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SATURDAY & SUNDAY JANUARY 12-13 Ron Ramsey Regional Agricultural Center 140 Spurgeon Lane, Blountville, TN Directions from TRI Airport: Head north on Hwy 75, Just 1.9 Miles Past NE State College. Turn Left onto Spurgeon and the building is on the Right. We will have plenty of signs to guide you from the airport area. For more info or directions visit us online at:
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PAGE 3 TIMES-NEWS JOHNSON CITY PRESS FARM EXPO 2019 • JANUARY 6, 2019
Jason Knight, a Master Bladesmith Those planning to attend the upcoming Farm Expo at the Ron Ramsey Agricultural Center on the weekend of January 12 and 13, will have the opportunity to chat with a local resident who happens to be a one of a very small, select group. And those not planning to attend, maybe you should reconsider. Jason Knight, a Master Bladesmith, reality television personality and popular corporate trainer, will spend Saturday afternoon from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. creating metal pieces and chatting with attendees. While metal forging may be an occupation that does not leap to the forefront of people’s lists for occupations, Knight has taken this special craft and become one of the few in the world that can claim the title. “Usually there’s about 100 of us living at the time. There have been more than 100 Master Bladesmiths in the world, but normally there’s 100 at one time,” Knight said recently. “First you have to be an apprentice, and you have to study for three years and you have to test to become a journeyman. Then you’re a journeyman for however long that takes. It could take two years or 20 years. Then you must pass certain qualifications to go for your Masters and you have a panel of your peers judge your work that you submit.”
Knight is a member of the American Bladesmith Society, which was founded in 1977. According to their website, the objectives of the ABS are “to inform and educate knife makers and the public about the art, science, technology, history and culture relating to forged edged tools, weapons and artifacts and the proper care and use of these objects.”
ing sessions. So I could have people in from, it could be an oil company, or any type of company. They’ll send their employees to come and make a knife with me and we talk a lot about “Why?” Not all of the “What?” and “How?” stuff, but “Why?” you do things.”
“Forging” is defined as “a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized forces, using a hammer or a die.” One of the world’s oldest known metal-working techniques, forging traditionally involves a smith using a hammer and an anvil. One of Knight’s other claims to fame is his involvement with the reality show, “Forged in Fire.” “I was the first person to compete on (the show) altogether in the pilot, which no one that I know of has seen,” Knight said. “Then I went on to be the judge for several seasons.” While he has made his name in the field he dreamed about long ago, Knight also offers corporate training for groups to encourage deeper thinking behind one’s actions. “One thing I do now that I didn’t before is corporate train-
PAGE 4 TIMES-NEWS JOHNSON CITY PRESS FARM EXPO 2019 • JANUARY 6, 2019
Knight will be a featured guest at the Farm Expo at the Ron Ramsey Agricultural Center on Saturday, Jan. 12 from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.
Chef Anne Anne Gorman has always been drawn to the “If we are not teaching kids what these recipes culinary world, but farm to table was always are and how to cook them, are we preparing her passion. them for the world? They aren’t going to know the difference between a tomato and a potaGorman graduated from the prestigious John- to,” continued Chef Anne. son and Whales University Culinary Arts Program. After which she worked as the head bak- Gorman is now preparing herself to cook for er and chef at several restaurants in the US the annual Appalachian Farm Expo at the Ron before eventually settling in the Tri-Cities. Ramsey Regional Agricultural Center, where she will cook a variety of dishes on Jan. 12 and The Tri-Cities led her to get her own farm and 13. The event, which features a variety of local start teaching cooking classes at the Co-Op in food vendors, farmers and family fun activities, Greeneville. Recently she moved to Johnson is set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Jan. 12 and 2 City, where she tells everyone she misses her p.m. to 6 p.m. on Jan. 13. chickens daily. Chef Anne will prepare pizza, chili, fried chick“This is a chance to learn some fresh new en, meatloaf and desserts like buttermilk ice takes on farm and family classics. All while us- cream and apple pie. She said all of the ining fresh ingredients,” said Gorman. “We live in gredients are local and can be cooked from an area that gives us so much for farming, to things straight from the garden. not take advantage of that would be a crime.
