hudson valley school plants seeds of herbalism with upgraded training program

Wild Gather, a spectacularly cool herb school in the Hudson Valley, is currently offering Seeds of Herbalism, a foundations class in Western herbal traditions. Registration is open, and those who have looked at the program before will note that they’ve added an additional month to the program with 20 more hours of class time.

Seeds of Herbalism is a 5 month foundational program that takes place in and around Hudson, NY. This 60-hour course will provide students with a grounding in Herbal Medicine by developing the skills to work with plants for their own self care and their communities.

Wild Gather writes, “In this program, we’ll cultivate an understanding of Botany and the plants of our bio-region, learn medicine making, first-aid & hands-on self care skills. We’ll also delve into the spirit world of plants and healing, by exploring our unique ancestries and relationship to plant lore and magic. Additionally, Social and Health Justice are core values for us as facilitators, and our program is rooted in holding space for conversations, learning and growing around the many oppressions people face surrounding health care and its access. With all this and more, students will gain an incredible footing into the beautiful world of Herbalism.”

If you’re interested, go here to learn more; registration is now open!

talking co-ops

Today on Greenhorns Radio, Sev speaks to Faith Gilbert, author of the Greenhorns Guidebook  Cooperative Farming, a how-to handbook on forming collaborative farm ventures, and the Vegetable Manager and Administrative Lead at Letterbox Farm Collective. Letterbox, which produces everything from vegetables to pasture rabbit (which you may remember from our post earlier this week), uses a cooperative model to increase worker investment and spread power horizontally through the farm.

Faith and Sev will talk cooperative farming, Hudson Valley, and community organizing in the digital agrarian age LIVE today at 4:00 PM on Heritage Radio Network. Tune in then, or, as always, catch the podcast any time after the show airs!

free download of “pasture rabbit for profit”

Nichki Carangelo, of the delightful Hudson Valley-based, cooperative Letterbox Farm Collective, has just finished a publication on the commercial production of pasture rabbits. Funded by a SARE grant, “Pasture Rabbit for Profit” is an easily digestible, practical resource for farmers intended to guide readers through the start-up phase of their own pasture-based rabbitry. It includes a full enterprise budget along with housing plans, sample breeding schedules, feed guidelines and other rabbit husbandry basics. And it’s available for free download here!

internship this summer in farmland conservation in greenwich, ny

The Agricultural Stewardship Association is currently accepting applications for their summer internship program. This paid position is geared towards undergraduate students. The intern will gain experience working in a fast-paced nonprofit on event planning, community outreach, data collection, and project management. This looks like a great opportunity for someone interested in agricultural and natural resources education, communications, event planning, and land trusts.

The ASA is a community-supported nonprofit organization that works with land owners in Rensellaer and Washington Counties in New York’s upper Hudson Valley to conserve farmland.

Full job position is included below.

inspiring apprenticeship model on common hands farm philmont, ny

We share the following apprenticeship program as much for the potential apprentices as we do for all the farms out there who either run or would someday like to host apprenticeship programs. Common Hands Farm, a 150-acre biodynamic CSA farm in New York’s Hudson Valley, has a unique three-part internship broken up by Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons. The uncompensated spring block leans heavily on classroom and practical instruction in biodynamic farming; the stipended summer block focuses on practical work experience on the farm; and the fall specialization program allows apprentices to take on responsibility and projects of their own direction around the farm with the potential to transition into paid staff.

Full program description is included below the break. Application information is available at the very bottom of the page.

spirited music! legendary gawker family band at mettabee farm in hillsdale, jan. 27

Looking for  a way to keep moral up and marching after yesterday’s historic marches? Hudson Valley folks will have a great opportunity next weekend. Friday, January 27, 2017, from 7:00pm  9:00pm the Gawler Family Band will be playing raucous joyous Americana and folk from around the world. Find them at Mettabee Farm and Arts Center in Hillsdale New York. Information can be found on the farm website, which we’ve copy and pasted below the break. Read more about the band and its history here and listen to member Edith Gawler sing here.

organic grains and innovation on GH radio

Listen to the podcast here!

Ben Dobson grew up in Hillsdale, New York, on a small organic farm and started his first agricultural business in 2001. After two years on his own, he joined forces with his father Ted Dobson and managed the fields at his salad and tomato farm in Sheffield, MA, from 2003 through 2006. Since then Ben has started, managed, and overseen the sale of two agricultural businesses: One of which, Atlantic Organics, founded in 2007, was the largest organic vegetable farm in the state of Maine. The other, a company called Locally Known LLC, founded in 2008, was a salad processing company that sold pre-packaged ready to eat salads to Whole Foods Market, Hannaford Bros. and Trader Joe’s supermarkets in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic regions.

In 2013, Ben joined Stone House Farm as the Organic Transition Manager, and in 2016 he became their Farm Manager. He planned and oversaw the implementation of an organic transition on the 2,200-acre Stone House Farm property, and developed a non-GMO feed and grain business to sell their grain. The farm is now expanding its grain operation to include organic grain from other farms in the region.

Ben also heads Hudson Carbon: a research project conducting long term research across several sites on Stone House Farm and two neighboring farms. Hudson Carbon monitors the economic impacts and ecological effects of organic farming systems regarding carbon sequestration. Collaborators in this project include the Rodale Institute, The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and Scenic Hudson. This winter Hudson Carbon will be launching a website with sections dedicated to farmers, science, and the public.

hudson valley farm incubator program– deadline to apply jan.6

Apply for Glynwood Farm’s Business Incubator!

