Press release from the Organic Growers School:
Asheville, NC- On September 20th, 20 students gathered at the Southern Appalachians Highlands Conservancy incubator farm to receive graduation certificates for our year long farmer training program Farm Beginnings®. The Organic Growers School launched the program with a 2015 pilot and this year’s class completed a full year that covered whole farm planning, holistic goal setting, agroecology, financial literacy, business start-up and management, and marketing. Each Farm Beginnings® student has gone through a full year of training, 13 winter classroom sessions, 3 conferences, participated in WNC CRAFT and Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) Incubator farm workshops, completed readings and farm proposal assignments, and over 200 hours of trainings, to fully graduate and complete Farm Beginnings®. These aspiring farmers came to this training with a dream and an idea, and dedicated themselves to learning the field of sustainable agriculture.
After a year of hearing directly from farmers about what they need to know and prepare for, one of our students reported, “I don’t know of any way you can get all this information other than going door to door and stalking farmers!”
The students have a range of interests that they distilled down over the course of the year to develop a learning plan that they implemented April through September of this year. This plan was a roadmap to continue skill development and enterprise refinement. One student, Rolando Boye, has an extensive background in quality control for medicinal herb products, but is interested in moving into the production of these herbs. He grew 4 different herbs this season in a small space to begin to understand their specific needs, he has networked with the WNC medicinal herb community and has stepped into offering his expertise on good quality control practices to other aspiring medicinal herb growers! He is currently searching for land with his family.
Another presentation focused on the first year successes of New Roots Market Garden, an ½ acre leased property that was spearheaded by Krista Wesch and Stephen Rosenthal. They began a diversified market garden this year, selling at a regional Asheville tailgate market and to some restaurants. As their season progressed, they responded to the wishes of chefs and began offering some foraged items.
The recurring theme throughout the student’s presentations this year was, “Be true to yourself.” Dreaming of a farm and having a farm are two very different things and Farm Beginnings® helps students to understand why they wanted to farm and how they want to do it. Some students concluded that they want their land enterprises to pay for themselves, but have shifted away from a livelihood generating farm. All referenced their holistic goal as a guiding principle that helped them to make decisions that reflected their values and desired quality of life. Others are on their way to implementing enterprises that will be income generating on leased or owned land, undertaking more education and apprenticeships or looking for land to own or lease to start their farm business. Each of these outcomes is a great success!
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