As Canada’s Premier Horticultural Event, the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention (OFVC) provides an excellent learning and networking opportunity for both new and established specialty crop growers. The convention will be held February 21 and 22 at the Niagara Falls Convention Centre in Niagara Falls, Ontario. It provides numerous concurrent educational programs on a wide range of crop-specific and general topics as well as a large trade show of agricultural service and product suppliers (e.g., financial resources, equipment, supplies, pest control products, fertilizers etc.). There is also a Farmers and Friends networking event at 5:00 pm on February 21.
Registration Details (includes parking, trade show access and drink tickets for Farmers and Friends Event – lunch not included):
Full 2-day registration: $125 per person (until Feb 14)
1-day registration: $85 per person (until Feb 14)
Hotel – Embassy Suites: $125 per night + taxes and fees – includes breakfast – ROOMS AT THIS RATE ARE LIMITED, BOOK NOW (Use the link from www.ofvc.ca for the convention rate)
The following sessions may be of interest to specialty crop growers (click on the heading to view the full program):
Farming Basics for New Growers: Part 1 – Getting Started (Morning)
Tree Nuts (Afternoon) (see below for full description)
Agritourism: Farm Fresh Ontario (Morning and Afternoon)
What’s the Deal with Sustainability – Talk 4: Assessing Program $$ for Hort Growers (Morning)
Farming Basics for New Growers: Part 2 – Crop Overviews and Grower Experiences (Morning)
Agritourism: Farm Fresh Ontario (Morning and Afternoon)
Garlic (Afternoon)
Cost of Production (Afternoon)
Tree Nut Session
The Tree Nut session on Day 1 may be of broader interest to other specialty crop growers with similar challenges. Here is a description of the full program:
2:00 pm The Chestnut Industry in Eastern US: A Generational Perspective – Amy Miller, Route 9 Cooperative USA. Chestnuts are a small but rapidly growing agricultural industry in the eastern United States. Three generations of the Miller family have witnessed their orchards transition from a weekend hobby to family-sustaining enterprise. The story of the development of the chestnut industry in Ohio is interwoven with collaboration and friendships with researchers and other chestnut growers all over the eastern US. Chestnuts foster community, and collaboration is the key to continued success.
2:30 pm Producing Walnut, Butternut and Birch Tree Syrup – Todd Leuty, retired OMAFRA specialist. Similar to traditional maple syrup, maturing trees of walnut, butternut and birch can also be tapped in late winter to harvest sweet sap. The fresh sap is cooked and reduced using modern maple processing equipment to create a finished syrup having unique qualities. Recent research has focused on developing sustainable tapping practices to maintain tree health, increasing crop yield of walnut sap sugar and, refining cooking and processing techniques which can be specific to each tree species.
3:00 pm The Cooperative Model for Tree Crops: Our Experience with Chestnuts – Amy Miller, Route 9 Cooperative USA. The cooperative model is an ideal business structure for tree crop/specialty crop producers. It allows small growers to take advantage of the economy of scale of a large enterprise, allows growers and employees to focus and specialize within the company, and circumvents the “race to the bottom” competition that growers can experience in localized areas. We present our experiences with forming a cooperative for chestnuts, which can translate to other crops and multi-crop enterprises.
3:30 pm Food Safety Considerations for Tree Nuts – Colleen Haskins, OMAFRA. An overview of food safety on the farm, as well food safety considerations for tree nut production and harvest. The presentation will identify common areas of food safety risk, and associated mitigation strategies. Part of the presentation will also provide available resources farmers can access and utilize to assist with implementation of food safety best practices at their farm.
Poster Session
In addition to the oral sessions, there will also be a poster session highlighting research results which will also include specialty crop content including hemp/hops, peanuts, ginseng, and hazelnuts/chestnuts. For a listing and description of posters submitted to date (more will be added before the convention) click here.
