The Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network (ASAN) will hold a Regional Food & Farm Forum in Thomaston on Friday, Sept. 13.

These regional forums are intended to open the floor for rich dialogue, knowledge-sharing and relationship-building across ASAN’s network of members and friends. Each regional forum will feature a morning of roundtable discussions on a wide variety of topics, including: training the next generation of farmers, community gardens, eating for good health, raising fruit and nut trees, seed saving, hydroponics and aquaculture, food preservation and fermentation, culinary and medicinal herbs and more.

Each forum will also include a delicious locally inspired lunch, exhibits from forum sponsors and plenty of time to meet and network with fellow participants. In the afternoon, participants will choose from several hands-on opportunities, including farm tours, demos and crop mobs. A crop mob is a group workday in the spirit of old-fashioned barn-raisings.

In Thomaston, afternoon sessions will include: a crop mob workday at the Rural Heritage Center; a virtual tour of the Deep South Food Alliance and their food hub facility in Linden; and a presentation on integrated pest management (IPM) and tour of the “trap crop” demonstration plots at the Rural Heritage Center.

For more information and to register, go to www.asanonline.org/blog/post/rfff.

Registration is just $5 for ASAN members, and $20 for non-members. You can become a member at the individual supporter level and register for the Forum for just $30. Registration scholarships are available and ASAN may be able to help with travel by providing carpool options. Contact Alice Evans at alice@asanonline.org or 256-743-0742 for more information.