Session 1: Q&A

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Question Report,
Report Generated:,"Sep 02, 2020 2:14 PM"
Topic,Webinar ID,Actual Start Time,Actual Duration (minutes),# Question
Building Connections Across the Chestnut Supply Chain: Session 1,988 2102 0119,"Sep 01, 2020 8:37 AM", 202, 67
Question Details,
#,Question,Asker Name,Asker Email,Answer(s),
1,"Sara, are all attendees visible on video?",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,"No, only panelists are visible on video. Thanks!"
2,thanks,Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,,live answered
3,Is this and the next session being recorded?,Sam Bosco (they/them) ,sfb42@cornell.edu,,"Yes, this and the next session will be recorded and shared."
4,"Sara, on the survey, are the answers for #4&5 questions, percentage of respondents or actual # od respondents?",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,Hi Steve - Actual Number.
5,"Roger, what do you do to chestnuts, that you concsider processing?",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,"CGI is processing chestnuts for the fresh market. We clean the nuts, we sample nuts for quality, store the chestnuts in refrigeration, pack out just in time for delivery to customers.  Pack out is into 25 lb. bags and one pound bags for shipping.",
6,"Can Roger speak more to how the differnt varieties and sizes are sorted, graded and priced?",Carol Williams ,sust.ag.eco@gmail.com,,CGI sizes the chestnuts into six sizes. We sell Chinese varieties and European cultivates separated.  The larger sizes are higher priced.  CGI uses number of chestnuts per pound to quantify the sizes.
7,For all panelists in coops: what is the current price for raw chestnuts from the orchard?  How is price fluctuating year-to-year?,Carol Williams ,sust.ag.eco@gmail.com,,,"We pay growers after the crop is sold and our co-op expenses are paid.  Basically, dividing up whatever money is left over.  This amounts to about $1.50 to $2.00 per lb for chestnuts straight from the orchard.","Roger Smith of the Prairie Grove Chestnut Growers ""Coop"" is paying the following for fall of 2020: Small (1/2"" to 7/8"") $2.20/pound, Medium (7/8"" to 1"") $2.90/pound, Large (1"" to 1 1/8"") $3.10/pound, Extra Large (greater than 1 1/8"") $3.00/pound.",
8,"hi- I’m not familiar with where the locations of the cooperatives are, midwest?",Andrea Ferich ,andreaferich@gmail.com,,"Hi Andrea -- yes, all midwest. Praire Grove with Tom Wahl is Iowa. Route 9 w/ Greg Miller is OH. And CGI with Roger Blackwell is Michigan.","Prairie Grove Chestnut Growers is located in Columbus Junction, Iowa and has been run by Roger Smith since 2014. Before that it was run by Tom Wahl for over a decade. - Kathy Dice",
9,When you run "you-pick" do you have insurance for injuries on-site?,Sandy Anagnostakis ,Sandy.Anagnostakis@gmail.com,,,,,,,We have a farm policy from State Farm that covers our you pick operation's liability. The stipulation is we do not allow people off the ground (up in trees or on ladders). We also cannot trasport people.,,,
10,"Bill, what is the basis that perennial crops are more profitable than annual crops?",Anonymous Attendee,,,live answered,"email me, and I can send you a PDF. 
harry@propagateventures.com"
11,"Develop a new industry, in NE?",Anonymous Attendee,,,live answered,
12,What is the lease rate you are paying the land owner?,Anonymous Attendee,,,live answered
13,What is reasonable lease rate for private landowners? $1.00 year may not reasonable for private landowners,Anonymous Attendee,,,"I think locating a fair price for hay land would be where to start. At our farm we offer a number of other benefits and trade that for the beneficial rate in the first 10 years, in which the farm will not be profitable. Also, it would be unreasonable to plant chestnuts on ideal cropland for other more immediately profitable crops.",
14,Thanks Sandra- So much important work! You’re the chestnut rock star!,Jono Neiger ,jono@rdgland.com,,,,,,live answered,
15,"Sandy, great to see you!",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,live answered,
16,Is there increasing demand for American families wanting chestnuts in addition to the international families making up most the demand right now?,Anonymous Attendee,,,live answered,
17,"Carol - Ill share the shoutout! I was just at HARC on Friday, hanging out with Aaron Templemeir!",Chris Smyth ,christopherinindia@gmail.com,,live answered,We’re still in touch with Aaron.  He’s a keeper!,
18,Carol- Whats your production levels? Do you see the market expanding?,Jono Neiger ,jono@rdgland.com,,
19,"It has been mentioned a couple times on how expensive processing can be, is this because of high startup costs or the labor needed?",Anonymous Attendee,,,live answered,
20,I would really like to meet Greg at Rt 9 Co-op.  What is your contact info?  I’d also like to chat with Chris Smyth - how to I contact you?,Carol Williams ,sust.ag.eco@gmail.com,,"The best way to contact me, Greg Miller, is email: empirechestnut@gmail.com","design@chrismyth.com