PAGE 5 TIMES-NEWS JOHNSON CITY PRESS FARM EXPO 2019 • JANUARY 6, 2019
PAGE 6 TIMES-NEWS JOHNSON CITY PRESS FARM EXPO 2019 • JANUARY 6, 2019
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The Ron Ramsey Agriculture Center The Ron Ramsey Agriculture Center, located at 140 Spurgeon Lane just off Highway 75 near Tri-Cities Airport, opened in 2017. Farm Expo 2019, sponsored by the Kingsort Times News and Johnson City Press, is the first public-use event scheduled at the facility and will include vendor spaces in its just-completed 30,000-square-foot arena. The Ag Center was created after members of the Sullivan County Tennessee Cattlemen’s Association attended an event at an established Tennessee agricultural center, according to the center’s website. Afterward they realized Sullivan County and its neighbors could benefit from having a similar center here. Ramsey, who spent 24 years in the Tennessee General Assembly - including 10 as lieutenant governor - is a life-
long farmer and is credited with moving the Cattlemen’s Assocation members’ vision forward. By the time Ramsey contributed $50,000 toward the center at its grand opening, the state had invested $3.5 million. Although the facility’s primary use is providing space for local agricultural programs, it is also marketed as a convention center and event venue available to the public.
I want to stress that I want this to be sustainable and not something we have to keep putting money into. In order for that to happen, we have to rent this facility and make sure it’s used, not just a few days a month, but every day per month that we can. It will be available for rent with a commercial kitchen, audio-visual equipment that will rival anything around including MeadowView. This is a facility that anyone can use for a business meeting, a wedding reception, class reunions, family reunions. We want this facility to be used.”
And it’s not just for Sullivan County. “This is a regional facility for everybody from Greene County to Johnson County, Hawkins County — the whole area can use this,” Ramsey said at the ribbon-cutting. “It’s something that has been lacking, and I talked to the governor about this and he helped us secure the funding.
A few of the programs that use the facility are the Master Beef program being taught there. Farm to fork events have been held. The Sullivan County Cattlemen’s Association
meets at the facility, and 4-H groups use the commercial kitchen for home demonstrations. The property has 10 acres, a convention area is about 10,000 square feet and the arena at the rear of the facility is about 30,000 square feet (which is to include bleachers to seat 450 spectators and can be transformed to a temporaray dirt floor for certain shows). The arena space also includes a concession stand and restrooms. The University of Tennessee and Tennessee State University Sullivan County Extension Office is its primary tenant. The entire right side of the new center features office space, classrooms and other amenities. The center also features a 300-seat conference area.
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Retired chemist shares his love for raised-bed gardening Ben Hunter knows a thing or two about raised-bed gardening. As someone who’s gardened from a young age, Hunter has experimented with various techniques and has found much success with raised beds, which have become popular locally and across the country. If you’re thinking of starting a raised-bed garden, here are some things you need to know.
Hunter’s background
Before he retired, Hunter was a chemist for Holston Defense Corporation for around 33 years. His love for gardening began when he was just 4 years old. “I was from a large family, and I was in the middle of the pack, and everybody else would do other things while I helped my mother garden and helped her cook,” Hunter said. “So I was the gardener and the cook in the family.” Hunter has raised-bed gardens at his own home and now teaches classes for those who want to learn the technique. He also installs raised-bed gardens at local schools to encourage children to pick up the hobby.
Is raised-bed gardening a new phenomenon?
Hunter said raised-bed gardening is nothing new; rather, he said, it has been going on for “at least 7,500 years.” “What we call the American Indian, the American Aborigine,
those in South America and Latin America or Central America, they didn’t have a draft animal, like a horse or oxen or anything like that,” Hunter said. “So they got into raised-bed gardening, and what they would do is … they would get the muck in the ponds and pile it up and level it out and grow their crops. And the next year, they’d get more muck up and pile it on top and grow their crops in that. That was how they fed everything; that was the way they gardened.”
