by Connie Oswald Stofko
Get great information you can use in your garden during a new series of free talks to be held during the Western New York Dairy/Agricultural Festival on Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8 in Town Hall, 86 Franklin St., Springville.
The festival kicks off at 5 p.m. Friday, June 6 and takes over the downtown Springville area. Besides the talks, events include a parade, live entertainment, food, amusement rides, a kids’ tent with a petting zoo, farm bus tours, an arts and crafts show, historical trolley tours, a Civil War encampment and a display of antique and new farm equipment. See the entire schedule here.
Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com is one of the sponsors for the festival, and I’ll kick off the series of talks at 1 p.m. Saturday with “45 Gardening Tips in 45 Minutes.” I’ll share some of the best tips I’ve come across over the years. I have to cover one tip per minute, so it will be exciting to see if I can squeeze them all in!
Some of the talks will be given by farmers, so you’ll get a chance to learn from experts. Their topics include soil preparation and plants that work in Western New York.
A few of the talks aim to educate us about what’s happening in farming today. One farmer will talk about how she connected with a Buffalo chef to bring fresh organic produce to the table.
A lot of people are interested in eating food that’s grown locally, and Southern Tier farmers are interested in connecting with those consumers, said Holly Haddad, treasurer for the Western New York Dairy/Agricultural Festival. The festival was started 25 years ago, and as you can deduce from its name, many of the farmers were dairy farmers.
That has changed over the decades, Haddad said, and now many of those former dairy farmers are looking for new farm products and new markets for those products. They’re producing greens, organic items, honey and maple syrup. You can find out more at the festival.
Speakers at Western New York Dairy/Agricultural Festival
Saturday
1-2 p.m. Connie Oswald Stofko, publisher of Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com “45 Gardening Tips in 45 Minutes”
2-3 p.m. Kate Johnson, private farmer in Springville “Backyard Food Production: A Personal Account” This is one family’s experience gardening, canning & raising chickens.
3-4:00 Mary J. Bolo of The Lord’s Garden & Tea Room in Eden “Garden Design & Curb Appeal” and “Three Principles for Good Design”
4-5 p.m. Daniel Roeloss of the Arden Farm in East Aurora “Community Gardening” and “Soil Preparation”
Sunday
1-2 p.m. Margaret Kraupp & Jody Alsbrook “The Farm to Table Experiment: How a Buffalo Chef & Local Farmer Partnered to Bring Fresh Organic Produce to the Table” This will be an informative and sometimes hilarious look at their two-year experiment.
2-3 p.m. Jack Mann of Brant Apple Farm “From Dairy to Diversity”
3-4 p.m. Stew Ritchie of Native Offerings Farm, LLC in Little Valley “Plants that Work Here”
4-5 p.m. Bruce Robinson, forester and Master Gardener “Wood Lot Development/Improvement” and “Birds, Bugs & Butterflies”
I think I would like Bruce Robinson’s talk. I have posts on this coming up, but from a design perspective.