SDSU Extension is offering Master Gardener training in Rapid City, Aberdeen, Brookings and Sioux Falls.

The SDSU Extension Master Gardener program trains volunteers to provide horticultural information to the residents of South Dakota. The training consists of more than 60 hours of class work provided by SDSU Extension specialists.

Topics include basic botany, insects and diseases, plant propagation, pruning, fertilizing, plant selection and other aspects of growing fruit, vegetables, lawns, and landscape plants.

To earn the designation of SDSU Extension Master Gardener, graduates of the classroom training are required to complete 50 hours of volunteer service as an intern with SDSU Extension Service. They are then presented official badges and are designated certified Master Gardeners.

Volunteer service can vary, depending on individual’s skills and the needs of the local community. Some volunteers answer telephone or online requests for information, host plant clinics or speak to groups. Others assist with demonstration gardens, farmers markets, youth gardens, 4-H activities or write articles for local newspapers. Still others help with research projects, or serve as a volunteer coordinator.

The training schedule is as follows: Aberdeen Regional Extension Center, Tuesdays, May 15th through July 10th; Rapid City West River Agricultural Center, Thursdays, May 31-July 26th; and Sioux Falls Regional Extension Center, Fridays, May 4- July 6th. Classes run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  There will also be training in Brookings on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from May 1 through June 28th.

The cost of regular training, which includes a larger binder and other materials, is $160 per individual (or $210 for two individuals sharing materials). For $500 a person may pay to take the classroom training only without the 50 hours obligated service but will not receive Master Gardener status.

Information and application materials are available online at the South Dakota Master Gardener Web site http://hortmg.sdstate.edu.

Applications with $50 deposits may be submitted to: West River Agricultural  Center, 1905 Plaza Drive, Rapid City, SD  57702; Sioux Falls Regional Extension Center, 2001 E. 8^th St., Sioux Falls, SD 57103; c/o Lisa Ulvestad, Plant Science Dept., SDSU, Box 2207A, Brookings, SD  57007; or Regional Extension Center, 13 – 2^nd Ave. S.E., Aberdeen, SD  57401.

For more information, contact Dr. Rhoda Burrows at 605-394-2236 or rhoda.burrrows@sdstate.edu

Frances Moore Lappe

Frances Moore Lappé is best known for her 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet, which became the bible for environmental activists and put many on the road to vegetarianism. In this book Lappé said that a person can be healthy without eating meat, that Planet Earth and the poor were paying a high price for the raising of domestic animals whose meat was consumed by the relatively rich. Forests were being cut down to graze cattle or to raise grain for animal food; animal waste was polluting waterways; and the poor were being forced to raise single crops for export rather than multiple crops for themselves. The book raised awareness of how the food choices we make every day have effects across the globe. Its revised version is still in print today.

In 2001 Frances Moore Lappé and her daughter Anna Lappé created the Small Planet Fund for the purpose of creating grassroots solutions to issues of hunger, poverty, and environmental destruction. Throughout her writing career Frances Lappé has maintained that world hunger is the result, not of food shortages, but of the way we think about food. She uses the phrase ‘thin democracy’ to describe our way of voting for politicians who, once elected, create inefficient unjust corporate-friendly food systems. That contrasts with ‘living democracy’ in which each of us becomes aware of how and where food is produced and making conscious choices that contribute to the welfare of people and the planet.

On Tuesday, May 22, these ideas will be presented at a Constructing Hope workshop at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel, 2111 North Lacross in Rapid City. The workshop is open to all who wish to gain a better understanding of their relationship with food. It will be from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

For more information contact Shirley@midco.net or Linda Edel at wsdcap@rapidcity.com.

The long-anticipated Main Street Square Farmers Market in Rapid City opened May 12 to a good crowd and enthusiastic shoppers. Megan Karbowski, executive director of the square, and her crew showed up at 6:30 am, vendors started arriving at 7:30, and by 9:00 the market was open for business.

Tom and Mary Bodensteiner are enjoying their first day selling to and chatting with customers at the Main Street Square Farmers Market.

