Exploring Your New Farm Dream
Exploring Your New Farm Dream
2 upcoming courses!
Exploring Your New Farm Dream is a course for people who are thinking about starting a commercial farm business (farming with the intent to make a profit rather than as a hobby or a pastime). Developed by the New England Small Farm Institute (NESFI), the course helps aspiring farmers learn what it would take to start and manage their own “farm dream” and decide whether this the right path for them.
Over 12 hours (four three-hour sessions) and one day of farm tours, the Explorer course takes a learner-centered approach to exploring agriculture as a career. As a participant in the course, you will be guided through an in depth self-assessment process, designed to help you identify the specific aptitudes, interests, skills and resources that you can bring to a new farm business. You will receive support through the process of researching opportunities in agriculture. And you will meet other serious gardeners, livestock enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs who are also asking themselves, “Is starting an agricultural business right for me?”
If you are considering…
- full-time farming,
- farming part-time while continuing other employment,
- changing your career to start farming,
- taking over an existing farm business,
- developing an existing but informal agricultural pastime into a more serious business activity, and/or
- re-strategizing an existing farm business.
…then Exploring Your New Farm Dream is the ideal learning and networking opportunity for you!
The course will enable you to…
- set personal and farm goals,
- assess available resources,
- determine if farming as a business is a good fit for you, and
- develop an action plan to guide your next steps.
This course is not about developing a farm plan or business plan. It’s about answering the very important question: Is starting an agricultural business right for me?
This Winter/Spring 2010, FarmStart is offering the course in both Kitchener and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Both courses include 4 evening sessions and 1 day of farm tours. Participants MUST be able to attend ALL four sessions and a Saturday farm tour.
Session One: “So you want to be a farmer?”
Session Two: Researching agricultural opportunities
Session Three: What can you bring to your enterprise?
Session Four: Next steps and evaluation
Kitchener – The Working Centre (58 Queen St. South)
Evening sessions: Wednesdays (6:30pm – 9:30pm), Feb 10, Feb 17, Mar 3, Mar 10
Farm tour: Saturday, Feb 20 (full day)
GTA – Brampton Fair Grounds (12942 Heart Lake Road)
Evening sessions: Thursdays (6:30pm – 9:30pm), Apr 15, Apr 22, May 6, May 13
Farm tour: Saturday, May 1 (full day)
For more information about the course and accompanying workbook, please visit the Explorer Course website, or contact our Training and Resources Cordinator, Gayl Creutzberg, at gaylATfarmstartDOTca, or (519) 836-7046 x 105.
$275/person or $400 for two people from the same “farm dream” (ex: family, business partners).
Thanks to Heifer International, we have scholarships for New Canadians, who can take the course for $60/person or $100 for two people coming as a team.
Payment for the course is done by credit card online (PayPal) or by cheque and will be arranged once an application form has been submitted (see below).
If you are interested in taking the course, please click here to fill out the application form.
The course coordinator, Gayl Creutzberg, will then contact you to make sure that the course is suited to your situation and arrange for payment.
Space is limited to 12 farm dreams and 20 participants (maximum of 2 people per farm dream), so please apply soon! Your spot will be secure when we have received your application form AND payment.
For a list of comments made by past Explorers, please click here.
Ali English - Ali is FarmStart’s FarmLINK Coordinator and also works on developing training programs and resources for new farmers. After completing a master’s degree in Agroecology from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ali spent three years running a market garden CSA with two friends. Having been a new farmer faced with the challenges of accessing relevant training and secure farmland, Ali feels very fortunate to be working on these issues with FarmStart. Her years of apprenticing and farming in southern Ontario have left her with a strong connection to the local farming community. She continues to explore and research her own “farm dream” and enjoys helping others think through their farm business aspirations.
Angie Koch – After devoting 10 years of her life to the field of community development and social work, Angie made a shift in the direction of agriculture. Completing a full-season internship on a farm near Orangeville did the opposite of getting the farming bug out of her system, and she started up her own vegetable CSA just outside of Waterloo. Angie is passionate about growing food and dreaming up ways to use her farm as a community development tool. Heading into her 3rd season with Fertile Ground, Angie is excited about what the future holds, although she’s never quite certain how it will emerge!
For more information about the course, please contact the course coordinator Gayl Creutzberg at gayl@farmstart.ca or (519) 836-7046 x 105
For more information on the course you can also visit the Explorer Course website.
If you find the dates, location or cost to be prohibitive, PLEASE contact Gayl (above) to let us know, as we are working hard to make this course available to those who will most benefit from it.
