Stillwater NewsPress

OSU Update

January 8, 2010

OSU helps plan Market Gardening School in Enid

In an effort to provide fresh market producers with the most up-to-date information on management, production and marketing techniques, Oklahoma State University is teaming up with the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to host the 2010 Oklahoma Market Gardening School.

The eight-week course will begin Jan. 19 and meet weekly through March 9 at the Garfield County Extension Office, 316 E. Oxford, Enid.

Classes will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Registration is $70 per individual or $85 per couple. Couples will receive one set of handouts.

OSU Cooperative Extension Horticulture Food Crops Specialist Lynn Brandenberger said the school is geared toward those who are established in the business as well as those who are interested in exploring a new enterprise.

“We continue to see the public’s interest grow for locally grown fresh produce. In addition, there are a growing number of public schools around the state that want to purchase fresh produce from local producers for their lunch programs,” Brandenberger said.

Produce that is grown, picked and sold in the same area has many benefits, he said, including freshness, food safety due to a localized food production system and lower costs due to lack of transportation expenses.

“You don’t have to have a large operation in order to benefit from this course,” he said. “The information we’ll provide is valuable to both small and large producers.”

Each week’s session will focus on a different area related to fruit and vegetable production, such as getting organized, soils and fertilizer management, crop establishment and irrigation, guidelines for producing vegetable crops, season extension, pest management, food safety and marketing and fruit and nut production guidelines.

The class is limited to 50 participants and preregistration is required. Online registration is available at orangehub.okstate.edu/ustores/web/index.jsp. Click on Horticulture/Landscape on the Web site.

To register by mail, send the registration form from the OSU’s department of horticulture and landscape architecture Web site at www.hortla.okstate.edu/ along with the payment to Oklahoma Market Gardening Course, attn: Stephanie Larimer, 358 Ag Hall, Stillwater, OK 74078-6027, or call her at 405-744-5404.

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OSU helps plan Market Gardening School in Enid
by Anonymous , , Fri Jan 08, 2010, 11:27 AM CST
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