High Tunnel Build and Learn Weekend
Join us as a volunteer and learn to build a high tunnel hoop house! You'll learn, help, eat, and make great new friends with like-minded farmer peers.
Registration
Registration is helpful so that USDA staff can be aware of what questions you might want answered. Go Farm Connect staff may take photos and videos at this event to promote programs and future events. Your RSVP gives your permission to be photographed. Please let a Connector know at the event if you want to be kept out of photos.
Come help construct a USDA-funded EQIP high tunnel July 20th and 21st! Led by Go Farm Connect partners and Golden Sands RC+D, participants will assemble the high tunnel "skeleton" and attach the plastic covering. There will be instructional sessions on the full high tunnel (also known as a "hoop house") build process, from working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to obtain high tunnel cost share funding to growing produce successfully in the high tunnel.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided to attendees! Breakfast will be served at 7am, before work begins at 8am. Breakfast, lunch, and refreshments will be provided by Golden Sands RC+D. Dinner will be traditional Hmong food served at 5:30pm, provided by the farmer Jer Thao and his family.
The farmer hosts for this event are Go Farm Connectors Nicholas Leete and KO Thao, of Rooted WI; Yimmuaj Yang, of Groundswell Conservancy; Chiang Rai Lor, of FairShare CSA Coalition; and Nou Thao, of Marbleseed. They are trained peer mentors, to help fellow farmers navigate the federal farm assistance system and find useful programs for a variety of growers at differing scales. Space is limited! For more information, call KO at 608-338-6982 (speaks both English and HMoob. Hais Lus Hmoob).
Also present at the high tunnel build will be Kaitlin Schott, USDA's NRCS Urban Ag Specialist for Wisconsin, and other USDA staff from the Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service who will explain how to get started with federal farm programs, including those that provide cost-share funding for high tunnels, irrigation, raised beds, solar power, disaster assistance, facilities loans, and technical expertise.
Paul Huber, of Rooted WI, will lead the construction and share information as the process unfolds.
Who Should Attend
All interested parties are invited to attend and learn, including beginning and prospective farmers, landowners, family, friends, and agricultural and cultural support professionals. No prior experience with federal farm agencies is required. Land ownership is not a requirement to participate in assistance programs. This information will pertain to all federal programs offered in county offices across Wisconsin.
Instruction will be given in Hmong and in English, with Spanish or other language upon request on the registration form.
What To Expect
Dress for the weather and a long day outside. No prior experience is necessary - and we'll have all the tools you need. If the weather isn't safe, the rain date for this event will be the following weekend, July 27-28.