercial reach. The marketing program provided by the Retail Growers Association promises to increase awareness and demand for Kansas-grown produce, and for participating farms.

KSCGA is working with partners on fair and efficient pricing and supply chain concerns. Growers will be required to have GAP certification for produce entering this pilot effort.

If you are interested (no commitment) in participating in the Buy Local Campaign, please complete and submit the form below to help us determine interest among our growers: