Weather-wise Farming Featured in May 4 Farm Tour near Atoka

	Vicki Townsend Click on photo for high reolution image

Growing fruits and vegetables through Oklahoma’s late freezes, flash floods, and summer droughts takes plenty of ingenuity.  For years, Vicki and Joe Townsend have been devising ways to protect their crops from Oklahoma weather on THE Farm near Atoka.

At a farm tour on May 4 from 2-6, the Townsends will show visitors to their certified organic farm how they do it. 

They’ll also explain how stretching the growing season at both ends opens new markets, such as the state’s Farm-to-School program. 

Oklahoma Farm-to-School Coordinator Chris Kirby will talk about the state farm-to-school program and how farmers can get involved.

Registration, due by April 28, is $10 and includes dinner.  To register, call 918.647.9123 or visit www.kerrcenter.com/HTML/events.html#fielddaymay4.

The Kerr Center is sponsoring the event, in partnership with the USDA Risk Management Agency and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry.

The tour will highlight several of THE Farm’s season extension techniques, including a homemade growth chamber for starting new plants.

The Townsends grow strawberries using a technique called “plasticulture.”  They cover the rows with sheets of black plastic, to warm the soil and suppress weeds.  Planted directly through the plastic, the strawberries ripen earlier.

There’s also an experimental system to help get an early start on crops like cucumbers.  A small fan forces warm air from the ceiling of the greenhouse through tubes buried under a coldframe.

This project got a helping hand from a 2007 Oklahoma Producer Grant from the Kerr Center.  The Townsends will test a variety of vegetables in the coldframes. They plan to start marketing to a local school this spring, focusing on salad bar items.

Season extension is important for farm-to-school, because it lets farmers ripen crops earlier in the spring, and later in the fall, when schools are open.

During the tour, the Townsends will also discuss their organic approach to growing food, and explain the simple, self-designed computer system that they use to track the history of each plot on the farm.

Joe hails from a small South Dakota town; Vicki grew up on an Oklahoma cattle farm. Both their families grew large gardens for personal use, and the Townsends have continued that habit, using organic methods, throughout their adult lives.

Originally employed as computer professionals, they always planned to move into farming full-time. In 1990, while still working in the software industry, they began an organic vegetable operation in eastern Tennessee, selling produce locally.

In 2002, the Townsends purchased their current 180 acres in southeastern Oklahoma. The following year, they certified 20 of those acres as organic. Since then, they have developed the farm’s basic infrastructure, building soil and adding two greenhouses.

Like many Oklahoma farmers, the Townsends are just getting started in the Farm-to-School program. By bringing fresh local food into school lunches, the program aims to improve children’s health and nutrition, and boost rural economies.

The program began as a pilot project in 2004, with Oklahoma-grown watermelons in 4 school districts, and tripled in size the next year. 

The state legislature made Farm-to-School an official program in 2006, creating a state coordinator position within the Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. 

The program now brings fresh Oklahoma-grown fruits and vegetables from Oklahoma farms to over 350 schools in more than 30 districts.  Demand has consistently outpaced supply, creating opportunities for new and existing farmers.

The tour will be held rain or shine.  Bring a lawn chair, and wear shoes appropriate for walking in fields.

The Kerr Center will be sponsoring another Farm-to-School field day in Stratford on May 24.   For details about this and other upcoming Kerr Center events, as well as the Oklahoma Farm-to-School Program, visit the Kerr Center website, www.kerrcenter.com.