Specialty Crop Block Grant Recipients for Fiscal Year 2008

  1. $5,000 - Southwest Missouri’s newest producers-only market. Start-up a farmers’ market to offer the community a place to buy locally produced agricultural items, provide educational programs, local services, community events which will focus on nutrition and gardening, promote community identity, and increase the local economy of the city and surrounding areas.
  2. $5,000 - Spring Round-up Community Day. A forum for exchanging questions, ideas, facts, and feedback between all participants in Mid-Missouri’s growing local food system through workshops, demos, speakers, and displays.
  3. $5,000 - 10th Year Anniversary at Webb City Farmers’ Market. Design, print, and distribute a full color-tri-fold brochure and billboards to promote the new addition making it possible for a year-round market. New features include expanded days, winter market, and recipient benefits are accessible with EBT machines.
  4. $5,000 - Tower Grove Farmers’ Market “Eat Local” Campaign. Promote awareness of Missouri-grown produce and educate St. Louis metropolitan area citizens on the importance of supporting local farmers and growers of specialty crops.
  5. $4,470 - Ste. Genevieve’s Wine Trail, the Route du Vin 2009 Marketing Campaign. Promote regional wineries through a six-month advertising campaign in the monthly St. Louis food and wine publication “Sauce Magazine”. The wineries of St. Genevieve, known as the Route du Vin, will introduce their regional wine trail to wine/culinary consumers.
  6. $5,000 - Support for local producers and the next generation of food entrepreneurs. Local farmers’ market becomes part of two University of Missouri initiatives, the MU Extension Healthy Lifestyle Initiative and the Regional Cuisines Old Trails Project. The presence of these two projects, working in conjunction, puts the market in the position to have a greater impact on the food and agriculture sector in the county.
  7. $23,784 - On-line registry to locate and protect pesticide sensitive specialty crops. The MDA will establish a voluntary on-line registry to help producers of pesticide-sensitive crops alert applicators to the crop’s location and to help pesticide applicators reduce damage from off-target pesticide drift and its subsequent liability.
  8. $4,893 - County Health Center Community Garden – R 1 School District. Establish a local community garden and an after school-garden club using University of Missouri Extension curriculum “Eating from the Garden”. Students will learn how to plant, tend, and harvest fresh fruits and vegetables. Extension members will also teach canning, preserving, and bread making.
  9. $5,000 - Locally Grown Organic Potatoes for Maplewood School District. The Missouri Organic Association members will educate current and potential producers about the opportunity to grow potato crops for distribution to the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District. Members will train potato growers in planting, cultivation, harvest, and post-harvest practices.
  10. $4,430 - Growing Missouri’s Vegetable Industry Using Statewide On-Farm Education. The Missouri Vegetable Growers Association combined with The University of Missouri Extension will coordinate educational farm tours during the growing season in each of Missouri’s eight regions.
  11. $5,000 - Establishment of a Specialty Crop Growers Association. Led by the University of Missouri Extension and supported by the Missouri State Fruit Experiment Station this project is designed to educate and train growers and consumers including a marketing and promotion effort for their products throughout a 16 county region. The South Central Specialty Crop Growers Association will complement the Missouri Farmers Market Association with a focus on regional challenges and opportunities.
  12. $12,000 - Influence of Cluster Exposure to Sun on Fruit Composition of Norton Grapes. This project will research the fruit quality of shaded, partially shaded, and fully exposed clusters of Norton located in east-west and north-south oriented rows of grapevines. The experiment will be conducted at a commercial Norton vineyard planted in Hermann, Missouri the year 2001.
  13. $5,000 - Seedless Watermelon Variety Trial at three locations in Missouri. This study will evaluate seedless watermelon performance under Missouri conditions. Data will be collected for yield (fruit number and average weight), quality and sugar concentration.
  14. $5,000 - Symbiotic Relationship-Plants & Mushrooms in Greenhouse Environment. Utilizing greenhouse structures, farmers can use the symbiotic relationship between plants and mushrooms to extend their growing season throughout the year.
  15. $5,000 - Innovation & Marketing of Elderberry Plantations. Educate potential producers about elderberry production and marketing using innovative methods of communication that reach rural communities using low-cost paperless technology.