Backyard ag is seeing a HUGE increase. National magazines, newspapers and television shows are devoting lots of time and space to window box farmers! Grow your own is a huge hit right now w/ urbanites... this is a great time to use this to increase awareness about agriculture. That's my misspelled two cents.

Rebecca, what a great idea! Love it!

Hi Everybody, We just participated Ag Day at our fairgrounds. It is an agriculture education event for fourth graders organized by the Siskiyou County Cattlewomen. The fairgrounds provides the facilities, equipment and staff at no cost. We also staff a booth during the event. This year Ag Day also took the place of a fifth grade science day due to lack of transportation funding for the schools, so we added a science component to our fair station at Ag Day. We talked about the life stages of a vegetable. We told the kids about the fair's mission statement which is to promote excellence in agriculture awareness and ecuation through the Siskiyou Golden Fair and interim programs. Then we gave each student a vegetable planting kit. The kit contained a paper cup with potting soil. Taped to the lid was a seed for either a cucumber, zuchini, or crook neck squash. The kit also contained instructions on growing the vegetable and how to enter it at hte fair. An entry form with the entry information already on the form was also included. The total cost as about $75 including seeds, cups, lids, copies, etc. The kits were put in plastic vegetable bags donated by Raley's markets. I will let you all know what kind of return we get in entries at the fair.

Rebecca I just read your posts. Those are great! (and thanks for the shout) I am hoping we can really bolster the dynamic opportunities with branding farming and fairs. This is our brand. No themepark, casino or any other entertainment venue can compete! We can help California Farming as much as they can help fairs. I think the Dirty Jobs episode Gil and I just shot w/ the camel dairy is great step in the right direction of making farming just the greatest life! And then that translates into fair guests as they like to see live what they see on tv. I think there is a lot of potential here. (Now I am off to try a pickle pop... only at the fair!)

Hey everybody... is this thing on? I have the totally great fortune of co-chairing the WFA ag and Ed committee w/ Tommy Jo... How many members here are also on that committee? How many members here no committee members who are not on this group and maybe should be? Perhaps we can get everyone in here! If you are looking for ag props.... Walmart has some pretty cute stuffed sheep... good sized... in the Easter department. Did I mention they were cute?

I attended Capitol Ag Day yesterday (Tuesday, March 23). It was a fabulous event! WFA did a great job promoting fairs, but only a few fair managers showed up (me, Jody Gray, Angie Avila, Barbara Boester-Quaid, and Norb Bartosik, that I saw). Nicole Farley from WFA personally handed the Governor a list of California fair dates! The event was coordinated through the California Women in Agriculture and hosted by AG Kawamura. Numerous agriculture entities from USDA to Cattlemen were on hand to educate the public and legislators about agriculture issues in California. This is a golden opportunity for fairs to connect with their ag partners. Let's make a concerted effort next year to have every California fair represented!

Congratulations to Nancy Kolbert being named Chair of the WFA Agriculture and Education Committee! I am continuing my work with the California Women in Agriculture on their Farmology project.

FYI - California Grown is distributing an Ag-focused coloring book for (wait for it) FREE! contact me (tjplew@SacFair.com) if you want details on how to get yours for your school tour or kids' day programs.