In an effort to keep up with the times, CobraHead has set up a Twitter account. The rest of the CobraHead team has appointed me the designated Twitterer, and I’ve already started posting updates.
Feel free to follow us at http://twitter.com/CobraHead. I will post occasional tweets about gardening, events we’re attending, and the occasional link or story that I think others might be interested in. I promise not to inundate you with lots of random or pointless updates.
The past two weeks have been quite hectic for me and Geoff. We exhibited at Green Festivals two weekends in a row, and they were on opposite coasts. It’s a tiring schedule, to be sure, but we like being busy like that. The Green Festivals are always interesting and a lot of fun. At each festival we end up making new friends, and we often see a lot of old friends, too.
Two weeks ago the Green Festival was in Washington DC. A number of folks from the gardening world were on hand to promote better gardening practices. Some very nice folks from Purple Mountain Organics were there selling books and gear to help with organic growing, Kathy Jentz had a booth with Washington Gardener Magazine, Susan Harris from Garden Rant stopped by (see her picture of Geoff at the booth here ), as did Viveka Neveln from The American Gardener Magazine. My friend Martha Stauss of Green and Sticky, Inc. also came to the festival with her son Forrest, and our friend Joe Lamp’l gave a talk on greener gardening practices. He was kind enough to give us each a “Growing a Greener World” wristband. I was happy to wear it for the rest of the festival, but I have to admit that I’m not much of wristband wearer. The wristband is now serving a far more useful and visible purpose as a travel mug grip band. It makes my stainless steel tea mug easier to grab, and it helps to keep the slippery container from sliding out of my backpack water bottle pouch. Joe seemed to like the idea, and he even posted a picture that I sent him on his blog. Maybe I’ve started a trend!
We were only home two days before we left again for the San Francisco Green Festival. There weren’t as many gardening exhibits this time (with the exception of our friends at Rain Reserve), but there were still a lot of people interested in gardening and food growing. We were very fortunate to meet some really wonderful folks. Across the aisle from us was Anne Thibeau from The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co.. They make no VOC paints using old fashioned methods. Next door was our new very cool friend Jenny. Jenny makes aromatherapy sprays for stress, relaxation and revitalization. I was also lucky enough to be visited by my friend Brad, who I know from back in my drum and bugle corps days. Brad and his girlfriend Jennifer are expecting their first child, and they were glad to learn about the dangers of Bisphenol-A and other potentially toxic compounds in baby bottles and other baby items. They were able to pick up a few safe baby items from a company called ZoLi while visiting the Green Festival.
Geoff and I are now decompressing back in our respective home states. Traveling can be fun, but it’s always nice to come home. Starting in early 2009, we’ll be back on the road again for garden show season. Watch for us at a garden show near you!
You DID start a trend with the all new “bottle band”! Interest is spreading. I should have thought of that a long time ago. Thanks for the suggestion. Hope you guys get some down time for the holidays! Cheers,
That’s Irene Bender, the event coordinator for the Minnesota Garlic Festival , held last Saturday at the Wright County Fairgrounds in Howard Lake, Minnesota. Nice Hat!
The garlic festival is a little show featuring about a dozen small farmers offering over 100 varieties of garlic. Garlic was for sale, but so were other homegrown foods and locally produced goods. Garlic flavored food was in abundance including garlic brats, garlic potatoes, pickled garlic, and more, with garlic flavoring many of the food items for sale. There was even garlic ice cream and garlic chocolate chip cookies for desert.
Workshops included the topics of growing garlic, cooking with garlic, gardening in general, and growing, cooking and preserving other foods. Additionally, music by local bands, singers, and drummers kept the party mood going the entire day. The event was very family oriented with things of interest for everyone.
Lots of local chefs volunteered to help at the Great Scape Cafe, which offered up an excellent menu of mostly garlic flavored dishes that would rate four stars from the most discerning foodie.
I purchased about six different new garlic types to try in my garden this fall. I’m especially looking forward to trying a huge variety called Armenian that the grower said was his favorite.
The event was good for CobraHead. We sold well and met some very nice people who embraced both good food and sustainability as it applies to farming and gardening.
We can highly recommend this little festival as a great way to spend a day.
In our ongoing quest to make the CobraHead Weeder famous, we occasionally try new trade show venues. Since I thought there had to be a connection between farming and gardening, we exhibited at a show in Minnesota this week called Farmfest.
The show organizers had invited us out as a “green” vendor and we were in a tent with others promoting such things as organic farming, sustainable agriculture, energy issues and land conservation.