Looking forward to it!","Even though I currently live and farm in NJ, I am from Clermont County and return multiple times a year so I would also like to keep in contact with the Ohioans my email is luketarvin@gmail.com",
21,"Harry, where in TN?",Anonymous Attendee,,,Hour west of Nashville,
22,why black currants? they take a long time to pick,Shamu Sadeh ,shamu.sadeh@hazon.org,,Mechanical harvest,,,Mechanical harvest,
23,Are Chesnut trees on the conservation tree list at the NRCS office?   Accepted conservation tree planting that is funded by NRCS.,Gary Wyatt ,wyatt@umn.edu,,"We just recieved funds through EQIP from NRCS. Chestnuts were on their list of acceptable conversation plantings. As were pawpaw, which we intend to put between our chestnuts.",,live answered
24,"I would like to know if growers see possibility and viability in harvesting chestnuts via tree shakers, so that nuts never have to touch the ground in a silvopasture operation.",Austin Unruh ,austin@crowandberry.com,,,"Shaking often sends down too many green nuts. Customers hate chestnuts that are white, lacking the beautiful brown color. They do not color up off the tree."
25,"Zack-With the empowerment of gatherers, are you planning to combine American and Chinese nuts? Also, how are you planning to handle quality control with those being brought in? Love the idea!",Sean Freidhof ,spf5217@psu.edu,,"I would be surprised if people brought in American nuts! For quality control there will be trainings and standard protocols established for gatherers, which would include knowing the basic differences between Chinese and American and Korean and European. Nuts will then be graded by size. Of course, hybrid nuts complicate ID so I guess we would choose criteria like pellicle traits, size, shape, etc. for sorting.",,live answered
26,Can anyone explain any funding available through NRCS/EQIP/USDA?,LanceP ,lancepaszkiewicz@yahoo.com,,"EQIP will pay for an assortment of tree-related conservation practices, but they mostly fund farms with the highest resource concerns (greatest offenders). Example: If you’re a large dairy farm with runoff issues, you’re more likely to get funding than if you’re a 5-acre farm wanting to add chestnuts to a hay field.","I'd recommend talking with your local NRCS office to see what programs, including EQIP, might be relevant in your area and on your farm. Each state NRCS office designates different priority ""resource concerns"" that EQIP funding addresses, which may or may not be helped by tree planting. A key thing to keep in mind is that it's the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, so it's focused on enhancing environmental quality rather than supporting production.","We have found with NRCS, it is highly dependant on your precise regional office and officer. Its variable what keeps their attention, and cultivation of the relationship is as important as what practices they want to fund in your region. 

We have found that it takes 3X as much work to communicate, sign paper work, sign it again because they lost it, recommunicate, etc. 

Their goals, in our region, are wildlife forage. Ours are human food, so they had to bend their thinking and we were fortunate they worked with us on that.",
27,"Is anyone making progress on mechanical processes for shelling the nuts to value add them and sell peeled and fresh in, say, a grocery store?

