Developing an e-book to teach cold climate strawberry farming

Strawberry farming requires multiple skills related to production and marketing. New farmers need to learn these skills, while established farmers constantly work on improvements to their systems in response to changing circumstances and new information about sustainable farming. Most outreach education for farmers is done via face-to-face meetings. While evaluations are positive, adopting new techniques can be challenging after just one presentation at a conference. With the availability of high-speed internet and the advent of online learning platforms, developing multimedia educational programming for farmers will change production practices. We developed an e-book with the goal of expanding strawberry production in our climatic zone through using interactive multimedia. Our objectives were to increase accessibility to information on June-bearing cultivar production, educate farmers on the use of low tunnels to extend the season for dayneutral strawberry cultivars, and to introduce innovative marketing techniques and resources to ensure locally-grown strawberries reach as many customers as possible. This tool has been optimized for desktop and mobile devices using Inkling Habitat, a web-based educational publishing program. Our team worked with farmers and partner organizations to develop chapters focused on strawberry production suitable to USDA hardiness zones 3 and 4. Farmer-cooperators offered their expertise for chapter development, participated in videos, and evaluated the product through beta testing. We will explain how interactive multimedia can be used to disseminate current research to farmers in a way that is easily accessible.