accelerating appalachia today on GH radio

Accelerating Appalachia is a “word HUB for sustainable business,” providing training to, coordinate mentorship for, and encourage financial investment in organizations who are “solving big problems with their business models.” They work predominantly with women entrepreneurs, look to support students, and have even had farms in their accelerator program. If all of this sounds revolutionary for a business incubator, it is. What does this all actually look like on the ground? Tune into the Heritage News Network today at 4:00 PM to hear that and other questions answered on Greenhorns Radio.

crop planning resources for farmers

‘Tis the season for nailing down your crop plan for the Spring! (Hypothetically, this would have been on our to-do lists for early December ago, but I can’t be the only one whose holidays got the better of her business agenda, right?) Is this your first time crop planning? Looking to upgrade your system? Maybe you’re feeling a little lost or a little down-to-the-wire. Here’s a collection of resources to make the process a little easier:

1. Penn State’s guide to making plans for the season: specifically for CSA farms, but this advice is adaptable to market and whole sale farms as well. Basic, comprehensive, and

2.  “Crop master” spreadsheet to model off of: comprehensive, super-logical, easy to follow, and easy to replicate– provided you are familiar with inserting formulas into spreadsheets.

3. A template that you can edit: a template from Tom Becker of Sunseed Farm, which will potentially save first-time veggie farmers a lot of time and energy: the sheet includes already-made formulas and already input crop information. Note: will have to be adjusted to reflect individual USDA zones.

4. Collection of great links/resources on the subject: “everyone’s brain works differently.”

another model for financing farm starts

Kristopher Flack from 2015 New Farmers Almanac

Let’s talk about money folks.

How do we go about starting farms? Some of the main barriers new farmers face are access to training, access to land, access to funding. We’ve definitely noticed that in the last 10 years there has certainly been an increase in training opportunities, from more farms offering better employment, institutions offering curriculum around sustainable ag, and organizations, with as similar mandate to ours, helping connect budding agrarians.

But land access and funding remain serious challenges. While farmers continue to create novel approaches to financing their operations (CSA’s, community borrowing) we clearly need more recognition and support from the financial industry to help get new farms off the ground.

north carolina: awesome panel on resiliency, apple genetics, rare livestock breeds and branding!!

Wake Forest University

Wednesday, September 10th 7-8:30 PM. FREE!

 This exciting panel discussion will provide insights into the importance of biodiversity and sustainable land and water use to a resilient food system. Individually, and collectively, these entrepreneurs are contributing to the economic vitality of our region by offering value-added choices to the marketplace.

!!FREE SIGN UP HERE!!

Featured panelists:

Eliza Greenman– Heirloom and hard cider apple orchardist at Foggy Ridge Cider, fruit explorer, collector of very rare and old apple genetics, fruit tree nursery owner, and blogger for the Greenhorns.

Eric Hallman, PhD– Executive director of The Livestock Conservancy. The conservancy is working with farmers, chefs, historians, consumers, and others around the nation to re-introduce nearly 200 endangered breeds of livestock and poultry to the food supply.

April McGreger– Owner of Farmers Daughter Brand Pickling and Preserves and Andre 3000 fan. She has adopted a nimble business model that allows her to celebrate the taste and spirit of the South, while adapting to the climate-induced agricultural fluctuations of the region.