University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension’s Heart of the Farm-Women in Agriculture program will start it’s statewide online ‘Coffee Chat’ Fall/Winter program on Monday Nov. 9, 2020 at 10 a.m. ‘Coffee Chats’ will be held on the 2nd Monday of each month (10 a.m. – 11 a.m.) through March 2021.

The Heart of the Farm-Women in Agriculture program addresses the needs of farm women by providing education on farm business topics, connecting them with agricultural resources and creating support networks.

There is no charge for attending the series but you must register at: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItceirrzkvEtfMSLLljrhhSJFMymAHHUA4

Once registered, you will receive an email confirmation containing information about joining the meeting. Registered participants will only need the meeting website link or phone number to participate.

Jerry Apps will kick off the ‘Coffee Chat’ season as the keynote speaker on Nov. 9, 2020. Jerry’s presentation, “Women in agriculture: a brief history,” will take us back to the pioneer days in Wisconsin and highlight the role of women in agriculture He will share the early role women had in the dairy industry and how that changed over the years along with some personal stories of women’s roles in agriculture during the Depression Years of the 1930s and WWII, drawing on his mother’s roles at that time.

Jerry is a former county extension agent. Presently he is professor emeritus for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the UW-Madison. and works as a rural historian, full-time writer, and speaker. Jerry is the author of more than forty fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books with topics ranging from barns, one-room schools, cranberries, and cucumbers, to the history of Wisconsin agriculture. His most recent books are “Cheese: The Making of a Wisconsin Tradition” and “When the White Pine Was King: A History of Lumberjacks, Log Drives, and Sawdust Cities in Wisconsin.” He and his wife, Ruth, have three grown children, and seven grandchildren. They split their time between their home in Madison and their farm, Roshara, in Waushara County.

Full ‘Coffee Chat’ Series:

• Nov. 9, 2020: Women in Agriculture – A Brief History – Jerry Apps, author and rural historian.
• Dec. 14, 2020: Putting the ‘Me’ in Merry: Self Care Tips for the Holiday Season – Jackie Carattini, Nancy Vance and Lori Zierl, Human Development and Relationship Educators, UW-Madison Division of Extension.
• Jan. 11, 2021: Tax Preparation Issues and Concerns – Gary Sipiorski, Gary Sipiorski Consulting, LLC.
• Feb. 8, 2021: How to Read and Understand Your Milk Check – Mark Stephenson, Center for Dairy Profitability
• March 8, 2021: Value Added Enterprises and Farm Diversification – Jenni Gavin, Gavin Farms, Reedsburg, WI.

For more information on the ‘Coffee Chats’ series or the Heart of the Farm Program, please visit the Heart of the Farm website: https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/heartofthefarm , call your local UW-Madison Division of Extension County office, or contact Jenny Vanderlin, jenny.vanderlin@wisc.edu, 608-263-7795.

The Heart of the Farm ‘Coffee Chat’ series is partially funded by a CHS Community Giving Grant.