Vendors have two choices: They can reserve a spot in the parking garage for the season, or they can reserve a table or tent in the alley from week to week. Either way they get a lot of traffic. Adjacent to the food vendors are people selling crafts, lotions, wreaths, jewelry, and garden-related items.

The eighteen stalls in the garage have awnings and power, the latter a boon to vendors with electric scales, freezers, or card scanners. The convenience of selling out of a van or a pickup and having the same space every week also appeals.

Dallerie Riesland, Dee Holmberg, and Peggy Coyne show the buffalo, duck eggs, and local wheat they are selling

Since the whole parking garage is available to shoppers on Saturday, parking was not a problem. Even so, MSS offered a carry-out service to shoppers who needed help carrying their purchases to the car. If shoppers wanted to spend more time downtown dining and shopping without their purchases from the market in tow, a Veggie Valet was available to check items until the market closed at 1:00 pm. There were no charges for these services.

The opening-day market had a festive air. Dakota Thyme Deli and Bakery provided breakfast and lunch as they do every day but Sunday, singer/guitarist Andrew Jandt created a tuneful background, Alternative Fuel Coffee Shop offered drinks hot and cold, and the tables and chairs by the grass were occupied by people enjoying a sunny spring morning.

Dee Holmberg, a farmers market veteran, and her two helpers kept busy selling duck eggs, German sausages, Hutterite chickens, and grass-fed buffalo up to closing time and plans to return every Saturday through the season.

Jeanne Mann of Rapid City enjoys the music while her sons shop.

Karbowski expects the market to expand as more produce becomes available and word gets around. “We may block off Sixth Street,” she said, if more room is needed.

The expansion and popularity of farmers markets has prompted the state to execute some oversight. It’s not that problems have surfaced in the state—it’s that new science and technology allow a higher level of safety in home-canned goods such as jams, jellies, and tomatoes and in home-baked breads and desserts. Karbowski and her staff are well aware of the new rules and make sure all vendors are in compliance before they are rented a space. This can give confidence to customers and sets the standard for markets in our area.

Connecticut could have led the way. There was consumer and bipartisan support for HB 5117 in the legislature. But Monsanto, the chemical company that creates GM plants, threatened legal action, just as it did in Vermont. The governor, citing the company’s constitutional right to sue, backed off. So a big powerful corporation got its way yet again by threatening a lawsuit when the public inconveniently got in its way.

But California is waiting in the wings. In early May 971,126 signatures were delivered to county registrars, more than enough to get the proposed labeling requirement on the November 2012 ballot.

Meanwhile, here in South Dakota, we have the opportunity to buy some of our food directly from local farmers and to ask them about GMOs. Some grow them, some don’t, but we do have a choice.

Yet eating animal products today is not quite as popular as it was just a few years ago. The linking of saturated fat from animal products to high blood pressure and heart disease is having an effect. Stories about industrial food production and its accompanying animal abuse turn stomachs. There are frequent recalls of ground beef due to bacterial contamination. There’s pink slime.

For some people the solution is to go vegetarian or to grow their own food. For others it’s to buy local animal products from farmers who treat their animals well. The local food movement is growing rapidly, meat and poultry consumption is dropping, and the industrial food producers are fighting back.

For example, there’s the book “Just Food: How Locavores are Endangering the Future of Food and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly” by Texas author James McWilliams followed by his recent op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled “The Myth of Sustainable Meat.” The author claims that the small family farm with its crop rotation and manure-fertilized gardens is unsustainable. Joel Salatin, whose Polyface Farm demonstrates these practices, comes under attack.

Salatin is famous for organizing farming so nutrients are cycled and cows and chickens are living happy outdoor lives. Salatin responds to the criticism with gusto. You can read his comments here.

Specializing in Boer/cross meat goats. For more information, call or send an e-mail to buttevistafarm@dishmail.net.

Specializing in a U-Pick vegetable garden in Custer. Seasonal. Call for more details.