Congratulations to Georgia Organics

Weeks before the event I knew this was going to be a great conference – with a capacity of 800, it was sold out well ahead of time. Yesterday, my perception was confirmed when, walking from the parking deck onto the Agnes Scott campus, I met up with Patricia A. Williams, Ed.D., who is writing a gardening article about the use of toilet paper rolls; she inserts them in the soil in her garden, and puts seeds inside the circles, so that they don’t wash away in the rain. How very clever! I knew I’d like her when she gave me her business card, with the image of a window flanked by shutters with a heart in the center of each, and a cat inside the house, looking out, and a box with flowering plants underneath it. What’s not to like?

Two presenters at the conference could not have been better – James Harris on Social Media, and Alex Hitt of Peregrine Farm in Graham, North Carolina, on Farmer’s Markets. Wow!

I briefly saw my friend and Master Gardener colleague Frances Winslow at the conference; she is a retired Delta flight attendant in the process of becoming a Georgia farmer. You go, girl!

Speaking of girls . . . “a Girl and her Tractor” had a booth at the conference, but I did not meet Adria Stembridge, the purported “girl”. Her business card has neither an e-mail address nor a web URL on it, but it did have a telephone number and says what she does: excavation, grading, rototilling and mowing. And a Google search did locate her:

An intriguing conference participant was Chinese Southern Belle, an ‘adventures in food and culture’ enterprise of Margaret (mother) an Natalie (daughter) Keng. We were in two of the conference sessions together and I tried to speak with them several times, but failed to attract their attention. Eggrolls n’ Sweet Tea, anyone?

Lunch included a most delectable vegetarian chili (catered by Via Elisa, perhaps) and ended with spectacular chocolate chip cookies – of which I had to have two. One then and there, and one for the road!

“Farmer D” was probably the most popular personality at the conference. The company’s sales people did their best to sell me a $500 garden box (without success) but I did not manage to interview anyone on the team. Oh, well!

My reason for attending part of the conference was to see Grace Fricks in action. Her Appalachian Community Enterprises recenlty launched a green loans initiative and her presentation at the conference introduced it to a wider audience. Way to go!