This story features David Yarrow, who is participating in a NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant project on biochar. Participating farmers will learn how to properly prepare and test charcoal (biochar) in soils on at least 28 test beds in the Lawrence, Kansas foodshed.

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Source: Tara Maxwell, Acres USA, The Voice of Eco-Agriculture, May 2013 Vol. 43 No 5

You most likely heard of biochar, but you probably have lots of questions about how to successfully use this soil amendment on your fields. Biochar advocate David Yarrow is working to provide answers...

Calvin Adams, Kansas Ranch and Range Internship Program coordinator

Ranch ownership transitions can be complex, involving issues such as generational needs, tax issues, social attitudes, and recreational landowner competition.  In an effort to help simplify the process, Calvin Adams of Beloit, KS, Cade Rensink of Ada, KS, and Ted Alexander of Medicine Lodge, KS, and the Kansas Ranch and Range...

Jerry and Jane Wohletz received a NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant to do on-farm research trials of different weights of row cover cloth for berry production. Since the Wohletz’s were the first to try plasticulture in the region, researchers and specialists were previously unsure how heavier or lighter weights of row cover would affect berry production. For that winter at least, a one-ounce row cover produced the best results.

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Source: Lawrence Journal World, Jennifer Smith

At Wohletz Farm Fresh, 1831 North 1100 Road in rural Lawrence, strawberries are about to hit the big...

Source: High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal

The first in a series of workshops that will focus on "Food Hubs and Co-ops: How local family farms can feed our communities" will be offered April 6, 2013 9am-5pm in the Highland Community College's Klinefelter Barn, 1774 230th St., Hiawatha, Kan. The workshop will provide people who grow and enjoy locally produced food with information on how to form partnerships and food cooperatives.

"This workshop was instantly popular, and we realized we needed to develop separate workshops for the food hub and food co-op topics," said Mary Howell,...

This news story features SARE grantees, Maryam Hjersted, Steve Moring, and Charles NovoGradac, who received an NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant in 2009 to establish permaculture training centers and provide farm training sites for the practice of permaculture principles. The SARE grant gave the group the resources to create an effective permaculture educational program and promotional venue through their website. It supported the development of resources for the establishment of training sites for permaculture in the Kansas and Missouri area.

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Source: Lawrence...

Kaw Permaculture and the Kansas Permaculture Institute have announced their 5th Permaculture Design Certification Course. Classes begin Wednesday, September 5, 6-9pm and continue weekly until December 8 at The Learning for Life Center, 1709 S.W. Randolph Ave. Topeka, KS.

Learn how a local sustainable design system known as Permaculture promises to create an ecologically sound and economically abundant way of living which neither pollutes nor exploits our natural resources and planet.

This course consists of 72 hours of classroom and hands-on field experience leading to a Permaculture...

The news story below features Dan Nagengast, a speaker at the Kansas Sustainable Agriculture Conference, which was sponsored, in part, by SARE.

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Source: Insurance News

Agriculture is a fast-moving train and no one knows exactly what's up around the bend. For Dan Nagengast, reconnecting food production with food consumption is critical to keeping that train on the track.

Speaking at the Kansas Rural Center's recent Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Emporia, Nagengast laid out compelling concerns about the current industrialized approach to feeding the planet in light of a long list...

Green Cover Seed is working with 21st Century Bean Processing of Sharon Springs, KS to sponsor two roundtable discussions related to Whole Yellow Pea production.  There will be 2 meetings:  Colby, KS on Dec. 21st and Burlington, CO on Dec. 22nd.  The Colby meeting will be at the 4-H building located West of the National Guard Armory at the Thomas Co. Fairgrounds on the 21st at 10am central time.  The Burlington meeting will be the following day Dec. 22nd at the Community Center on south Main at 10am mountain time.  Both meetings will conclude with a light lunch.

• On hand...

The story below highlights the Kansas Rural Center's 2011 Sustainable Agriculture Conference. The conference is co-sponsored by the Kansas SARE Professional Development Program.
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Source: Kansas Farmer

The Kansas Rural Center's 2011 Sustainable Agriculture Conference will focus on food and farm opportunities and the optimism for expanding local and regional food and farming in Kansas. The conference, titled "Options, Opportunities and Optimism: Cultivating Our Food and Farm Future," will take place Saturday, Nov. 19, from 9 to 5 p.m. at Flint Hills Technical...

Vajra Farm, LLC and Kaw Permaculture are requesting apprenticeship applications for the Fall of 2011.

Vajra Farm is a 45 acre botanical sanctuary and permaculture training site located 17 minutes north of Lawrence, KS, and have been providing apprenticeship opportunities since 2000. They are seeking individuals who are looking for hands-on experience in broad-acre permaculture, including focus on no-till polyculture vegetable production, creation of plant guilds, forest gardens, viticulture and cultivation of medicinal herbs. Applicants should have a basic knowledge of permaculture principles...

Source: USDA Blog

Kansas gardening projects and the USDA People’s Garden initiative were featured items during the Rural Rental Housing Association of Kansas (RRHAK) Annual Meeting. Aimee Omohundro from USDA Rural Development, David Coltrain from Kansas State University Research and Extension, Shari Wilson from the Kansas Association of Conservation and Environmental Education, and Terri Bradshaw from Homestead Affordable Housing discussed how to start a garden, rewards of gardening and how to get the community involved. 

Terri Bradshaw, Director of Property Management for Homestead Affordable...