OFI 1345: When Several Slow Projects Are Suddenly Fast | FFA SAE Edition | Alex Kellersmith | Houston – UVCC FFA

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My attention was first drawn to Alex Kellersmith when I read an article about him making maple syrup for his supervised agricultural experience in the FFA. I am always fascinated with this particular SAE because naturally growing trees provide one of the most delicious products on the market. And, I live in Idaho where this is impossible and you pay a premium for Maple Syrup in a bottle!

As it turns out, Alex has several supervised agricultural experiences. He likes to grow things that he can either sell directly from harvest or add value to and then sell. And they all have a common thread….there is the slow pace of the growing season for each of them, and then suddenly, there is a lot of work to be done all at once. Take these projects for example:

Maple Syrup – sap drips into buckets during the winter and is saved up, and then suddenly there is two straight weeks of boiling down sap and bottling syrup
Sweet Corn – during the heat of summer the corn grows and grows, and then suddenly there is two straight weeks of picking, hauling, marketing and selling
Berries – they grow all summer long and then suddenly they are ripe and the time is now!
Lavender & Flowers – okay, on this one Alex can work out a little bit more even of a pace, but of course once the flowers are blooming he can constantly be harvesting, arranging and selling

Alex has some very good advice for incoming FFA students in this interview as to why they should really invest into multiple SAE’s. Tune in and hear what he has to say!

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Maple Syrup Production

HIGH SCHOOL: Houston High School; Houston, Ohio

MASCOT: Wildcats

FFA ADVISOR: Derek McCracken

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR ALEX KELLERSMITH:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Houston High School:

Alex’s FFA Advisors’ Email Address: dmccracken@hardinhouston.org

Houston High School Telephone Number: 970-295-3010

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000. In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants. With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world. FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation. The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“The future of American agriculture depends on the involvement and investment in America’s youth, In order to prepare for the population of tomorrow, we need to encourage America’s youth today, and show that careers in agriculture are profitable, rewarding, and vital.”.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue