October 7, 2023: Water Resilience Learning Circle in Central Point, OR
American Farmland Trust’s (AFT) Veteran Women for the Land in the PNW program will host a Water Resilience Learning Circle in Central Point, OR, with OSU Extension and the Dry Farming Institute. For more information visit https://farmland.org/project/pnw_vwfl or contact Chantel Welch (AFT’s PNW Project Manager) at cwelch@farmland.org or 360-726-2676.
September 16, 2023 from 11-3pm: The Tomato Festival (3rd Annual!) at Wellspent Market (935 NE Couch St, Portland, OR 97232)
The Culinary Breeding Network, Oregon State University (Dry Farming Project & Vegetable Breeding Program), the Dry Farming Institute (DFI). There will be a diverse array of tomatoes (many dry-farmed!) to try, learn about and buy. DFI will have an assortment of dry-farmed tomatoes and melons for sale and educational materials available. Come see us!
September 6, 2023 from 3-6pm: Dry Farming Field Day at North Willamette Research and Extension Center (NWREC), Wilsonville, OR
Join us outside for an afternoon focused on dry farmed vegetables. There will be field demonstrations of crops that thrive without the aid of irrigation, such as tomatoes, melons, and winter squash. Learn from farmers and researchers as they discuss dry farming vegetables in the Willamette Valley. There will be field tours of the different crops grown in the new agrivoltaic plot (solar panels) as well as out in the control plots. NRCS and SWCD conservationists will be present to share information about programs that support farmers. This event is for farmers of all small-scale vegetable farmers, but is specifically designed to benefit farmers with at least three years of experience.
Details and RSVP Here: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/smallfarms/metro/events/climate-adaptive-strategies-small-farms-dry-farmed-field-day
August 31,2023 from 5:30pm-7:30pm: Dry Farming Field Day at OSU Vegetable Research Farm, Corvallis, OR
This field day will feature OSU experiments on dry farm culinary corn breeding, management of blossom-end rot in dry farmed tomatoes, and dry farmed melon and dry bean variety trials. There will be dry farmed melon and tomato tasting at this event!
Details and RSVP Here: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/smallfarms/events/vegetable-research-farm-dry-farm-field-day
August 23, 2023 from 4-6 pm: Dry Farming Field Day at the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture, Corvallis, OR
This year their demo includes a variety trial of diverse crops that are traditionally dry farmed in northern Africa and the Middle East, including sorghum, sesame, millet, cowpea, melon and African rice. Furthermore, they will be demonstrating different tillage and interplanting practices in a dry farmed context. Other featured dry farmed crops will include winter squash, potatoes, tomatoes, melons, and cucumbers – there will be plenty of tasty dry farmed tomatoes and melons to try as well!
Details and RSVP Here: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/smallfarms/events/dry-farming-field-day-oak-creek
February 8, 2022 from 9 -12pm: Dry Farming Collaborative Winter Convening (Hosted by OSU Dry Farming Project)
September 11, 2022 from 12 – 3pm: Tomato Fest (hosted by Culinary Breeding Network and Wellspent Market) in Portland. DFI tabled here to do outreach and education on dry farming and pomodoro d’inverno, which are tomatoes which are traditionally dry farmed in Italy, stored and eaten in the winter months. DFI has dry farmed them in Oregon for the past couple of years, harvested in September, stored them through the winter months, and offered them at various outreach events.
April 2, 2022 from 11am–3pm: Agrarian Sharing Network (ASN) Propagation Fair Outdoors at Emerald Park (1400 Lake Ave., Eugene, OR): ASN is a decentralized, collaborative network focused on distributing plant diversity to friends and neighbors and creating a shareable reproducible model for others to implement. Don’t miss their last propagation fair of the year! DFI sponsored the drought tolerant rootstock for this event.
May 7, 2022: Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group – Annual Plant Sale. DFI tabled at this event and have starts and/or seeds of top-performing varieties (tomato, squash, melon, bean, corn) from dry farm trials in Western Oregon.
August 26, 2021 – OSU Dry Farming Project Field Day – Corvallis, OR
“Why Buy Dry?” – Washington Water Trust informational and tasting table at the Wallingford Farmers Market with in Seattle, WA on July 21st and 28th 2021.
6th Annual Dry Farming Collaborative Winter Meeting – February 26, 2021. A virtual event for farmers and gardeners organized by the Oregon State University Dry Farming Project, with invited speakers sponsored by the Dry Farming Institute
Adaptive Ag Water Symposium – November 6th 2020. A virtual event with three presentations. As Oregon and other western states deal with drier growing seasons and higher wildfire risks, it is critical to increase our knowledge of how to grow more food with less water, design for enhanced water retention and infiltration, understand the future of water law in Oregon, as well as how to protect farms and crops using green fire breaks.