Field Day 2019: July 13

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Field Day 2019: July 13

“Field Day 2019: July 13”

Our annual Grain Place Foundation Field Day gives guests an opportunity to tour the farm and grain processing plant in the morning, join us for an afternoon program with keynote speaker Bob Quinn and Liz Carlisle, plus a lunch of organic food on the farm. The tour and keynote are free, and lunch tickets are now available for sale ahead of time. Come for all or part of the day!

Get your Field Day tickets today!

We are pleased to announce that our 2019 Field Day keynote speaker will be Bob Quinn, organic farmer, businessman and author of the new book Grain by Grain: A Quest to Revive Ancient Wheat, Rural Jobs, and Healthy Food.

Bob Quinn is an organic farmer near Big Sandy, Montana, and a leading green businessman. He served on the first National Organic Standards Board, and has been recognized with the Montana Organic Association Lifetime of Service Award, The Organic Trade Association Organic Leadership Award, and Rodale Institute’s Organic Pioneer Award. His enterprises include the ancient grain business Kamut International and Montana’s first wind farm.

When Bob Quinn was growing up on a Montana wheat and cattle ranch in the 1950’s, he’d never heard the term organic. Earning a PhD at UC Davis only reinforced his belief in better farming through chemistry. But through a series of chance encounters and a willingness to experiment, Quinn became a proponent of organics, eventually founding the multimillion dollar heirloom grain company, Kamut International.

In Grain by Grain, Quinn and Liz Carlisle, author of Lentil Underground, show how his story can become the future of American agriculture. Quinn not only created successful, sustainable farming businesses, he demonstrated that healthy food depends on healthy soil – and healthy seeds. With more and more people complaining of gluten sensitivity, scientists have found that while cheap modern wheat increases inflammation in the human body, ancient varieties like the one Quinn produces actually lower it.

When Quinn stopped growing food on the cheap, he discovered a whole new kind of value. By combining age-old practices like cover cropping and crop rotation with modern science, he was able to return health to his land, customers, and even to his hometown through local jobs. Quinn shows us that we don’t have to accept stagnating rural communities, degraded soil, or poor health. By following his example, we can grow a healthy future, grain by grain.

Grain by Grain co-author Liz Carlisle will be with us as well. Liz Carlisle is a Lecturer in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University. Her first book, Lentil Underground, won the Montana Book Award and the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature.

We are excited about the plans already laid, and look forward to announcing more details here soon!

Tour the Grain Place Farm and Grain Place Foods

Our Field Day gives you a chance to take an up-close view of The Grain Place’s long-term experiment in organic farming. This year will finish our second cycle through our 9-year field rotation, and we are eager to show and share what we have been learning about farming for the health of the soil. See the permaculture and forestry additions we’ve been working on this year, too. Whether it’s your introduction to organic farming or a chance to look with a lifetime of experience, we are eager to have you as a part of our morning farm tour.

Grain Place Foods, Inc. (our grain processing facility onsite) invites you to join us on July 13^th for a morning plant tour during this year’s Field Day. Come see how the Grain Place Foods products you love are produced. From what machinery is used for cleaning to what tests we run in our onsite laboratory, the plant tour will increase your confidence in our core belief that from planting to packaging: How Your Food is Produced Does Matter!

Share in an Organic Lunch on the Farm

We are thrilled that Renee Cornett will cater our Field Day lunch this year. Renee and her spouse Jerry Cornett are the owners/managers of Lakehouse Farm and Prairie Plate Restaurant in Waverly, Nebraska, a farm-to-table restaurant located in a rural lakefront setting where guests will enjoy a seasonal menu based on products from the co-located Lakehouse Farm and regional providers. This year’s menu will be created using pork and beef from Grain Place Foods, Inc., as well as locally sourced vegetables. Learn more about Lakehouse Farm in this video.

Field Day brings together farmers, local people interested in organics, industry leaders and much more. During our afternoon program, local artist Jane Marie will share some of her work. When you choose to be a part of Field Day, you become a part of the community gathered on the farm.

See Our Story in Film

Extend the Field Day weekend and stay to see “Dreaming of a Vetter World” on Sunday afternoon at 1pm at the 12th Street Cinema in Aurora. This beautiful film by Bonnie Hawthorne tells the story of David and Don Vetter and the Grain Place Farm, and there’s no better place to see it than on the big screen with a hometown audience. After, share in conversation and a free reception after at the Ivy (sponsored by Pinnacle Bank). This event is sponsored by Conservation Nebraska. Reserve tickets online!

If You Plan To Attend…

Registration begins at 8 a.m.
During the farm tour which will begin at 8:30 a.m., we will be walking over uneven terrain. Let us know if you have mobility issues as we can accommodate a limited number of persons in a Polaris Ranger. Please wear appropriate clothing for the weather-comfortable walking shoes are critical, and a hat, a water bottle, sunscreen and insect repellent are recommended. Much of the tour will in the open without shade. The tour will last approximately 45-60 minutes.

At 10:30 am we will tour the Grain Place Foods. The warehouse is cooled, so we recommend bringing a sweater or light jacket. Though we will be on concrete, comfortable shoes are still important; if you have mobility issues, we recommend a wheelchair for this part of the tour.

We plan to begin serving the lunch at 11:30 a.m. in the machine shed/shop. Announcements and presentations will start at 12:45 p.m. The keynote will start at 2:00

Have a safe journey!

Tickets are still available for Dreaming of Vetter World on Sunday.