applications for calypso farm & ecology center’s 2018 farmer training program are now open!

Calypso Farm & Ecology Center (Fairbanks, AK) is now recruiting applications for their 2018 Farmer Training Program, a 5-month immersive residential programs. The Program runs from May 7th to September 29th, 2018  and is designed to equip participants to become self-reliant farmers through immersion in all aspects of farm operations, working alongside experienced farmers for an entire Alaskan growing season. Calypso’s unique setting also provides exposure and experience with farm-based environmental education, community events, and a range of homesteading skills. The following is just a selection of the skills covered over the season:

• Seeding and caring for greenhouse transplants
• Prepping the field for planting
• Planting and direct seeding
• Managing soil fertility
• Weed and pest management
• Caring for farm animals
• Harvesting
• Operating a CSA
• Running a farm stand and selling to local restaurants
• Working safely, using Natural Balance
• Whole Farm Business Planning
• Blacksmithing & Wood Carving
• Building
• Wool Processing
• Tool Making and Maintenance

This program is particularly good for beginning farmers as it includes a ‘Beginning Farmer’s Bonus’. Any participant who completes the entire program (including completing their whole farm plan) will be eligible for a bonus payment after completion of the program, intended to support any future farming plans. Farmer Bonus’s are based on need as well as program participation.

Students can choose to take this program as a 6 credit course through the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

To find out more about the program, click HERE

the farm school is now accepting applications for 2018

Program Dates: October 2018 – September 2019

Since 2002, The Farm School has offered a practical, real-world agricultural education for aspiring farmers, educators and community leaders. The Learn to Farm program is a full-time, residential immersion in the work and rhythms of sustainable farm life. Everyday, and in every way, student farmers at The Farm School learn to farm by farming, supported by coursework, mentoring and instruction from staff farmers.

The Farm School helps their students establish conceptual understanding and physical competency in a wide range of skills and areas of farm production: forestry, animal husbandry, carpentry, mechanics, business planning, homesteading, marketing, cooking, organic vegetable production and beyond. The program curriculum reaches one hand back into history to pull forward the best of what traditional agriculture has to offer and with the other hand pushes ahead into cutting edge creative and dynamic ways of enriching our stewardship of land.

If you are interest in applying, please note that the Priority Application Deadline is February 15, 2018

 

There are number of visiting days coming up in the next few months, you can register for one of the below by submitting your farm application. 

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Thursday, December 4, 2017

There are a number of fellowships and significant tuition assistance is available in a number of forms directly from the Farm School. Their goal is to assemble a terrific and diverse group of students, with few limitations due to their capacity to contribute financially to the program.

 

Doune Trust Fellow: 

One full scholarship is available for a uniquely bright and compelling student representing an underserved community with great potential to serve or lead that community agriculturally. This scholarship carries the full value of the student farmer tuition contribution, including room, board, books and materials.

 

Willow Tree Fellow: 

One full scholarship is available for a student that identifies as African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx or Indigenous and who demonstrates particular promise to make good use of the Learn to Farm Program’s agricultural training. This scholarship carries the full value of the student farmer tuition contribution, including room, board, books and materials.

The Farm School is licensed by the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure as a private occupational school and approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide training for eligible veterans under the GI Bill. A full year’s college credit is available for Sustainable Food and Farming majors at the University of Massachusetts Stockbridge School of Agriculture. The Farm School will honor the full value of AmeriCorps Education Awards.

For more information about available tuition assistance and fellowships, click HERE

 

maine harvest credit project

Hey young farmers!

There is a  new Credit Union for farmers in Maine! It was founded in recognition that access to credit is one of the most difficult hurdles for young and new farmers to overcome. The Maine Harvest Credit Project is working to create a specialised credit union that is focused on providing credit to small farms and relocalizing the food economy in Maine. Their aim is to fill crucial financing gaps in the traditional credit system such as land acquisition, specialized food processing and farm equipment.

They believe that the creation of Maine Harvest will have an  impact well beyond Maine’s borders.  As the first deposit-taking institution in the USA focused on food system re-localization they will be a model for other states and regions looking to scale up the financing options for small scale, sustainably produced food and agricultural products. This is the start of something very important!

The project still needs a million dollars in order to get its accreditation, we think that this is the perfect opportunity for a tech investment (if you farm for a tech person, please pass this on for them to look at!)

To read more about the Maine Harvest Credit Union click HERE

If you or somebody you know is interested in becoming a donor, please contact Sam or Scott directly.

