By CINDY LADAGE

Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD Ill. — Staged at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the Illinois Specialty Crop, Agritourism and Organic Conference and Trade Show addressed the needs of specialty growers from Jan. 10-12.

It touched on high tunnels, social media and marketing, food safety and even on legal and labor issues. Besides the presentations, the conference also included a trade show that offered information for specialty growers from companies – like Indiana’s Pop Weaver.

The popcorn company was seeking growers to raise organic popcorn. Field Manager Joe Dolaz said, “Pop Weaver is a fourth generation company started in Van Buren. It was started by a pastor trying to raise money for his church, and it just grew from there.”

Rev. Ira Weaver founded the Weaver Popcorn Co. shucking and bagging his own grown popcorn, then delivering it to customers via horse-drawn wagon. Today, Dolaz said it is the last family-owned popcorn company in the world. His office is set in Forest City, Ill., and he said Mason County “raised more acres of popcorn than any other county in the U.S.”

Colleen Weir of Creekstone Kettle Popcorn out of Raymond, Ill., also had samples of popcorn, like its pumpkin spice that was recently featured at the Festival of Trees in Springfield.

Those who like old iron might have been taken with a two-wheel drive tractor at the show that comes with an array of attachments and is a reminder of the David Bradley garden tractors of yesteryear. The company is BCS and these tractors that are produced in Italy were being sold by GDS Enterprises out of Arthur, Ill.

GDS is just one of more than 750 BCS dealers in the United States and Canada. John Plank of GDS said, “We have been selling these BCS tractors probably for 15 to 20 years. These are great for greenhouses and truck patching, et cetera.”

Johnny’s Seed representative Nathan Belcher came to the show from Maine. “We are unique in that we sell to commercial growers and home gardeners,” he said.

Focusing on small growers, he said the company is perfect for CSAs and farmstand groups. It offers organic and non-organic seeds. Besides these, Johnny’s also sells tools.

“We have over 4,500 different products from seeds to tools like seeders and tractors. For a long time there was a gap between commercial and home gardeners, and we bridge the gap. We have competitive prices and we breed our own stuff,” Belcher said. Johnny’s is employee-owned and run by a board of trustees.

The University of Illinois and University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment Cooperative Extension Service were at the conference. Kentucky extension has been working on a price report for farmers’ markets and produce auctions. The website is at www.uky.edu/ccd

Personnel are working with Illinois and a couple other states to combine efforts. Illinois farmers’ market prices are available, as well as Tennessee, West Virginia and Indiana, along with Kentucky.

Several producer groups like the Illinois Stewardship Alliance and Illinois Organic Growers Assoc. were on-site, as well as the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office. Rebecca Huston said the office sponsors a competition called the Cream of the Crop Photo Contest. Winners’ pictures appear in a calendar and other marketing material.

“It helps keep kids active,” Huston said, adding that they work with Ag in the Classroom, FFA, Boy Scouts and libraries to share the word about the contest.

USDA was at the conference with information about the Farm To School Program that encompasses efforts that bring locally or regionally produced foods into school cafeterias; hands-on-learning activities such as school gardening, farm visits and culinary classes; and the integration of food related education into the regular, standards-based classroom curriculum.”

USDA has grants and loans to support farm school activities as well. For more information about this program, visit www.usda.gov/knowyourfarmer

Some of the exhibits were science-based, such as the Midwest Specialty Crop Producers’, which was looking at the use of climate and drought information.

Opportunities for growers to learn and expand were highlighted at this annual conference targeted to those of smaller-scale that fill an important role in farming in Illinois, and beyond.