With so many residents looking to have a more sustainable lifestyle and the growing crowds at the local Farmer’s Market, the USU Extension offices in Carbon and Emery counties will present a Small Farm and Sustainable Homesteads Expo at the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center on the campus of USU Eastern starting on Friday April 8 at 6 p.m..
The expo will cover topics such as how to create a low cost hoop-house, rainwater harvesting, bee keeping and food safety, which could come in handy if you’re considering getting involved with the local Farmer’s Market, as Steve Price with the USU Extension in Price explains.
“Yes, kind of for that Farmer’s Market, cottage licensing sort of scale, food production. There are of course safety regulations, kind of do’s and don’ts and ways that you have to approach how you are producing basically, unless you are selling a whole fruit or vegetable, that’s not been cut you probably are under some sort of food safety regulation. So Dr. Karin Allen will give us an introduction and give us some ideas, like, ‘I want to start up a home business doing some sort of food production, maybe that’s canning, maybe that’s baking, so what regulations do we need to look out for and where do we go for more information?'”
After the classes on Saturday during the lunch break there will be different demos that will be given on a variety of topics. In talking with Rowe Zwahlen from the Emery county extension office, some of the topics were chosen from residents calling in and asking questions about certain topics.
“We will have people talking about locally sourced meat production, honey, making your own soaps and lotions, natural fibers, alpaca farming, maple tapping, milk, cheese, lots of great things and really interesting topics that I think people will have a lot of fun checking out.
Zwahlen went on to explain that the deadline to sign-up is fast approaching.
“The deadline is Friday April 1. I wish that we could keep it open forever, but we need to get some numbers for lunch to get it all ordered.”
The event is set to begin on Friday April 8 from 6-8:30 p.m. and will continue Saturday April 9 from 9 a.m. until about 1:30 p.m..
All of the information is available online and you can also register by clicking HERE.
The entire interview can be listened to in the player below.