2014 Healthy Farms Conference, Youth Programming

"Healthy Farms, Healthy Kids Nebraska!"

February 14th & 15th. Kearney. 

Register here, https://healthyfarmsconference2014.eventbrite.com

Friday – February 14, 2014

10:00 am – 11:30 am

Movement for Little Farmers (Kids/Family Class)

Leader: Chelsea Taxman

This playful, nature-inspired movement class is designed for the young at heart.  Chelsea will lead the class through a variety of movements, imagery activities, group exercises and laughter.  While the class is designed for children, family members are encouraged to join in on the fun and take a load off.

A native to Omaha, aspiring herbalist, permaculturist and home gardener, Chelsea Taxman is also the Education Coordinator for Truck Farm, an urban agriculture education program.   She travels to Omaha Public Schools offering education to youth about where our food comes from today.  Chelsea incorporates lessons of healthy eating, movement and sustainability into the Truck Farm curriculum. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher in the Omaha area and cofounder of Black Iris Botanicals, a wild-crafted a locally sourced herbal beauty product line.

11:30 am – 12:00 pm

Fulton Family Farm Projects – Youth

Cami Fulton - Anatolian shepherd dog

Colleen - Fulton Missouri Fox Trotter

Timothy Fulton – Hereford Cattle

Fulton kids will talk about their organic family ranch and how their livestock play a role in their diversified operation.

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Have Fun Making Cornhusk Farm Animals

Leader: Jean Roberts, Cornhusk Creations

 

Jean Roberts of Axtell, NE was born north-west of Axtell 81 years ago.  She and her twin sister, Joan Johnson, often helped their dad pick corn by hand when they were children.  Her husband, Robert Roberts, is a contractor and has built over 100 houses.  They have 7 children and 9 grandchildren.

Shortly after they were married in 1954, Jean read an article in a magazine that featured “Cornhusk Dolls”.  She has since made hundreds of dolls, given close to a hundred demonstrations and has dolls in 23 foreign countries.  The highlight of her hobby was being selected to represent Nebraska for 5 days for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C. at a celebration for the 1976 Bicentennial of our constitution.  And she is still making “Cornhusk Creations”.

2:45pm – 4:30 pm

How and Why to Start a Local Plant Nursery

Leader: Bob Henrickson, Horticulture Program Coordinator, Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, Inc.

Kids will receive information to create a native plant nursery using the latest growing techniques that produces a plant with a quality root system. Learn about basic growing practices and practical tips for trees, shrubs, native wildflowers and prairie grasses to make your property more bird and pollinator friendly while also saving time and money with lower maintenance and water use. Discover some simple marketing ideas for selling your product.

Bob Henrickson is the Horticulture Program Coordinator with the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, Inc. a private, non-profit organization and program of the Nebraska Forest Service. His responsibilities include assisting affiliated arboretum sites with plant collection and to acquire, propagate and produce native and exotic plants for plant development and sales. Bob co-hosts a gardening talk show on a community radio station in Lincoln. He is passionate about native plants that benefit wildlife and reflect a sense of place here on the Plains.   

Saturday – February 15, 2014

9:30 am to 11:30 am

Organic Gardening, Birdhouses and More

Leader: Tom Tomas

Kids will learn to “Feed the soil rather than the plant,” Tom will bring soil and compost and talk about the different properties and how to use them.  Kids will decorate gourds for birdhouses and learn to construct a teepee structure for pole beans.

Tom Tomas is a long-time organic gardener and friend of sustainable agriculture.  Tom has local knowledge in tree grafting, seed saving and is a home plant breeder.  He describes himself as a former farmer with extensive training and experience in horticulture and organic agriculture.  He earned a degree in Horticulture and taught at Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture at Curtis for six years. He went on to obtain a PhD from Cornell and has worked for the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society and with organic certification.

1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

Tell Your Farm’s Story

Leader: Twyla Hansen

Kids will learn to write stories about their farm favorite building, field, animal or person that they have learned from or have spent time with. We will have fun exploring the many possibilities of story-telling.

Twyla Hansen is Nebraska's State Poet. She is co-author of four organic farming NebGuides, and has published articles on sustainable agriculture and six books of poetry, winning the Nebraska Book Award in 2012 and 2004. She is a creative writer presenter in schools and libraries through Humanities Nebraska. Her BS (Horticulture) and MAg (Agroecology) are from UNL. Twyla grew up in Burt County on land her grandparents farmed as immigrants from Denmark in the late 1800s. She works and lives in Lincoln, where her wild acre earned the Mayor’s Landscape Conservation Award in 1994.

3:15 pm – 4:30 pm

Shoo, fly! Don’t Bother Me!

Leader: Kristina Friesen, Research Entomologist, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

This interactive session will begin to equip our future farmers with the ability to identify filth flies as well as learn the basics of their life cycles.  Kids will learn to identify eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of stable flies and house flies and go over the fly life cycle with them.  They will learn where the flies are problems on the farm and what can be done to manage flies.

Kristina Friesen is a medical and livestock entomologist working with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.  She received degrees in microbiology, entomology, and animal science from Montana State University.  For her graduate studies she investigated the transmission of West Nile virus in a colony of American white pelicans, then stable fly development and behavior.  After graduating from MSU, she was hired by the ARS to focus on stable fly development and management.