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We welcomed our advisory board to Ames, IA this past March 11^th – 12^th. Folks arrived Friday afternoon to Stone Brook Clubhouse and were welcomed by the Iowa State team. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had not been with our board in person for a year. We kicked off the event by reintroducing the project and all the members involved. We continued getting to know each other with a couple of community building exercises (see pictures below). Our first day ended after a delicious meal by Chef Anthony Warrior (pictured below).

 

Day two was dedicated to conversations and updates from the ISU team. We started off early with the State of the Project and continued with discussion on the community response and re-establishing expectations from the ISU team.  In the morning, nutritional environment, seeds and rematriation, soil health and community plots were discussed. For lunch we had another great meal (pictured below). Our presentations continued after lunch with brainstorming future workshop topics and preparing for our afternoon tours.

 

We toured the Iowa State University Horticulture Research Station, home of the Three Sisters research garden, led by Brandon Carpenter. We continued to the USDA Plant Introduction Station in south Ames. Folks were able to get a demo on using the GRIN website to access all the seed accessions in the facility as well as a general tour (photo below). Our meeting concluded with a trade event before dinner, where folks were welcomed to trade among themselves. Anthony Warrior provided an excellent dinner and leftovers were distributed eagerly.