BREMERTON, Wash. -- The focus of this year's annual West Sound Small Farms Expo is "Gaining Ground."

The event will take place 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Olympic College Campus in Bremerton.

Cost for the expo is $45 per person, $80 per couple, $15 for interns or students and free for 4-H and FFA youths. Registration includes lunch.

Keynote speaker is Linda Neunzig, owner of Ninety Farms and Snohomish County agricultural coordinator. She also coordinates the annual Focus on Farming Conference in Everett.

Courses will follow four tracks:

* Livestock: Selecting, breeding and feeding hogs; carcass evaluation; poultry processing and egg handling; basic veterinary care.

* Agribusiness: Growing cut flowers, irrigation, tractor safety, financing options.

* Horticulture: Farmland lease and purchase, marketing and selling cut flowers, greenhouse management, beekeeping.

* Grab bag: Permaculture, the state cottage food law, pasture management and hay making, cooking whole foods.

Sponsors include Washington State University Kitsap Extension, the Kitsap Conservation District, 4-H, Cascade Harvest Coalition, Kitsap County and the Kitsap Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau.

-- Steve Brown

Information: kitsap.wsu.edu