Get ready to go wholesale!

Join Cornell Cooperative Extension at Willow Wisp Organic Farm to learn about grading, labeling, packaging, and food safety processes to sell products wholesale.

Owner and operator of Willow Wisp Organic Farm, Greg Swartz & CCE Ag Production Program Manager, Michelle Proscia will explain how to prepare your farm and products to sell wholesale with an emphasis on food safety standards with time for questions. This workshop will also include a wash-and-pack barn tour! 

Following the tour & presentation, stay for networking time with food & drinks provided by Willow Wisp Organic Farm.

More about the speakers:

Greg Swartz has been farming in the Upper Delaware River for 23 years. He has apprenticed on several local farms including Wild Roots Farm, Apple Pond Farm, and Gorynski Ornery Farm. Greg started Willow Wisp farm with Tannis Kowalchuk and leads overall operations on the farm. Greg’s strives to grow high-quality food, improve the farm ecosystem, and employ as many people as possible to show that farming can be and should be the key to economic development in our region. Willow Wisp Farm is a 25-acre farm and NOFA-NY certified Organic, growing vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers.

Michelle Proscia has been an agriculture educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension Sullivan County since 2013. Michelle grew up in Pennsylvania and attended Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, PA where she earned a BS in large animal science. In her role at CCE Sullivan, Michelle delivers educational workshops, and offers training and technical assistance to farmers, producers, and consumers in the areas of agricultural production practices, farm and food safety, and farm management practices.

Michelle is a certified Beef Quality Assurance trainer, Produce Safety Alliance Trainer, Licensed NYS Pesticide Technician, and FAMACHA trainer.

https://sullivancce.org/staff/michelle-proscia

This program is co-hosted by the Farm Arts Collective and supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture award #2022-06508, through the American Rescue Plan. Cornell Cooperative Extension Sullivan County provides equal program and employment opportunities. Contact the office to request accommodations.

Join us in the Willow Wisp Organic Farm kitchen & learn how to make 2 delicious soups with step-by-step guidance from Souperstar Tannis Kowalchuk.

Each participant will learn the basics of soup making and will chop, dice, and cook a chicken soup & a borscht with farm-fresh ingredients that will be provided.

Please bring in 2 quart-sized containers to take the soup you made home to share with your family & friends.

Limited seats are available for this intimate, hands-on cooking demo! Reserve your spot now!

Flower Workshop

The day begins with coffee at the barn followed by a led tour by Willow Wisp flower farmers, Tannis Kowalchuk and Jess Beveridge. The attendees will visit the annual and perennial flower fields and learn best practices in growing cut flowers, our favorite varieties, and tips on post-harvest methods.  Participants should bring their own clippers (provided if unavailable). Each participant will select and cut their own flowers from an acre of over 35 varieties of annuals and perennials. The workshop group will then return to the barn for an arranging session with instructions on flower design choices that consider color, shape, texture, and stem placement to build a dynamic and gorgeous arrangement. Participants take home their flower designs. 

Flower Workshop

The day begins with coffee at the barn followed by a led tour by Willow Wisp flower farmers, Tannis Kowalchuk and Jess Beveridge. The attendees will visit the annual and perennial flower fields and learn best practices in growing cut flowers, our favorite varieties, and tips on post-harvest methods.  Participants should bring their own clippers (provided if unavailable). Each participant will select and cut their own flowers from an acre of over 35 varieties of annuals and perennials. The workshop group will then return to the barn for an arranging session with instructions on flower design choices that consider color, shape, texture, and stem placement to build a dynamic and gorgeous arrangement. Participants take home their flower designs. 

Family Farm Day

Join us on Willow Wisp Organic Farm for our FREE annual Family Farm Day!  Bring the whole family and learn more about organic farming, join a led tour of our greenhouses, vegetable and flower fields. See how Willow Wisp Organic Farm continues the agricultural legacy in a region with a long history of farming. Group tours at 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm. The day will also include Performances, Face Painting by Foxglow Face Painting, Games, Cooking Demos and other fun events for the whole family. Remember to wear those farm boots!

Lenape Horticulture & Ethnobotany

Clan Mother Shelley DePaul presents an expansive workshop on her research and knowledge of Lenape horticulture, conservation landscaping, and medicinal plant practices. Shelley De Paul sits on the Council of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania as Clan Mother, Keeper of Language and Treaty Signer Liaison. Shelley has published Three books: Conversations in the Lenape Language, Ethnobotany of the Lenape People and Other Eastern Tribes Book One: Herbs and Flowers and Book Two: Trees, Nuts, and Berries.  As treaty-signers with the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, Farm Arts Collective and Willow Wisp Organic Farm are pleased to welcome Clan Mother Shelley back to the farm in friendship and solidarity with the tribe’s important work.

Proceeds from this workshop will go to The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania.

Cover Crops with Greg Swartz

Join farmer Greg Swartz of Willow Wisp Organic Farm for a farm tour and intensive workshop surrounding Cover Crops: varieties, benefits, methods of use, and the goals of soil health. If you are a farmer or gardener thinking of cover cropping your land or garden, this workshop is for you and it is FREE!

PLEASE RSVP BELOW so we know who is coming and how to tailor the workshop for best results— let us know your experience/knowledge of cover crops and your interest in coming to the class.

Food and refreshments will be provided.    

“As farmers, we take the long view that while growing food, we should always be improving our soil, increasing the farm’s biodiversity (above ground and below), and contributing to our community. We do this by using cover crops, crop rotation, and creating insect and wildlife habitat. We use no pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers and we are Certified Organic by NOFA-NY Certified Organic, LLC.”  

Greg Swartz leads overall operations on Willow Wisp Organic Farm. He has been farming in the Upper Delaware River Valley since 2000. After seven years as an apprentice on local farms including Wild Roots Farm, Apple Pond Farm, and Gorzynski Ornery Farm, he and Tannis Kowalchuk bought their first farm. In the first couple of years of building the farm, Greg was the Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY). He then returned to full-time farming and hasn’t slept much since. In 2015 Willow Wisp Organic Farm moved to the banks of the Delaware River. This new farm has allowed a tripling in production. Greg’s goals are to grow high-quality food, improve the farm ecosystem, and employ as many people as possible to show that farming can be and should be the key to economic development in our region.

THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELED! SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE!

Entangled Harmonies: Exploring the ecologies around us through biosonification and environmental music-making

In this workshop, interdisciplinary artist and musician Willow Gatewood will guide participants in biosonification --the basics of recording biodata from plants and turning it into music.  Explore how art and technology act as a portal to connecting with the ecosystems in which we entangle. * Participants are asked to bring a laptop or phone (and adapter for a USB if needed) if they have one. Spares are available but limited.  In the fields of Willow Wisp Organic Farm, participants will make field recordings with objects and plants to create instruments and music. Participants will leave with a song and guide for further exploration.  Willow Gatewood is an environmental scientist, interdisciplinary artist, and musician from endless hills and secluded forests of rural Virginia. Grounded in research, their practice includes recycled and bio-based visual art, words, sound, and biosonification (turning processes within living organisms into music and sound). To find out more about their art, visit https://willowgatewood.com or instagram, @willowg_music.