While I found the show extremely interesting, we didn’t blow the doors off with tool sales. Most of the farmers appeared to have no interest in gardening or sustainable issues of any type and did not take the time to visit the tent. We sold almost as many tools to our “green” colleagues in our exhibit tent as we did to the whole rest of the crowd, which was very large, over 30,000.
While we knew that big farms did not need or use hand tools, we had hoped there would be interest from the home gardening aspect. Before corporate agriculture exploded, almost every farm had a very large home garden. Today, only a small fraction of farmers garden and they grow almost nothing that they can consume themselves. Home gardening is enjoying a renaissance in the US, but we didn’t see that upsurge in “grow your own” in this audience.
The show solidified my perception that big farmers are not gardeners at all, but heavy equipment operators in a chemical factory. The farms around the site in Morgan, Minnesota were a testament to that. I thought I had seen some big farms in my frequent travels though central Illinois, but these were bigger. We learned at the show that many farmers in the area were cultivating over 10,000 acres. The fields were huge monolithic expanses of either corn or soybeans and almost nothing else. The gently rolling terrain of southwestern Minnesota lends itself perfectly to the big equipment of corporate agriculture. I kept thinking, “what an ecological disaster!” Nothing for miles around but two crops of genetically engineered mutants fed and kept weed and pest free on a diet of chemical concoctions.
Our whole tent was mostly ignored by the crowd. While I had good conversations with several farmers, I had a feeling that a lot who walked by us looked at the tent with some disdain. I don’t mean toward us as garden tool vendors, but more of a kind of smugness (or denial) that there is anything they need to know about the sustainable and organic movement in agriculture other than it is bad for their business. I think some know they are trapped in a system controlled by the big chemical, genetic engineering and equipment producers, and that making any changes could be extremely perilous financially, while others just didn’t care. Hey, corn is $7 a bushel with futures over $8, what’s to worry?
So our foray into the land of the big boys did not yield the return on investment we had hoped for. For now, when we try to sell to farmers, it will be mostly to the little CSA and market growers who understand the connectedness of it all and wouldn’t dream of killing their weeds on top of a high-wheeled sprayer with boom wands reaching out 45 feet on either side of the cab.
My wife and I are originally from Wisconsin but now live in La Conner, Skagit County, Washington. We have a growing number of organic farmers in this area and local farm stands and farmers markets offer organic vegetables, heirloom tomatoes, organic dairy, etc. We have an active and growing Slow Food chapter. Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.) Check it out at www.slowfood.com.
Now I’m going outside to try out my new Cobrahead!
John, thanks for the comment. We’re quite familiar with Slow Food. Our son, Geoff, attended the Slow Food Conference in Turin, Italy two years ago. We know that the best food is grown locally, and that there’s no food like slow food.
This weekend, Judy and I were vendors at the Kickapoo Country Fair in La Farge, Wisconsin: Kickapoo Country Fair. The fair is in its fifth year and is hosted on the grounds of Organic Valley’s headquarters. Organic Valley is the farmer’s cooperative that has been at the forefront of the organic movement in the United States.
This part of Wisconsin, The Kickapoo River Valley, is part of a large portion of southwestern Wisconsin knows as the driftless area. It’s called that because the last glaciers that scoured the land in the Midwest into a relatively flat topography did not scrub off hilltops here. For several reasons the huge glacial flow split and went around the area. While most of the land in all directions is flat or rolling, the driftless area is extremely hilly, and filled with picturesque little valleys. The scenery is spectacular. It could remind one of West Virginia or the hills of California, but unlike the California hills, the area gets plenty of rain and they are always green (except winter when they are mostly white).
It’s an excellent area for dairy farming and cattle raising, but for the last two years, rain has been in too much abundance, and the valley was particularly hard hit by flooding. Evidence of the water damage is everywhere as you drive around. One sees fields still with standing water, roads temporarily repaired with gravel where the asphalt had washed out, and scrubby crops or bare fields in places the farmers have either tried to plant a second crop or just left the fields to dry out until next year.
What was very disheartening about this year’s flooding is that it hit a lot of the small farmers, the ones doing the market growing using organic methods, for a second year in a row. The Kickapoo Valley has been a magnet for small farmers. Two years in a row of having the land inundated has put quite a few small growers out of business and made the economics very precarious for others.
This was very evident at the fair, where several of the tents were promoting assistance to small farmers and even FEMA chose to be an exhibitor, with a tent and a large staff of blue shirted representatives explaining the government programs available to those in need of assistance. The mood at the fair was hardly gloom and doom, however. This is Wisconsin where the people love to party. So music, food, and of course, beer, was available to make the fair a very festive event.
