11th Central Missouri Vegetable and Greenhouse Farm Tour on Sept. 1st

Wednesday September 1st, 2010 - Rain or Shine

Meet at the Central Missouri Produce Auction to visit 3 nearby growers of quality fresh produce.

Schedule: (you are welcome to arrive up until noon)

10:00 AM Gather; visit ‘on your own’ the auction

11 until noon Pick up a lunch box compliments of MO Vegetable Growers Association

12:15 PM A few words from the tour sponsors

12:30 Leave to the first farm*

* Tour will conclude about 3:30 (about one hour per farm). Choose from one of two tour routes. See details below.

Some tour features:
• Green bean picker demonstrated (weather permitting)
• Used ornamental greenhouse structure moved to farm for soil grown tomato system with drop down side walls
• New packing/sorting facility shown (GAP compliant?)
• Growing vegetables for your own stores
• 2 million BTU wood fired boiler

Sponsored by:
Morgan County Ext. Center, Missouri Department of Ag, Central Missouri Produce Auction, Morgan County Seeds, University of Missouri Extension (MU Extension)

To get your complimentary lunch………….
A RSVP is needed by Aug. 30th; provide a name and how many will be in your group. To James Quinn Phone 573-634-2824; e-mail QuinnJa@missouri.edu.

Directions:
Located on Highway E, 12 miles south of US 50 or 10 miles north of Versailles. Central Missouri Produce Auction, 37808 Highway E Fortuna MO 65034 Auction Facility - 660-337-6227 (Auction days only)

Directions to the farms will be provided the day of the tour.  Closest is ½ mile away & the furthest just a tad over 10 miles.

Tour A
Irvin Martin (First stop/new grower to this tour)
Irvin has been using a Pixall green bean picker for a couple of years. He successively plants green beans throughout the growing season. Weather permitting the green bean picker will be demonstrated. Bring a bag, as what is picked can’t be stored for the next auction. Rumor has it MVGA is buying the beans!

Paul Shirk (was on the 2008 tour)
Paul inquired early in 2010 about how to make a new packing/grading/sorting facility ‘GAP’ compliant. So James Quinn resourced what looked reasonable on the web and sent him a ‘packet’. Trouble was, it was probably over 200 pages. Paul will show you what he has come up with. GAP is short for ‘good agricultural requirements’ and is a voluntary program. Some large buyers are asking their growers to become GAP certified. There were no fixed rules or designs for a farm facility like this, but a lot of recommendations for how to meet GAP requirements.

Philip Shirk (Third stop/new grower to this tour; yep, Paul’s brother)
Philip got a new toy this winter, a 2 million BTU wood fired boiler that is wood chip fired (we say a 1 million version of this at Harvey Zimmerman’s last year). Philip needed a larger unit to heat 12,000 sq ft of greenhouse ornamentals and 3,000 sq ft of greenhouse tomatoes. Philip also grows 2,200 mums. For field crops he has ‘a little bit of everything’ for their on farm store sales. He produces some field tomatoes for the auction and as well as a pumpkin field about ½ mile away from the farm place, which will shown last. Paul and Philip have 2 other brothers growing produce, with all the sons learning from their father, Eugene. Eugene’s place is right next door, and if we’re lucky he’ll join us too.

Tour B

Ronald and Denise Nolt- Nolt’s Farm Market (First stop/new grower to this tour)
The Nolts have 3 stores which most of their more than 20 acres of vegetables are used to supply. They buy as needed from the auction to round out their needs, as well as sell surpluses. They grow a variety of vegetables, including sweet corn, melons, tomatoes, and a number of others. They also produce fall mums. Their farm is just to the west of the auction with the fields visible from the dock.

James Leid (Second stop/was on the 2008 tour)
James was one of a number of growers who picked up some greenhouse structures from Dix Nursery, which was a very large spring plant supplier until a couple of years ago. He brought the structure back and produced tomatoes in it this year. James is one of a just a few growers to sell strawberries at the auction. He has a variety of field vegetables. This year he tried some herbicides with residual activity against germinating weeds- Sandea in the row middles between black plastic beds & Command around some pumpkins.

Irvin Martin (Third stop (repeat from first stop of Tour A)
Irvin has been using a Pixall green bean picker for a couple of years. He successively plants green beans throughout the growing season. Weather permitting the green bean picker will be demonstrated. Bring a bag, as what is picked can’t be stored for the next auction. Rumor has it MVGA is buying the beans!