The University of Rhode Island’s Cooperative Extension is hosting its second annual Winter Agriculture Webinar Series. The series is free and will be offered each Thursday in February from noon to 1 p.m., via Zoom. URI’s Cooperative Extension Winter Agricultural Webinar Series brings together experts from across the country to share knowledge on topics relevant to commercial fruit and vegetable growers. The program is catered to farmers, but welcomes backyard gardeners as well.

“The series is geared towards farmers,” says David Weisberger in URI Cooperative Extension, “so they can ask questions of our guest speakers. However, home gardeners are also welcome to listen in.”

The 2026 series will include talks from farmers and researchers on adapting to uncertainty on organic vegetable farms, improving soil health in greenhouse systems, growing vegetables in clover living mulch, and using on-farm data to support decision-making.

This is the second year for the series, which launched last winter featuring national speakers on a range of topics, from apple orchards and spotted-wing fruit flies to vegetable systems and using weather data.

This year’s presenters and topics are:

Feb. 5 – Michael Glos, Farming in a Time of Uncertainty: Reflections on 30 Years of a Diverse Organic Farm. Glos owns and operates Kingbird Farm, a small family farm in upstate New York. The farm produces a diverse array of certified organically raised meats, produce, and plants. Glos got his start as a farmer in Maine after serving in the Forest Service out West. Kingbird Farm focuses on diversity and sustainability and offers certified organic meats, produce, herbs and eggs.

Feb. 12 – Stefan Gailans and Kate Edwards, On-Farm Research for On-Farm Answers. Gailans is the research director of Practical Farmers of Iowa. He leads a program there empowering farmers to generate and share knowledge through timely, relevant farmer-led research. Edwards operates Wild Woods Farm in Iowa and enjoys sharing about her career path to farming, returning to her family’s heritage from a career in engineering. In the business of vegetable farming since 2010, Edwards now operates a successful CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture). 

Feb. 19 – Rebecca Maden, Soil Health in High Tunnels. Since she fell in love with organic farming in high school, Maden has made a career working on farms and worked as a commercial vegetable grower for 25 years. At University of Vermont Cooperative Extension, she helps vegetable farmers with nutrient management and high tunnels, with a focus on working with vegetable growers on soil health management.

Feb. 26 – Lincoln Fishman, Growing Vegetables in Living Mulch. Fishman is director of Momentum Ag in western Massachusetts, which helps farmers “grow knowledge,” by coordinating and funding farmer-led research into climate-smart agricultural techniques and funding farmer-to-farmer adoption of these techniques. Momentum is running trials on cash crop production in perennial clover living mulch.

The Winter Ag Webinar Series is free and open to the public, although the focus in the q&a portion will be on professional farmers, to be able to ask questions of this year’s speakers. Those interested can attend any session of interest. 

Registration is required: learn more at URI Cooperative Extension’s events page or register online.

For more information, contact Agricultural Extension Agent David Weisberger at david.weisberger@uri.edu or (347) 782-3132. Public questions about gardening and growing can be directed, any time, to URI’s Master Gardener Program gardening hotline (401-874-4836 / gardener@uri.edu). To get on the Cooperative Extension program email list, email coopext@uri.edu or call (401) 874 -2900.