WV AgrAbility took part in the second annual Farm & Food Conference on November 5th in Huntington. This conference was a collaboration between West Virginia University's Small Farm Center, The Ohio State University, and University of Kentucky. The conference focus was on local food production and marketing, and was a two day event. The first day offered day-long workshops on high tunnels, poultry, and 4H/FFA entrepreneurship. These workshops gave an in-depth look at a hands-on approach to these topics.
One hour workshops were held on the second day. Farm grants, financial and supportive services for farmers, farmers markets, food safety, tax tips, poultry and broilers, record keeping, and culinary tourism were just some of the classes offered. AgrAbility was honored to have a featured workshop and share with farmers the services AgrAbility can provide.
The Small Farm Center's feature, providing locally produced food for lunch and all breaks, was also a highlight. Food served came from farms across West Virginia and Ohio. The main course of Saturday's lunch was chicken butchered by conference attendees who took part in the poultry workshop the previous day. Food was prepared by Chef Larry Perry and his students from the Mountwest Community & Technical College Culinary program.
Don't miss the Small Farm Center's annual West Virginia Small Farm Conference, March 1-3, 2012. It will be held at the Waterfront Conference Center in Morgantown. Visit the Small Farm Center's website, smallfarmcenter.ext.wvu.edu, for more information.
Over the course of the past year, AgrAbility staff has worked to create a new section for the Caring for the Caregiver guide. This section has two goals. The first goal is to introduce social services and entitlement programs that support people with disabilities from the perspective of someone who has never needed these services before. The second goal is to encourage readers to discuss and make decisions regarding end-of-life issues, such as advanced medical directives and creating a will. Although these topics make up one section, each topic is formatted to be a stand-alone fact sheet. For a full listing of the topics and to download a copy for free, visit agrability.cedwvu.org.
The purpose of the caregiver guide is to provide information on what caregivers can do to take care of themselves while caring for others, the stresses of care giving, and balancing farm life with existing illness and injury. This guide has evolved from being a collection of resources to incorporating AgrAbility's original work.
Submitted by Mary Slabinski