We were happy with our presence at the fair and we met many people who were already users of our tools. It was a very easy and relaxed show to do, and the message of the show is very consistent with our philosophy, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be back next year.
Hello all! Just wanted to write a quick post to remind everyone that the Chicago Green Festival is this weekend at Navy Pier. CobraHead will be exhibiting in booth 1621.
The Green Festivals are organized by Co-op America and Global Exchange. They emphasize not just “green” trends, but also social and economic justice and fairly traded goods. The Green Fest will feature live music, renowned speakers, green films, a kid zone, organic food (and beer and wine!), and, of course, a variety of innovative green products (like the CobraHead!).
Bring the whole family, and join us for a fun-filled weekend!
This past Saturday, Geoff and I were fortunate enough to attend the first ever Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, which took place in Austin. I had an incredibly fun time meeting other bloggers and touring gardens. Unfortunately, I neglected to make sure my camera battery was charged, so I was unable to take any pictures. On the other hand, I was free to simply enjoy the gardens.
We started off the day with a tour of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I don’t think I can eloquently put into words what a great place this is. Perhaps repeating their mission statement will give you an idea of why I feel strongly about the center: “The mission of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is to increase the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants and landscapes. It was just beautiful. Please visit if you have the chance.
After lunch, we stopped by The Natural Gardener, an Austin garden center and nursery that promotes organic gardening practices. I have visited The Natural Gardener on a few occasions, but I never fully realized how big the grounds actually are. Unlike the display gardens of the majority of garden centers I’ve visited, The Natural Gardener grows food! They also have chickens, goats, and miniature donkeys.
Later that afternoon, we visited the private garden of James David and Gary Peese. Again, absolutely lovely. Here’s a picture of me and Geoff, as well as Karen from Savannah Garden Diary courtesy of Julie from Human Flower Project.
Over on the right hand side of the page, I added links to many of the bloggers who attended . Many of them have posted pictures from the event, and they are far better pictures than I would have taken, anyway. You can also find several links and pictures here
Hi Anneliese,Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Annie,
Anneliese – It was great to meet & talk with you & Geoff. Don’t feel bad about your camera – mine was working fine, yet I forgot to take photos of things I wanted. It sounds like you had fun anyway. Mr. McGregor’s Daughter,
It was so nice to meet you both, Anneliese. Thank you so much for joining the Fling—and for presenting me with my very own CobraHead tool. My kids are really interested in it (don’t worry, the plastic coating is still on the business end), and I look forward to trying it out. Pam,I hope you get lots of use out of your CobraHead!
Anneliese,
It was a pleasure to meet both of you & Geoff on Saturday.
I’m glad we had a chance to talk. You are a lot of fun!
Getting a Cobrahead Tool is on my list of ‘Things to Do’.
Thanks for the link. Your site is on my blog as well.
Cheers!
Dawn
Thanks Dawn! It was a real pleasure to meet you, too.
Geoff is frequently attending gardening events in Austin. Keep an eye out for him!
Hello,
It was great to meet you and chat over dinner.
Hi Annaliese,
I just wanted you know I featured the short Cobrahead in a blog post.
I wrote about my battle with the horrid Bermuda Grass: http://reddirtramblings.com/?p=312 BTW, I can’t get your comments section to take my url. Says it isn’t valid.~~Dee
Linda, very nice to meet you, too. I liked hearing about your experience of moving from New England to Houston. What a gardening change!
Dee, thanks for sending the link and for featuring your experience with your CobraHead! As for your URL not working, I honestly don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know why our comment field would not accept it! I’ll keep an eye out for anything like that in the future, and see if we can figure it out.
Hey Pacific Northwesterners (and visitors)! Please join us next weekend at the first ever Seattle Green Festival. The event will be held at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center on April 12 & 13. Noel and I will be in booth 326 in the Natural Home and Garden Section.
The Green Festivals are a heck of a lot of fun (not to mention educational), so bring the whole family!
Hi y’all. I wanted to know about the mid length hoe you were talking about at the Spring Fling, is it the middle length on the site?Well, I’m a little bit embarrassed that I haven’t written any blog entries lately, but I think I can get away with using the “I’ve been busy” excuse. It’s true! I have! We all have!
Since early February, CobraHead has had an event nearly every weekend. Garden show season started off with a bang for us at the Wisconsin Public Television Garden Expo in Madison. The next weekend, Geoff and I were off to Virginia Beach for the Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show. The show was definitely more “home” than “flower”, but we still had a good time. One of the fun events at that show was a dog stunt show. Every performing dog had been rescued from a shelter, and they all performed amazing tricks.
