The USU Extension Office is excited to be hosting their annual Small Farms & Sustainable Homesteads Workshop on Saturday, April 1. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Extension Assistant Professors, Steve Price and Rowe Zwahlen to get all the details.

This event was a first last year and really brought in lots of people from all over the area to learn all the different concepts that were provided last year. “We had about 50 people there, we even had some folks coming over from the west slope of Colorado so I think there’s interest in this and people enjoyed it, and we’re back for another year,” said Price. The cost to attend this event is $40.00 per person which covers your breakfast, lunch, classes and demonstrations.

This year’s classes and demonstrations would be beneficial for individuals that sell items at the local Farmer’s Market during the summer months.  “We’re going to be talking a little bit about budgeting, and how to market some of your businesses, kind of your backyard business. We’ll be talking a little bit about fruit tree production, raising meat rabbits, talking about water quality and safety. A little bit about food safety, and how to make sure your product is something you can sell appropriately,” said Zwahlen This event will take place at the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center on the campus of USU Eastern.

Event Organizers are looking for vendor booths who would like to come share their product and knowledge with the consumers attending the workshop. “We’re really looking for folks that may be have a backyard business or they’re making a product. Maybe if its just kind of, well I make it for myself and a few friends. So we’ve had people come and talk about wool spinning, we’ve had people come talk about making cheese, about doing milk cow co-ops. As you had mentioned, honey, I’ve also talked about maple tapping. So just really a wide variety of projects and kind of things that people are doing locally,” said Price. To attend this event, you can either signup on https://www.eventbrite.com/ or call either USU Extension Office.

For further questions about the Small Farms & Sustainable Homesteads Workshop call the USU Extension office in Carbon County at (435) 636-3233 or in Emery County at (435) 381-3535. You can also contact the Extension Assistant Professors by email at steven.price@usu.edu or rowe.zwhalen@usu.edu