The deadline for initial applications and letters of intent for Glynwood’s Hudson Valley Farm Business Incubator (HVFBI) has been extended to January 6, 2017, with the 2017 program beginning in early next May.

HVFBI is taking the “long view” on supporting a new generation of farmers in the region, equipping participants with the tools and guidance to successfully get there. Visit their  website for more information.

make-us-green-with-envy farm dinner, hudson, ny, OCT 9

This is an epically swoon-able event:

• to support the progressive, collectively-own integrated urban Letterbox Farm,
• catered by the up-and-coming culinary geniuses at Lil’ Deb’s Oasis,
• with DRINKS IN THE GARDEN,
• a multi-course dinner under the stars in the field of
•  “bright & bold tropical dishes inspired by the founders combined roots in Latin America & the North American South”

We’re not exactly in the vicinity to attend this one, so the least you can do is do us the favor of going in our place. Learn more and purchase tickets, here!

wonder: the major-minor super power

This recently made its way into the Greenhorns inbox, and boy! Doesn’t it just hit home for all of us? We love this! And we think that you’ll enjoy it too. The author, Jeffery Davis, is a consultant, speaker, and author of the poetry collection Coat Thief  (Saint Julian Press) and The Journey from the Center of the Page.  He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife and two girls. Find him online at trackingwonder.com.

The Secret Super Power: Wonder 

Jeffrey Davis

You know that feeling? When everything you were building burns down? The planks of a reasonable life you’ve laid crumble underneath you, and you find yourself free-falling like Alice down a hole that feels bottomless.  You don’t know who you are.  You’re clueless about whom you might become.

For me, after a fire literally burned down my dream house one July, I peeled a paperback edition of William James’s essays on psychology from the charred wall of my study.  The book had been compressed into the wall from the pressure of the firefighters’ hose.  I ripped from my burnt walnut desk a copy of Buddhist psychologist Mark Epstein’s book Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart.

It hadn’t been an easy summer, even before the fire.

mycomania in the hudson valley, oct. 6-10

This October, join hundreds of mycophiles, artists, and Earth activists for a unique 5-day, volunteer-run gathering to learn how to work with fungi to support your community and environment.

The Radical Mycology Convergence (RMC) is a weekend long event consisting of workshops, presentations, and various mycoremediation installations. Beyond the skills shared, the RMC also works to build a community among like-minded mycophiles (aka mushroom lovers) and community-based Earth healers to collaborate on remediation and restoration projects during and after the RMC.

The RMC organizers feel strongly that these skills need to be shared and we want to make information on the fungi and their unique healing abilities accessible and tangible for as many people as possible. By creating an encouraging and welcoming space we hope to “be-mushroom” all who attend in an effort to bring about greater planetary health.

We would like to invite anyone interested in participating in this event to come and learn, help out, or teach! The RMC is family friendly, non-discriminatory, and is donation-based to provide open access to people of all backgrounds.

For more information visit RadicalMycologyConvergence.com.

hudson valley farmers are making responsible meat eating easier

Attention Northeastern meat eaters! These beautiful farmers, and our friends, over at Cairncrest sell sustainably-raised, small-scale, hand-processed pork (raised on forages, local non-GMO grains, and whey from yogurt manufacturing) and 100% grass fed beef at locations in NY, PA, and VT. Highest quality meat from caring and skilled farmers. Order what you want online and choose a pick-up location!

They are also looking for individuals or groups who might be interested in setting up buyers clubs in the Hudson Valley. So if you are a passionate foodie go-getter in the that area, contact the farm!

HVYFC spring mixer at kinder hook farm, may 28

Anna will give us a tour of the lambing operation where she’s raising 300 lambs this year. Then we’ll enjoy a BBQ with Kinderhook meat and beer from Captain Lawrence Brewing Company. Bring a side dish if you can and plate/cup/utensils.

Kinderhook Farm (1958 Co Rd 21, Valatie, NY 12184)

All farmers, friends and family welcome! If you’re not able to bring food, come anyway!!

See you then,

HVYFC team

ny: wassail and balkan dance party

Happy Spring! We are please to invite you to our 20th Annual Wassail. This year we will be joined by an unusually robust group of musicians. There will be wassailing, singing, dancing and feasting among the trees. As always, we invite anyone who would like to camp in the orchard, (which is now certified organic!), to do so. Please note the Wassail is being held at Breezy Hill Orchard-just outside Rhinebeck. There is a lot to celebrate this year, especially our purchase of Stone Ridge Orchard. We will be unveiling some exciting new plans for that farm at the Wassail.

RSVPs are quite important to us to make sure we are cooking the right amount of wonderful foods for you all. The wood fired pizza oven will be cranking, the cider will be pouring. We will have wonderful new hard cider releases which you will be the first to taste. Please help us publicize this event by sharing this email with family, friends and colleagues.   flexible pricing, no one turned away

long table harvest (a food rescue organization) needs your help!

Long Table Harvest gleans surplus produce from farms in Columbia County and distribute it to those in need. About 1/4 of the population in Columbia County is food insecure and/or low-income. We are working with 14 distribution sites in the county, half are pantries and the other half are non-profits and community organizations already working with community members who would benefit from better access to fresh produce.

They are in the middle of a fundraising campaign via IndieGoGo. If you have a moment, please take a look our campaign and share it with your customers, CSA members, press outlets or anyone you think may want to know about what we are doing. This project is very much a community effort! You can also donate — every dollar counts.