Have we just not figured this out? Is this even possible? What will it take to get there?",Chris Smyth ,christopherinindia@gmail.com,,live answered,"$600 sheller, importable from China, via alibaba.",Harry - Have you tried this machine?,Not yet. Toensmeier just mentioned it the other day.,"I have in my notes that “Lincoln Smith” imported one, and I remember finding the exact machine on alibaba, but I can’t find it now.",
28,"$600 sheller, importable from China, via alibaba.",Harry Greene ,harry@propagateventures.com,,live answered,
29,How can alternate bearing (biennial) crop volumes be managed without fresh nut processing?,Markus Schaufele ,m-schaufele@northwestern.edu,,Chestnuts tend to be annual bearing,,"Alternate bearing can be weather related too.  When a bumper crop is followed by 1/4 crop, market development and maintaining good prices gets more difficult."
30,I’m trying to find the link…,Harry Greene ,harry@propagateventures.com,,live answered,
31,land prices are soooo much lower west of the eastern states,Rick Hartlieb ,rhartlieb@pa.gov,,live answered
32,Easier/cheaper to plant into a field to transition to agroforestry v. thinning a forest for chestnut orchard…,Carol Williams ,sust.ag.eco@gmail.com,,live answered
33,"To those that are planting on a larger scale, what are the prospects of carbon markets and payements for ecosystem serices to contributing to favorable economics of establishing perennial polycultures",Sam Bosco (they/them) ,sfb42@cornell.edu,,"Interesting development here in the past year is the ""negative emissions"" commitments from Big tech (Amazon, Microsoft, Stripe)...I applied for Stripe's payments which they are projecting at $100/ton...but they decided to prioritize ""non-biological sequestration"" this year. These voluntary markets would make a big difference!","Say it’s 1 ton of C per tree at maturity (very large chestnut tree). What would the price/ton of carbon have to be to make that meaningful? When would that payment occur? If year 12: 1,000 trees * $15/ton = $15,000

15,000 / (1+.05)^12 = $8,352 present value for 10 acres.

That might cover half of establishment costs, if the dollars were available and discounted accordingly.","What I’m getting at is that *when* those payments occur is critical.

“Carbon market” is also a rabbit hole, given that the demand will always be low (ecosystem services being a public good) relative to supply: sequestering carbon isn’t difficult, so lots of folks are game.",,live answered
34,"Has any of the growers converted highly valuable row crop to chestnuts, demonstrating the higher profitability?",Anonymous Attendee,,,live answered,
35,in the case of Rt 9 wasn't it due to coal strip mines planted chestnuts?,Jeffrey Zarnowski ,jeffz@znutty.com,,live answered,
36,Online soil research other than NRCS for surveying appropiate chestnut sites?,Judd ,info@ecologiadesign.com,,"Judd, I can help you with this if you are interested. if you Google ""Terra Genesis BRASA"" you should get to a GIS case study we produced.",live answered,
37,"Found Trader Joe’s in Cincy selling unrefrigerated, dried out chestnuts in late winter last year - they would have been very unfresh and awful tasting.  I’ve seen this in big stores like Krogers too.  This doesn’t help with consumer knowledge and gaining their taste buds.  We need to educate the retailers!",Carol Williams ,sust.ag.eco@gmail.com,,
38,"https://www.fda.gov/food/cfsan-constituent-updates/fda-requests-information-expansion-rarely-consumed-raw-list-uncommonly-consumed-produce

Submit comments through this link:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/10/2020-16800/request-for-information-and-comments-on-consumption-of-certain-uncommon-produce-commodities-in-the",Ranan ,ranan@caneyforkfarms.com,,live answered,
39,"Websoilsurvey.usda.gov

However, the acreage within the area being studied can still vary from government data.",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,live answered,
40,how deep did you rip/ do you aerate?,Shamu Sadeh ,shamu.sadeh@hazon.org,,live answered,
41,I recommend downloading the "soil web" layer from UC davis that can plug-in to Google Earth Pro.,Russell Wallack ,russell@breadtreefarms.com,,live answered,
42,"To add to what Greg was saying on site selection - pH at 6.5 or more acidic. We found at our farm the very top of the soil was limed for cow grazing. We ammended with Sulfer to correct for that toppical lime, the parent material was acidic enough.

We also ripped 2’ with a subsoiler.",Chris Smyth ,christopherinindia@gmail.com,,live answered,Right on. And the chestnut trees are doing okay?,"Theyre great! Popping out of the tree tubes, and they were only installed in June!",
43,"Use a big OX implement, will rip 3’ deep; requires 140 horsepower tractor",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,live answered,
44,"Question on pH:

“Blueberries like acidity” → Blueberries can cope with higher pH, with active soil food web, which mimics acidity.

If you started with a pH of 7.5, how well would chestnuts manage with *very* active soil biology?",Harry Greene ,harry@propagateventures.com,,"With blueberries it's about mycorrhizae, which give structure to Ericaceae roots that lack root hairs. Acid pH = fungally dominant. Maybe chestnuts have some dependency on mycorrhizae as well?",live answered,"Soil biology doesn't always imply acidity, bacterially dominant soils will tend towards circumneutral.","For sure. Basically: Would chestnuts croak in limestone derived soils even if each tree had 4 gallons of Vermont Compost Company dumped on it, and they were root dipped in fungi perfecti?  

