When an invasive weed was spreading across Susan and Ken Muller's farm in Talent, they couldn't identify the plant or figure out how to eradicate it.

So Susan Muller took some photos to a meeting of the League of Women Farmers, and another farmer recognized the weed and give them advice on how to tame it.

That's what the League is about — providing an outlet for women farmers in Jackson and Josephine counties to share information and get to know each other.

"It's basically a loose network of women farmers who get together on a monthly basis," said group coordinator Melissa Matthewson, who works for the Oregon State University Extension Small Farms program in Central Point.

Matthewson was inspired to start the group after hearing about women's agricultural networks in the eastern United States. She held the first meeting in October 2007, and "it's just taken off from there," she said.

She now has an e-mail list of about 75 women who receive meeting notifications, although not all of them attend every gathering. Matthewson also plans to set up a listserv for the group, so farmers can more easily ask questions and share advice.

The group varies between touring farms in the region and getting together for discussions and movies — and the meetings usually include a potluck with plenty of farm-fresh food.

In December the group learned about niche marketing of farm products. In January they held a seed exchange, and in February they watched the documentary "King Corn."

During the March meeting on Tuesday, they'll tour a farm in the Applegate Valley.

For Muller, the farm tours are the most powerful, she said, since she can see the farming in action and apply what she learns to Rogue Valley Brambles, where she and her husband raise chickens for meat and eggs, grow raspberries and apples and are starting to farm turkeys.

"There's just a lot to learn from how people do things," said Muller, an environmental education graduate student at Southern Oregon University.

While touring Matthewson's Barking Moon Farm in the Applegate Valley as part of a League of Women Farmers meeting, Muller picked up some tips for building chicken houses and preventing poultry predation. Through the group, she also found another farmer with whom to share bulk orders of chicken feed.

She started attending the meetings a few months after she and her husband began farming and found that "being there among other people who were working outside and growing things was invaluable," she said.

In addition to learning different farming techniques, the group's members also have a chance to network and socialize, Matthewson said.

"All these women are working on their farms. We're all isolated on our farms," she said.

Several of the members have joined together to bulk order supplies, she said.

And, with farming being male-dominated, the group gives women a chance to learn skills typically viewed as men's tasks, such as carpentry, tractor work and irrigation, Matthewson said.

The average Oregon farmer is a 57-year-old man, Matthewson said, but some of the group's members farm by themselves, and the members cut across the generations.

"This area is becoming an increasingly popular area for young people to come and start farms," she said.

Megan Fehrman is one of those people.

She recently moved to Talent from the northern Willamette Valley and is hoping to start a farm with her brother.

Although she isn't growing anything yet, Fehrman finds the group valuable both for her own knowledge and for her job.

As a grassroots coordinator with agriculture advocacy organization Friends of Family Farmers, it helps to understand the issues farmers face, she said.

"It's always really good perspective," Fehrman said, and the group has helped her meet people. "It's been really nice for me, as a new member of this community, to be welcomed with open arms."

And, although many of the group's farmers sell the same crops at the farmers markets, everyone helps each other, Matthewson said.

"Even though there's competition, it's kind of like a coop-etition," she said.

To join the League of Women Farmers or learn more about the group, call Melissa Matthewson at 776-7371.

Kira Rubenthaler can be reached at 482-3456 ext. 225 or krubenthaler@dailytidings.com.