Let's shed light on the pressing challenges faced by rural, remote, and frontier America. Farmers generally don’t acknowledge the impacts of stress and well-being to the detriment of their physical health and community wellbeing. Through engaging discussions and expert insights, we will explore the unique hurdles rural communities and agricultural producers are facing. Communities across the country are experiencing new challenges, farmers, producers and agricultural workers are on the front line in finding a new path forward during these unprecedented times.

Flowers aren’t just nice to look at—they can be strong drivers of traffic and sales. Bret shares how his farm uses greenhouse crops, field-grown flowers, and fall mums to bring customers in, extend the season, and add value to the overall farm experience. This session focuses on what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what he’d do differently if he were starting today.

Eric Franzenburg from Pheasant Run Farm will give a virtual tour of the diversified flower operation and describe how the cut flower operation has evolved over the 17 years of existence.

Allison, of She Blooms Flower Farm, shares her decades long dream of owning a flower farm. Hear her encouraging journey of taking the leap, tips on setting yourself up for success, knowing your worth and overcoming obstacles.

Join Erin and Farmer Fred of Howell’s as they share four decades of flower-growing experience paired with modern marketing insight. Learn which blooms dry best, simple techniques for preserving color and quality, and how to create dried flower products that feel fresh, beautiful, and relevant for today’s customer. A perfect blend of tradition, trend, and practical takeaways.

High tunnels fruit production is one approach to growing fruit to provide shelter and season extension, offering a market advantage for certain crops. This session will cover the science, considerations, and research that support production planning.

Supporting managed and wild pollinators can help boost production for many berry crops. But what does it take to keep them buzzing at healthy population levels? This talk will cover best practices for building and protecting populations on-site.

In this session Eric will go over the trials and turmoil’s of fruit thinning. Eric will discuss timing and share information on different products that can be used. He will also cover the best procedures and why you should do fruit thinning.

This session will cover information garnered over the last several years regarding both cultivar and rootstock performance in Iowa and their growing considerations for local growers.

Neopestalotiopsis (Neop), a newly emerging disease in small fruits, is causing significant concern for growers in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern regions of the United States. This fungal pathogen has been detected in strawberries and blueberries, leading to leaf spots, stem cankers, and fruit rot. This session will review the status of Neop in reference to Iowa, how to identify symptoms on your plants, and management options that are available. Research of the biology, epidemiology, and resistance mechanisms is ongoing at Iowa State and other institutions to develop integrated strategies.

Choosing pumpkin varieties used to be a simple process but now there are literally hundreds of different varieties of all shapes, sizes and colors. This session will dive into 80 varieties trialed on farm in the St. Louis Metro East from pint-sized gourds to jumbo Jack O’Lanterns!

Cover crops and no till production are gaining use and popularity in crop productions systems. Learn practical approaches to incorporating both of theses practices in to vegetable crop systems on your farm.

Customers don’t just buy vegetables—they buy an experience and a sense of value. In this session, Bret walks through the crops grown on his family farm, the growing practices behind them, and how production decisions are shaped by customer expectations, experience, and perceived value. A candid look at aligning what you grow with how customers shop, buy, and come back

Dive into the history and practices of growing root vegetable crops in Iowa. Learn about the humble beginnings of growing root vegetables at scale, and how it led to our business today. We will discuss our business today, including growing practices, the soil, and the importance of the local movement.

This session will discuss how to choose sweet corn varieties to fit your market and practices. The best of the old, the new, and the varieties in development.

Farmers of all types face unique workplace challenges. Unlike other occupations, family expectations, both spoken and unspoken, frequently impact decision making. Maintaining one’s emotional well-being through uncertainty, periods of chronic stress, and strained family and work relationships can be overwhelming. Communication is often avoided and contributes to ongoing tension. In this session we will outline the strategy and benefits of courageously leading difficult conversations instead of avoiding them especially when it matters.

In this session, we will explore the key questions farmers and home-based entrepreneurs must consider before launching a small food processing facility, review current Iowa Cottage Food Law and HFPE requirements, examine which products qualify under each category, and highlight resources that support effective decision-making—including insights from someone who has already walked this path.

Learn how tapping into the network of Iowa food hubs could open up new market opportunities, streamline logistics and make scaling your farm’s sales more manageable. We’ll cover the infrastructure that makes it work, the potential market impact and practical ways farmers can plug into a hub network. Hear from hub leaders on how collaboration can reduce duplication, expand reach and create shared value for farms of all sizes.

Can meaningful farm income be earned on less than one acre of land? In this 45-minute session, Tom O’Brien of Gardens on Glen, LLC shares practical strategies used by urban and land-limited specialty producers to generate income while controlling costs and reducing risk. Topics include high-value crops, eggs, honey, mushrooms, plant sales, value-added products, and education-based income, along with direct-to-consumer sales models such as pre-sales and subscriptions. The session also highlights cost-saving measures, including business structuring, record-keeping, and documentation practices that support tax efficiency and long-term sustainability. Designed for Iowa specialty producers operating on very limited acreage.

Was your farm the rainiest place in the state last year? Dan Fillius and Dr. Justin Glisan look back at the weather last year, good and bad, and how it impacted specialty crops across the state. Dan and Justin host "What in the Weather?," a weekly podcast during the growing season to help growers manage crops better. This session's audio will be recorded to become one of the monthly podcast episodes they release in the winter.

Soil and potting media may appear similar, but they require very different management approaches. This session will explore key differences in pH and plant nutrition for container-grown plants in potting media, and explain how fertilization strategies differ from those used for plants grown in soil.