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Inside the University of Vermont Farmer Apprentice Program
Vermont isn’t exactly shabby when it comes to nurturing agricultural opportunities and support for its farmers. And now, aspiring farmers have another avenue through which to learn the trade: The University of Vermont’s Farmer Apprentice Program. The buzz-garnering inaugural five-month program (what initially was seven months has recently been shortened) runs May 31 to November…
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Education Opportunities Abound: Go West Young Farmer!
It seems like everywhere you turn, new programs are cropping up around the nation to support and educate young farmers eager to get their hands in the dirt. The Northwest is no exception, and within the past year has ushered in several unique and innovative programs that help prepare young farmers for the realities of…
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Bootstrap! Farmers blog their first season
Introducing…Bootstrap! A new blog series written by beginning farmers in their first season of farming. Our first featured farmers are from County Rail Farm, just outside of Missoula, Montana. Margaret De Bona and Tracy Potter-Fins will fill us in on the ups and downs of their first season as CSA farmers. Margaret De Bona and…
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Pawel Buda and Kelly Firkins, MN
Delablu Farm is located in South Central Minnesota, between Delavan and Blue Earth. We grow a wide variety of flavorful and colorful vegetables and some raspberries, black raspberries, strawberries, melons, watermelons and we have a few apple trees. We sell at the Mankato Farmers’ Market, the Rainbow Foods Co-op in Blue Earth, the Amboy Cottage…
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How the next farm bill could plant a new crop of farmers
From Grist, by Lindsey Lusher Shute (Posted 1-2-2011) USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack recently called for 100,000 new farmers — a recognition that the U.S. farm population is aging rapidly. To create a revitalized, sustainable, and socially-just food system, we need to cultivate a new generation of farmers — and quickly. But starting a business takes…
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Cara Fraver and Luke Deikis, NY
By Cara Fraver Quincy Farm is still in its first days, but we have been working on the plan for years. Luke Deikis, my partner, and I will cultivate organically grown vegetables on abeautiful 48 acre farm on the Hudson River in upstate New York. We plan to sell CSA shares as the years progress,…
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Emily Oakley and Mike Appel, OK
We are Emily Oakley and Mike Appel, and we own and operate Three Springs Farm, a diversified, certified-organic vegetable farm in northeastern Oklahoma. We cultivate over fifty different crops on six acres of land. Farming is our full-time job; we don’t have any off-farm income. About half of our crop land is sown in annuals…
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NYFC/Greenhorns Testify at Beginning Farmer and Rancher Advisory Committee in DC
Hannah Berhardt is at it again! She offered this testimony on behalf of the Greenhorns and the National Young Farmers’ Coalition at today’s meeting of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Agriculture: My name is Hannah Bernhardt, and I’m here today on behalf of the non-profit organization The Greenhorns–whose mission…
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Young Farmer Testifies at Antitrust Hearing
The following testimony was given during the Department of Justice’s recent workshop on antitrust issues in agriculture in Washington, DC: My name is Hannah Bernhardt, and I’m here on behalf of the National Young Farmers Coalition and the non-profit organization The Greenhorns, whose mission is to recruit, support, and promote young and beginning farmers in…