Sam May: sam@ddragonllc.com / 207.653.2260

Scott Budde: scott.j.budde@gmail.com / 207.653.5527

farmer fundraiser in santa fe for a lending tool library

The Northern New Mexico Young Farmers Alliance, (affiliate of the National Young Farmers Coalition and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union) is hosting a “Farmer Fundraiser” next week in support of a greater-Santa Fe Tool Lending Library next week. There will be a local food supper, beer and entertainment provided and it takes place on Thursday, October 12th from 6-9 pm at the Santa Fe Farmers Market Building in Downtown Santa Fe. Tickets are $35 for non-members and $15 for members of National Young Farmers Coalition and/or Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.

support the young farmer success act

Hey friends, Last month, Reps. Joe Courtney (D-CT), Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) and John Faso (R-NY) reintroduced the Young Farmer Success Act (H.R. 1060), a bill to provide student loan forgiveness to young farmers.

This is an initiative which could have a very positive impact, not only on current farmer, but by encouraging more young folks to join us in the field.

Tell your representative’s that this is an important issue! Take a moment to head over to the National Young Farmers Coalition to sign on.

show the country that farmer’s count!

Greenhorns! It’s no secret that the National Young Farmers Coalition goes to Herculean efforts for young farmers across the country, from fighting lobbyists from big ag to make sure the farm bill addresses the needs of small farmers to advocating their chaps off for farmer student loan forgiveness programs. Now, it’s time to help them help you!

This year, like they do every five years, NYFC conducts their National Young Farmers survey in order to understand and elevate the issues that matter most to young farmers and aspiring farmers. The result of this survey help to define the organization’s policy goals and agenda. Since they launched the survey website a couple of weeks ago, a couple of thousand farmers have taken the survey, but they still need 3,000 more respondents to reach their goal of 5,000. Let’s go!

Young farmers and ranchers – what are the issues that matter most to you? What policy changes could help your business succeed? Take the National Young Farmers Survey today and let the nation know that FarmersCount! www.youngfarmers.org/survey

man writes the NYT advice column in a panic that his son want might volunteer on an organic farm

This one here is a good laugh for all of us who may or may not be the black sheep of the family. (My grandma clipped the above cartoon out of the New Yorker and promptly sent it to me without any card when I started farming six years ago. I like to think she was smiling about it, but it’s hard to tell.)

Some man wrote the New York Times “Social Q” column last week, explaining that he is “not paying $60,000 a year (after taxes) for him to become a farmer.” And, for once in a blue moon, the NYT writer abstained from millenial-bashing to explain that the parent might consider seeking out “less controlling ways to teach him the consequences of his professional choices.” Read the full clip below the break, and maybe consider that abysmal attitudes like this are best countered with a donation to your friendly local farm advocacy organization. We still need all the help we can get!

did we mention that it’s free?

Please join National Farmers Union December 5-8, 2016 for our FREE online
beginning farmer and rancher conference.

Growing for the Future is a unique online, interactive virtual conference
focused on beginning farmer and rancher issues, including: mentorship,
business planning, USDA programs women and veterans in farming, conservation
and much more!

The conference is completely online, and features farmer-to-farmer webinars,
live Q & A, a discussion board, a resource center and free giveaways! Register
now for free to join us in December for this unique opportunity!

Register here: https://nfu.org/growing-for-the-future/

Please contact NFU Education Coordinator Melissa Miller for questions:
MelissaMiller@NFUDC.org

so(/e)wing hemp in Kentucky

“In the end there is more than just fiber that tears and fades when you use cheap goods to hold things together.”

Harvesting Liberty, about Michael Lewis (of Growing Warriors) and Rebecca Burgess (of Fibershed), who have received a grant from Patagonia to support their incredible budding hemp projects in Kentucky. Like most videos we’ve been posting here these days, this one is liable to make you cry.

Growing Warriors is a Kentucky-based farming program designed to train, assist, and equip military veterans with the skills, tools and supplies needed to grow organic produce for their families and communities. growingwarriors.org. Fibershed develops regenerative textile systems that are based on carbon farming, regional manufacturing, and public education. fibershed.com

declaration against the criminalisation, persecution and judicialization of the struggle for the defence of life, rights, land, water, seeds and mother earth

International Conference on Agrarian Reform

La Via Campesino, The Peasant’s Movement
Marabá, 15 April 2016

From 13 to 17 April 2016, in Marabá, Pará, Brazil, more than 130 delegates from 28 countries around the world were brought together as part of La Vía Campesina and allied movements, as part of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform, a symbol of the fight for freedom for men and women in the fields, the mangroves and on the sea. The aim of the conference was to draw up a much-needed proposal for Popular Agrarian Reform to override capitalist and neoliberal expansion. 

At this time of struggle and resistance for peoples of the world, we debated thecriminalisation, persecution and judicialization of the struggle for the defense of life, rights, land, water, seeds and mother earth, promoted by capitalist interests imposing political, economic, military and social terrorism. This all occurs with the consent of State Governments by means of their lethal projects such as extraction-based infrastructure projects, or capitalist ‘development’ (tourism, carbon markets, mining, hydroelectricity, monoculture, agribusiness, industrial agriculture and mariculture), as well as the militarisation of our lands. Deprivation, social instability and repression are widespread as a result of systematic assassinations, massacres, forced disappearances, high rates of femicide, imprisonment and arbitrary detention, intimidation, harassment and threats, prosecution of leaders, forced migration and wars against ordinary people.

