Organic Farm School

 cultivating farmers, food, and community

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Interested in Sustainable Farming?

Come learn the skills you need to become an organic farmer! 2013 course: 3/11/13 – 10/25/13

Small-scale organic farming is experiencing a renaissance as our society realizes the human and ecological consequences of industrial farming and recognizes the benefits of local food systems that foster ecological and social health. At the same time, our U.S. farming community is ageing and we have an urgent need to encourage a new generation of farmers focused on a triple bottom line approach. Our goal is to help train this new generation of eco-farmers, allowing them to quickly establish successful small farms that will become the foundation of our growing locally-based food system. Farming is a challenging endeavor and we offer our students the skills and concepts they need to maximize their success while minimizing their risk… such as how to create a balanced ecosystem and create sustainable fertility systems, how to plan for profit, how to conduct on-farm research and how to build community support for the farm. If you are truly considering entering the world of sustainable farming, invest in your understanding of holistic farm management and get a head-start on creating a successful farm!

Download the OFS Booklet for Prospective students

Organic Farm School Overview

This full-time, 7.5-month long expe­ri­en­tial pro­gram is for aspir­ing farm­ers seek­ing to learn and prac­tice the tech­ni­cal and busi­ness skills needed to run a small-scale organic farm. Through coop­er­a­tively man­ag­ing the Organic Farm School’s eight-acre farm and attend­ing weekly lec­tures, dis­cus­sions and demon­stra­tions on top­ics includ­ing organic crop pro­duc­tion, soil sci­ence, busi­ness plan­ning, and direct mar­ket­ing, par­tic­i­pants will acquire a thor­ough edu­ca­tion in organic small farm man­age­ment. Par­tic­i­pants also engage in inde­pen­dent stud­ies includ­ing a research project and the cre­ation of a per­sonal busi­ness plan. Bi-weekly field trips to regional farms allow par­tic­i­pants to see a vari­ety of farm­ing styles and talk to expe­ri­enced pro­duc­ers. Through man­age­ment of the OFS Farm, par­tic­i­pants develop their prac­ti­cal farm skills includ­ing plan­ning, tillage, green­house prop­a­ga­tion, weed­ing, har­vest­ing, mar­ket­ing, record keep­ing and more. Stu­dents also learn to build a green­house, oper­ate trac­tors, make com­post and man­age the farm’s poul­try and bees. With the skills and knowl­edge gained and a busi­ness plan in hand, pro­gram grad­u­ates are ready to start or man­age their own small organic farm.

Program Instruction

An edu­ca­tional proverb states,“Hear and For­get, See and Remem­ber, Do and Under­stand”. In this spirit, our full­time pro­gram is focused on pro­vid­ing a hands-on expe­ri­ence that allows con­cur­rent aca­d­e­mic stud­ies to come to life.

For 30 hours each week, par­tic­i­pants are in the fields of our eight acre farm learn­ing about, and work­ing on, pro­duc­ing organic veg­eta­bles for sale through a 70-member CSA pro­gram, a farm­ers mar­ket and local retail­ers. The farm also grows a vari­ety of seed crops, berries, veg­etable research plots and cover crops. The Farm Man­ager trains and guides par­tic­i­pants in group ses­sions and/or indi­vid­u­ally as needed and par­tic­i­pants work both coop­er­a­tively and indi­vid­u­ally to accom­plish the farm work. This work includes bed prepa­ra­tion, plant prop­a­ga­tion, weed­ing, har­vest­ing, run­ning the mar­ket stand, cover crop­ping, mak­ing com­post, trel­lis­ing, and much more. Farm respon­si­bil­i­ties are rotated within the group to ensure that each par­tic­i­pant has an oppor­tu­nity to expe­ri­ence all aspects of the farm. By August, a foun­da­tion of skills and con­cepts has been estab­lished and par­tic­i­pants are encour­aged to fur­ther develop their skills by tak­ing coop­er­a­tive lead­er­ship of the farm and make farm man­age­ment deci­sions with feed­back and assis­tance from the Farm Man­ager. (Please note: Accom­plish­ing farm work is a phys­i­cal activ­ity that requires par­tic­i­pants to be phys­i­cally active and out­doors on a daily basis for seven months. Before apply­ing, please con­sider your abil­ity to per­form this level of activity.)

For 10 hours each week, par­tic­i­pants take part in classes and dis­cus­sions on the pro­duc­tion, busi­ness, eco­log­i­cal and social con­cepts that lie behind the prac­ti­cal work. On Mon­day morn­ings the class walks around the farm, observ­ing and dis­cussing changes in the crops while strate­giz­ing man­age­ment options and plan­ning the upcom­ing week’s work. On Wednes­day morn­ings, we com­plete, review and refine the farm’s busi­ness, mar­ket­ing and record keep­ing aspects while in the after­noons, we meet to dis­cuss and deepen our rela­tion­ships to each other and cre­ate a team atmos­phere of respect and sup­port. This meet­ing encour­ages par­tic­i­pants to develop their com­mu­ni­ca­tion and lis­ten­ing skills while fos­ter­ing a group dynamic that is pos­i­tive and pro­duc­tive. Thurs­day after­noons are the core of our Farm School aca­d­e­mic pro­gram­ming with a three-hour class exam­in­ing organic crop pro­duc­tion, busi­ness plan­ning and direct mar­ket­ing con­cepts. In this class, we uti­lize and review the two cur­ric­ula devel­oped at the Cen­ter for Agroe­col­ogy and Sus­tain­able Food Sys­tems (CASFS) as well as other resources.

In addi­tion to time spent on the farm and in the class­room, par­tic­i­pants work on inde­pen­dent read­ing and research projects includ­ing a busi­ness plan and a farm-based research project. After ini­tial group dis­cus­sions on the projects, par­tic­i­pants work inde­pen­dently in their own time and meet sep­a­rately with the Training Director every two weeks to review the progress made and deter­mine the next steps. When com­pleted, par­tic­i­pants share and present their reports to the group. Our goal for the busi­ness plan project is to sup­port par­tic­i­pants in thor­oughly ana­lyz­ing their per­sonal farm­ing goals and help them cre­ate a real­is­tic plan towards accom­plish­ing them. The research projects will be focused on devel­op­ing or improv­ing aspects of the farm and may include crop vari­ety tri­als, soil man­age­ment alter­na­tives, pest man­age­ment strate­gies, resource con­ser­va­tion strate­gies or other par­tic­i­pant ini­tia­tives approved by the staff. Each project lasts 12 weeks and gen­er­ally takes 50 — 60 hours to complete.