The Wisconsin Garden Expo is back on this year, February 11–13 — we’ll be there and so can you! Every year this event draws thousands from the southern Wisconsin area to see presentations, demonstrations, and vendors all focused on gardening. We’ll be back in person this year, but you can see our last year’s presentations (on potatoes, Foodmageddon, and beekeeping) here on our YouTube channel as well as see our featured garden tour.
Volunteer with Us (and get free admission!)
Every year we’re looking for volunteers to help staff our booth. Training is short (we ask you to read through the main pages of our website to be familiar with what we’re doing) and shifts can be as short or long as you’re willing to stay (typically we ask for a couple of hours). And then you have a free pass to visit the expo the entire weekend. These are first-come, first-served positions. Email us at info@lowtechinstitute.org to get on the list. You’ll be sent a link to our schedule spreadsheet.
COVID Considerations: We will be fully masked and vacc’ed. We will also be placing a rope and/or table between ourselves and the passersby to keep a 6-ft distance. We really don’t like doing this, because the interactions at the expo are really fun — a wide diversity of people and interests come by the booth. But in these times, prudence has to take precedence.
Our Presentations
Scott will be giving five presentations (three topics, two of them are repeats). You can catch them on the following schedule:
Friday 11
February2022
Potatoes Will Save HumanityPotatoes are easy to grow, store and prepare. They grow in poor soils, but provide complete nutrition. After covering the biology and history of this plant, we will share what we learned in our study with Wisconsin growers about the best ways to grow this ideal staple for a future with more local food. (expo page)
12:30-1:30pMendota 6–7
Foodmageddon: Lessons Learned from Growing All Our Own FoodAs COVID-19 began, we challenged ourselves to feed ourselves for a year from what we could grow or gather from our neighborhood. Our goal was to discover the strengths and weaknesses in our local food web. Learn from our mistakes and successes when thinking about your own food garden. (expo page)
2:45-3:45pMendota 8
Saturday 12
February2022
Vermicompost: Learn to Keep a Small Worm Farm to Make CompostWorms turn kitchen scraps into the best compost: worm castings. In this demonstration, you’ll learn about the different types of worm farms, how to keep the worms, and how to solve common problems. (expo page)
11:30a-12:15pDemo Stage A
Potatoes Will Save HumanityPotatoes are easy to grow, store and prepare. They grow in poor soils, but provide complete nutrition. After covering the biology and history of this plant, we will share what we learned in our study with Wisconsin growers about the best ways to grow this ideal staple for a future with more local food. (expo page)
3:30-4:30pMendota 8
Sunday 13
February2022
Foodmageddon: Lessons Learned from Growing All Our Own FoodAs COVID-19 began, we challenged ourselves to feed ourselves for a year from what we could grow or gather from our neighborhood. Our goal was to discover the strengths and weaknesses in our local food web. Learn from our mistakes and successes when thinking about your own food garden. (expo page)
5 thoughts on “Volunteer with Us and Visit the WI Garden Expo”
Hi Scott, Mike from Rhinelander here. Unfortunately I can’t make the expo this year due to a conflict (teaching a permaculture class up here) otherwise I’d volunteer. Good luck at the expo and hopefully we’ll catch up next winter.
Hi Scott, Mike from Rhinelander here. Unfortunately I can’t make the expo this year due to a conflict (teaching a permaculture class up here) otherwise I’d volunteer. Good luck at the expo and hopefully we’ll catch up next winter.
Sad to miss you! Hope to see you another time this year. Good luck with your class!
I’d be happy to fill a slot. What’s left unfilled?
I missed your „Potatoes will save humanity“ program. Are there notes online? Thanks
I’ll post the slides on the blog and will make the talk into a podcast soon. Thanks for checking!