The 2023 annual meeting of the Vermont Vegetable and Berry Growers Association (VVBGA) was held on January 24 at the Capital Plaza in Montpelier. The event was a collaboration between the VVBGA and UVM Extension, and it was attended by 198 people.
The day-long educational program featured nine farmers giving presentations about:
- Developing an on-farm market.
- Stress management.
- New product development and marketing.
- Creating a healthy workplace.
- Starting an urban farm.
- Four decades of farming.
Several UVM Extension faculty and staff also gave presentations including:
- Vegetable and Berry Pest Updates by Ann Hazelrigg.
- Pollinators on Produce Farms by Laura Johnson.
- Monitoring and Managing Irrigation Water by Becky Maden and Joshua Faulkner.
A trade show with 30 exhibitors included several Extension people and programs:
- Chris Callahan and Andy Chamberlin representing agricultural engineering.
- Hans Estrin with Community Accreditation for Produce Safety.
- Dana Rupert, Zac Smith and Betsy Miller of the Extension Agriculture Business Management team.
A follow-up on-line evaluation had 71 respondents, of which 87 percent said that by attending the meeting they learned something they would use in their work. Click here for the slide presentations from the meeting.