A Successful Farmer is a Learning Farmer

This past weekend the whole Delvin crew went to the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group conference in Chattanooga, TN. The mission of SSAWG is "To empower and inspire farmers, individuals, and communities in the South to create an agricultural system that is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, and humane. Because sustainable solutions depend on the involvement of the entire community, Southern SAWG is committed to including all persons in the South without bias." Pretty good mission statement, I think! 
We always learn a lot at this conference, and this year we were honored to teach a few of the classes. Mom and Dad have taught classes in the past on CSAs, and they taught again this year on the subject. We also gave a talk titled, "Our Family Farm, Three Families, One Farm" in which we talked about our business, how we divide roles on the farm and our growing practices. I taught a class on social media and how it is useful for farmers, specifically for marketing purposes. We plan to expand our fruit production and I also attended a class on fruit production in the hoop house that will help us extend the growing season. This was the 20th anniversary of SSAWG. Mom said when she and Dad first started attending in 1996, the conference had only about 100 people. This weekend there were over 1200 people. That's a big step for sustainable agriculture! 
When I was a teacher I used to say that we are all lifetime learners. That couldn't be more true. There's always a new method to improve our growing practices and we can all learn from one another, which is what makes conferences like SSAWG great! There's always something new to learn and a successful farmer is a learning farmer!
Last year I met Brandon at SSAWG. He likes to joke that it's a dating conference for farmers and he snagged the best looking farmer there. This year he looked around and said, "gosh there are a LOT of people here- it's amazing we met last year at such a big conference." I told him that I like to think it was God placing us both in the same classroom for different reasons other than learning about lettuce!
-Amy