On top of this there is political instability with the purpose of maintaining an imbalance among populations over the world, as well as frequent coups on the US government’s radar, a state which begins by creating unstable, failed states, as is the case in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Paraguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, South Africa, and the current attempted coup against the Brazilian people and the systematic meddling in the Venezuelan process.

We see collusion between the State, private companies, corporations and elites who create a culture of impunity that allows perpetrators to escape unpunished.

Faced with this wave of unbridled criminalisation of those of us who defend water, land, mangroves, sea, territory and life, we denounce and call for the punishment of those responsible for thousands of assassinations of social leaders, we denounce the legal prosecution of thousands of campaigners, we call for the liberation of thousands of political prisoners, we denounce the extreme case of the assassination of Berta Cáceres, one of the most symbolic leaders in the fight against capital plundering and a campaigner for peace in Honduras. We urgently need an end to the criminalization of the fight for land, mangroves and sea, and the social struggle.

Today, more than ever, we reaffirm that our fight is part of the defence of human rights and life. For life we give everything, for death we give nothing.

Throughout our lifelong struggle, not one moment of silence for our dead!

 

La Via Campesino is an international movement  that seeks to unite peasants, landless, woman farmers, and rural youth to fight to defend and promote small-scale sustainable agriculture as a lifestyle and livelihood. Read more about their work here! And check out our 2011 blog post about their food sovereignty youth training program.

event for landless farmers and lucky landowners, forest grove, or

Dairy Creek Community Food Web presents:

Fields for Food
a workshop on leasing farmland
Tuesday March 17, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
@
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
1609 Elm St.
Forest Grove, OR
To RSVP, call: 503-992-0078 ext. 302
Free with snacks provided!

Presentations by:
Nellie McAdams, Director of Farm Preservation Program at Rogue Farm Corps. Nellie will explain how to find farmers and craft a lease.
http://www.roguefarmcorps.org/

Greg Malinowski, farmer at Malinowski Farms and Washington County Commissioner. Greg will share his experience in leasing portions of his land to farmers for over 20 years.
http://www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org/

Charlene Murdock, Nana Cardoon Urban Farm and local Forest Grove resident who has leased land to Adelante Mujeres Sustainable Agriculture program participants.
http://www.adelantemujeres.org/, http://www.nanacardoon.com/,

second annual farmer prom, gordon, ga

Young Farmer Mixer Alert!

Second Annual Farmer Prom 2016
It’s that time of year again!
Your spring-time chance to dress up fancy and boogie down in the barn!
Sparkly dresses are encouraged …and sparkly overalls are EVEN MORE encouraged.

THIS IS A MUTLI-PURPOSE EVENT…
This is our launch party for the Middle Georgia Chapter of National Young Farmer Coalition…
AND the launch of our Middle Georgia Growers Co-op Funding Campaign
($5.00 suggested donation/entry to help us get our FUNd-drive started)

Other notes:
We’ll provide the food!  Bobby and Branson will be baking brick-oven pizzas with lamb from Forest Grove Farm.
Bring whatever you’d like to drink because we all have different tastes (although there will be beer and wine on-hand!)
Come early, stay late, camp out and spend the night!  In fact, camping is encouraged…we’ll be having pancakes in the morning!
There may or may not be prizes….be prepared for fun!

Join the Facebook Event to let us know you’re coming:
https://www.facebook.com/events/634173973397835/

thanks, huffington post!

This week from the Huffington Post: “Millenial Farmers Fight an Uphill Battle. It’s Time to Support Them.”

Probably nothing in the article is going to be groundbreaking for the greenhorns audience, but it’s always nice to feel validated… and, possibly, to email the source of that validation to you parents.

 

Plus there are some great quotes from the farmers in the article that I think will resonate with all you young farmers out there.

“We know it’s work and an uphill battle, but for some reason, we still want to do it.”

-Mike and Molly Peterson of Heritage Hollow Farms in Sperryville, VA

 

farming with draft animals scholarship

For young farmers, Tillers is offering scholarships in Alternative Power – how to use draft horses and oxen to power farms more sustainably and productively.  These scholarships will fund 60% of tuition for the following classes.

• +Draft Horse Basics – April 5-8
• +Oxen Basics – June20-24 and August 22-26
• +Farming with Horses and Oxen – June 6-10
• +Small Grain Harvesting/Processing – July date TBA
• +Small Scale Haymaking – August Date TBA

Contact Ryan DeRamus at Tillers for further information: tillers@tillersinternational.org   269-626-0223