How does one create a raised-bed garden?
Hunter said there is more than one way to create a raisedbed garden. One feature that many raised-bed gardens share, though, is a frame. “If you pile up dirt, next year it will be spread out and mixed with whatever is in your path; then the next year, it will be mixed even more, and in about two or three years, you can’t tell what’s path and where you’re growing at,” Hunter said. “So if you built some kind of a frame to box it in, then you have a dedicated path (around it).” From there, the material that fills up a raised-bed garden can vary. While some use soil, as in a regular garden, Hunter fills his raised beds with compost. “The only things in my beds are compost and sand, or 100-percent compost, no dirt,” Hunter said. “You eliminate about 95 percent of your weed problem (that way).”
What can be planted in a raised-bed garden?
Hunter said locals commonly use raised-bed gardens to grow lettuce and onions, though those aren’t the only two crops that can be grown in such an environment. Hunter said he’s personally had success with green beans and even corn. Crops that might not be as well suited to a raised bed include Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, peanuts and tomatoes, as these plants need deep soil. “If your raised bed is six inches deep, you can grow about everything,” Hunter said, “but those crops need at least 10 inches of depth. Beyond that, grow what you want.”
not going to be tracking it anywhere; you’re not going to be packing it down because you’re never in it,” Hunter said. “Then instead of plowing next year … if the bed has sunk down one inch, next year it gets one inch. If it’s sunk down two inches, next year it gets two inches of compost.” Hunter said the only con is that most of the money involved in raised-bed gardening must be spent up front. “Your money is whatever it takes to make your raised bed, what materials, then your initial cost on getting sand and compost into it,” Hunter said. “After that, all you’re doing is what compost you’re using, you’re replacing on a yearly basis, and there’s the cost of your seed, which is an annual cost no matter what.”
Want to learn more?
What are the pros and cons of raised-bed gardening?
Hunter said one advantage of raised-bed gardens is that they’re typically long-lasting, if pressure-treated wood is used for the frame. In his experience, gardeners with raised beds can also start growing earlier, grow later and have as good or better crop yield compared to a regular garden. Another advantage, Hunter said, is that it can be less messy than normal gardening. “The ideal size is 4 feet wide, so if you can’t reach (a plant) from one side, you can go around to the other side and reach it, and you never have to get in that muck, so you’re
Hunter’s classes are free to the public and are held in the main auditorium at Sycamore Shoals State Park in Elizabethton. Next year’s classes will be held Feb. 2, March 2, Aug. 3 and Oct. 19, and each class will begin at 9 a.m. “It’s all about raised-bed gardening, vegetable gardening, pruning your shrubs, pruning your fruit trees, pruning your berries and all of that,” Hunter said. “I give plans away, drawings, on how to build raised beds.” Raised-bed gardening demonstrations will be held Saturday and Sunday January 12th and 13th at the Farm Expo.
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PAGE 11 TIMES-NEWS JOHNSON CITY PRESS FARM EXPO 2019 • JANUARY 6, 2019
Farm Expo 2019 will feature a special charity auction to help newspaper charities Farm Expo 2019 will feature a special charity auction to help the Kingsport Times-News Rescue Fund and the Johnson City Press Christmas Box. It’ll be an opportunity to come out, enjoy an afternoon of agricultural offerings, and possibly take home a special item, a few gift certificates or maybe a nice collectible from the auction. Danny Slater with Slater Auction Company said you never know what will be up for grabs during the Saturday afternoon auction. “I’ve been doing this for 36 years and we do a lot of benefit work for different clubs and organizations and you never know what a person might have,” Slater said. “They might have a nice car or want to donate a lot in a subdivision. You never know what people have on their mind when they get charitable.” Farm Expo 2019 will offer folks two days of events, demonstrations and activities at the Ron Ramsey Agriculture Center in Blountville on Jan. 12 and 13. The
charity auction is scheduled to take place at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 12. If you wish to donate items and gift certificates for this auction, all you have to do is call Slater at 423-677-5598 and he’ll talk to you about what items he’s looking for. He’ll also be glad to come to your home or business to pick up the donations.
