STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Gardeners are invited to take part in a Magic Valley Seed School in early July.

The event will kick off with a tour of the iconic King’s Crown Organic Farm in King Hill, Idaho. The field day, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday July 6, will give tourgoers a chance to see 700 acres in production, including cows, Berkshire pigs, alfalfa, sweet and seed corn, onions, potatoes, beans, squash, melons, eggplants, eggs and bee. Wild Spaces Farm has a raw milk micro-dairy on site.

Nate Jones, a third-generation farmer and rancher, uses organic methods which have filled the food he grows with rich nutrients

Lunch will be provided by Six Creeks Mercantile.

The farm tour will be followed up by the Magic Valley Seed School on Monday and Tuesday, July 7 and 8. Monday’s class will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at College of Southern Idaho. It will involve such topics as flowers and pollination, seed saving, seed biology and dissection, wet seed processing and seed storage.

Lunch will be provided by CSI and there’ll be an optional evening mixer at the OchO in Buhl with a potluck and small-scale seed production tours.

Tuesday’s class will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will involve touring several farms. Among them: 1000 Springs Mill to see grain milling and processing, Native Roots Nursery for a look at native seeds and wild seed harvest, and the University of Idaho-Kimberly Research and Extension Center.

Lunch will be provided by Twin Falls Sandwich Company.

Cost is $40. Scholarships are available.

To learn more, visit https://snakeriverseeds.com/products/magic-valley-seed-school.