Looks like a “Try it, but don’t bet the farm.”","I think anaerobic conditions are key here. Interplant your chestnuts with white pine, and that kind of forest architecture will probably result in acidity.",Or get a grove of trees to the point where it is dumping deep leaf litter. Deep leaf litter = reduced oxidation = more anerobic = fungally dominant = acid pH.,Awesome. But still: sandstone + active soil biology is probably way better.,"More data: Good Life Farm just brought in municipal leaf mold (“compost”), and the pH was way high: 8.5 or so. I wonder what the nuances of this look like…","Good point. Leachability seems to also be a factor in acid soils, and explains why slopes are generally acidic whereas valleys and bottomlands tend towards neutral."
45,"Strip mine sites might have serious issues with high pH, correct?",Jono Neiger ,jono@rdgland.com,,live answered,
46,We borrowed the Subsoiler - single shank. And a neighbor ripped the site. Two passes. Maybe $750 total for 18 acres.,Chris Smyth ,christopherinindia@gmail.com,,,live answered
47,are tree tubes preferred to wide cages?,Shamu Sadeh ,shamu.sadeh@hazon.org,,"Tubes are much better, for many reasons.  You can email me at tom@redfernfarm.com for details"
48,"Chestnut trees are permitted for crp in TN, however CRP typically does not permit harvest, when available.",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,"Often CRP is in 10 year cycles - Chestnuts aren’t substantial in their production for 10 years, which times out pretty well. We looking more into the profit model here!",live answered
49,In the sharing of the recording of this webinar - could we make sure to add the QnA as a document?,Chris Smyth ,christopherinindia@gmail.com,,Yes!,
50,Regarding high pH soils:  find another crop!,Sandy Anagnostakis ,Sandy.Anagnostakis@gmail.com,,,,That's where hickories and walnuts and hazelnuts and pecans come in!,live answered
51,Right on.,Harry Greene ,harry@propagateventures.com,,live answered,
52,"In the East, there have been more viable alternatives than chestnuts, such as fruit orchards or intensive vegetable production.  Water, markets and infrastructure for these are readily available.   The land cost issue is also a driver working against chestnuts.  Interest in chestnuts here has increased lately due to carbon sequestration, etc.",Brian Caldwell ,hgforganicapples@gmail.com,,,live answered
53,Does the Svannah Institute have write ups or links for financial investment models?,Judd ,info@ecologiadesign.com,,,,live answered,specifically for outside investors looking to invest extra capital
54,regarding time:  One of my farmer friends says that the most important thing a farmer can cast upon his fields is his shadow.  You have to be there and LOOK.,Sandy Anagnostakis ,Sandy.Anagnostakis@gmail.com,,,live answered
55,"Greg, time is definitely a challenge, especially if adding Chestnut propagation.",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,live answered
56,"Sara, there is a lot of conflicting information out there….",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,,live answered
57,"Well said, Greg!",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,,live answered
58,Facebook is acting at the "source for information" and not all of the information posted is correct.,Sandy Anagnostakis ,Sandy.Anagnostakis@gmail.com,,,live answered
59,"Not a question - I just want to thank all on the call, and especially our panelists! You all have trailblazed and made a way for those of us with this mad curiosity on Tree Crops.

We are standing on the shoulders of giants, and I can’t thank you enough!",Chris Smyth ,christopherinindia@gmail.com,,,agreed!,,
60,"County Extension agents in my area do not know anything about Chestnuts.  Although I love my county agents, their standard answer to chestnuts questions is a blank stare followed by “talk to the folks at UK”…",Carol Williams ,sust.ag.eco@gmail.com,,live answered
61,"Greg, we do not know any etter…lol!",Steve Lucas ,jean.lucas@chandlerlions.org,,live answered
62,Would be great to have more young people getting into chestnuts and other tree crops. Land access is a huge obstacle. There needs to be a focus on land transition and succession pathways,Jono Neiger ,jono@rdgland.com,,live answered
63,Great points!,Brian Caldwell ,hgforganicapples@gmail.com,,live answered
64,For the large Chestnut growers - what do your neighbors think/say?    Has some planted Chestnuts or do they say that's good for you but not for me....,Gary Wyatt ,wyatt@umn.edu,,live answered
65,A young gentleman in his 20's right here looking to farm some nuts!,Sean Freidhof ,spf5217@psu.edu,,
66,YES THANK YOU!!!,Russell Wallack ,russell@breadtreefarms.com,
67,Great program!,Gary Wyatt ,wyatt@umn.edu,,