ITEMS TO DONATE
What Slater is mainly after is gift certificates, items and food from local businesses and restaurants. It could be for an oil change, or another service like framing a print, an afternoon at a spa or a gift certificate to Chop House or another restaurant. Private people could donate an antique, a coin or baseball card collection, artwork, jewelry or other small items. Maybe, you have a cabin in Gatlingburg and want to donate a weekend to the auction? That’ll be fine. A nice car or some sporting equipment? Those will work too.
What’s not likely to go in the auction is old furniture and electronics. There simply isn’t the room at the agriculture center to accommodate that stuff. Plus, it probably wouldn’t bring a whole lot of money. “Just call me if you’d like to donate something. I’ll talk to you about it and we’ll come by and pick it up,” Slater said. “If you have a business we’ll give you a good plug at the sale and say who donated it before we sell each item.” Some items have already been donated, including some sporting equipment, gift certificates and four passes for kayaking and tubing down the north fork of the Holston River. But more stuff is needed. “It can be from anywhere in the Tri-Cities,” Slater said. “The last sale we did was for Friends in Need and we had a week at Myrtle Beach get donated. You just never know what’ll be donated.
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Farm Expo will be fun for the whole family Join the Johnson City Press and The Kingsport Times-News and Kubota of Kingsport for the return of Appalachian Farm Expo in 2019 on Jan. 12 and 13 at the Ron Ramsey Regional Agricultural Center. Fun for the whole family, this year’s Farm Expo will feature plenty of fun activities, shopping and useful demonstrations for farmers and their families. This is not at all the first Farm Expo in the area. Other events have focused on specific aspects of farming, but this year, organizers want to bring it back to the area and focus on the bigger picture. “We want to bring it back to farming and fun,” said David Hyde, an organizer of the expo.
The farm expo truly has something for everyone in the family with a wide variety of demonstrations. For the children, there will be plenty of farm fun. The 4-H Discovery Playland will be set up for activities for the little ones. They can learn to “milk a cow” at one of the displays or play around with animals at the petting zoo. For the ladies, the Country Fair and Ladies Market will have over 30 vendors to browse through throughout the weekend. Rhoton and Smith Furniture Company, Heavenly Stitches, Boones Creek Outdoor Power, West Hills Tractor, M&M Farm Supply, Bath Fitter, Heritage Apples and many more will be on display in the Agricultural Center.
The vendors will be around to talk to customers and share information. The market is a great way to discover local businesses to fulfill farming and other lifestyle needs. Kubota of Kingsport will also have a variety of tractors and other farming equipment to browse and explore. Exciting demonstrations will also take place throughout the weekend that will be fun for all. Jason Knight, an accomplished knife-maker and television personality from the show, “Forged in Fire” will be showing audiences how to forge an expert blade Jan. 12 from 1-5 p.m. And don’t miss a cooking demonstration by local chef, Anne Gorman and her assistant Lori Snow. Gorman will be explaining some tips and tricks on what to do with some of those leftover crops from the season and plenty of tips and tricks and new spins on some classic farm dishes. Gorman’s cooking demonstrations will take place throughout the weekend.
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Saturday and Sunday from 5-6 p.m the Farm Expo will present, Ask a Master Gardener.“ Master Gardeners will be available to those with any questions about gardening, farming and planting at these times. Anyone with questions can bring in plants to ask gardeners for advice. The Master Gardeners will also be demonstrating how to create raised bed gardens at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. For the hunters in the area, the Appalachian White Tail Association will be onhand during the weekend and will be scoring deer. The deer must have been killed in the last two years and a winner will be announced at 5 p.m. on Sunday. The Appalachian Farm Expo will take place Saturday, Jan. 12 from 10 am.-6 pm. and Sunday Jan. 13 from 2-6 p.m. at the Rom Ramsey Regional Agricultural Center is located at 140 Spurgeon Ln. in Blountville, Tennessee, just minutes from the Tri-Cities airport.
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