Bad Pic, Neat Trick!
Anneliese and Geoff at the Booth
While in the area, we had the opportunity to visit the Norfolk Botanical Garden. The Camellias were in bloom, and they were lovely.
Camellia Flower
Camellia Tree
If you ever find yourself in Virginia Beach or Norfolk, I recommend a visit to the botanical garden.
The very next weekend, Judy and I were in Hartford, Connecticut for the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show. It was our first time exhibiting in Connecticut, and the response was good. The weather was icy and snowy on Friday, but the die hard gardeners would not be kept away.
Yar, Buried Treasure!
Judy and Anneliese in the Booth
Connecticut is also where I made up a drinking game involving knit and crocheted scarves. Take a drink every time you see someone wearing a “Fun Fur” scarf. For you non-knitters, “Fun Fur” is generically known as eyelash yarn. It’s a novelty yarn that has lots of little strands that stick out and look like very brightly colored fur. I noticed that I saw a significant number of these scarves walking by, and I decided to make a game of it. Now, I use the term “drinking game” very loosely — we’re only drinking tea back there in the booth!
While Judy and I were in Connecticut, Noel and Geoff were in LaCrosse, Wisconsin at the Midwest Organic Farming Conference. I hear they had a good time, and I’m sure they’d be happy to tell you all about it.
The next weekend, Noel, Judy and Geoff headed out to the Philadelphia Flower Show while I stayed back to hold down the fort. I wasn’t home too long before I shipped off to Boston for the New England Spring Flower Show. The Philadelphia Show and the New England Show both last nine days, and this year they overlapped. Geoff had to leave early from Philadelphia to meet me out in Boston.
The theme this year at the New England show was “Rhapsody in Green”. Many of the landscape displays demonstrated eco-friendly tips and ideas for people to implement at home.
Melting Earth
I particularly liked this sculpture called “Melting Earth”, by Sean McDougal. It was on display at the Safe Lawns booth.
LG-BAGZ-IT
Here’s our friend Larry from LG-BAGZ-IT demonstrating his residential sized bag. Wait, what’s that little hook peeking out of the side pocket of the mini bag?
While we were out there, Geoff and I had the chance to check out Boston a little bit. For some of the best pizza you’ll have on this continent, check out Pizzeria Regina. We also had a couple of hours to spend at the Museum of Fine Arts. I’m told they have a great impressionist collection. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to get to it. My favorite part (of the parts we got to see) was the musical instruments room. There were a lot of brass, woodwind and stringed instruments that I was just itching to take out of their cases and play. I’m pretty sure the museum staff would have been rather upset if I had tried.
I had the luxury of spending over a week at home after returning from Boston. There was still a lot of snow on the ground. While waiting for it to melt, it snowed again. And again. For anyone not aware, south central Wisconsin has had a record amount of snow this year. It’s also been a particularly cold, long winter, too. So I have to say that even though I usually love snow, I wasn’t at all upset about being sent to Austin to join my brother at the Zilker Garden Festival. I was happily wearing flip flops within a half an hour of my arrival in town.
The Zilker Garden Festival is a really fun, laid back little show that’s held at the Zilker Botanical Garden. There are a lot of plant vendors and art sellers, and (this being Austin) there was an abundance of live music for everyone’s enjoyment. Music styles ranged from marching bagpipes to mariachis to good ol’ Austin-style blues rock.
On Sunday morning, I took the opportunity to walk through the botanical garden and take a few pictures.
Path
Japanese Garden
Prehistoric Garden!
It’s been a busy but enjoyable spring for all of us at CobraHead. I just hope we’ll actually get a little time to work in our gardens!
Well folks, garden show season is officially upon us. Noel, Judy and I spent last weekend at the Alliant Energy Center exhibiting for the Wisconsin Public Television Garden Expo. As always, we had a great time.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave (or maybe just a different state), you should know that this year, Wisconsin has had one of the coldest, snowiest winters on record. Last weekend was particularly brutal. Temperatures were below zero (that’s minus 18 or more, to you metric types), and wind chills were up to 40 below. Snow was blowing, and the roads were dangerously icy. But did that stop the die-hard Wisconsin crowd from coming to the garden show? Not a chance. The number of people there on Sunday was certainly on the slim side, but not nearly as slim as I’d expected. Like I said, they’re die hards. I think most people wanted to attend the show just to see and buy things that reminded them of any other season but winter.
