FarmStart is very happy to announce a brand new learning opportunity for future farmers: Exploring the New Farm Dream, a course for people who are thinking about starting a farm.

Developed by the New England Small Farm Institute, the Explorer course helps aspiring farmers learn what it would take to start and mange their own agricultural enterprises, and decide whether this the right path for them.

The Explorer course takes a learner-centred approach to exploring agriculture as a career.  Participants in the course will be guided through an in depth self-assessment process, focusing on the specific aptitudes, interests, skills and resources that they can bring to their new farm businesses.  They will receive support through the process of researching opportunities in agriculture.  And they will have the chance to meet other serious gardeners, farm enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs who are also asking themselves, “is farming right for me?”

The course will take place over four Thursday night sessions at the Multicultural Inter-Agency Group of Peel (MIAG), in Mississauga.  It will also include two Saturday daytrips to innovative local farms.

If you dream of starting a farm but are not sure where to start,  Exploring the New Farm Dream is the ideal learning and networking opportunity for you!  Register quickly, as we expect the course to fill up soon.

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The fresh, young face of farming

The newest back-to-the-landers are a little different from the wave of idealists who decided to go rural in the 1970s

MARIAN SCOTT, The Gazette

It’s Friday afternoon, and the five members of the Tourne-Sol Co-operative Farm, 50 kilometres west of Montreal, are packing fresh-picked produce to sell at two open-air markets the next morning.

“Two hundred cukes for Finnegan’s?” shouts Emily Board, as she rinses fresh-picked cucumbers and packs them into plastic bins.

“Sounds good,” responds Reid Allaway.

Up since 6 a.m., the farmers, age 27 to 31, will have toiled for almost 12 hours by the time they lay down their weary heads to sleep.

They founded the co-operative market garden four years ago, after graduating in agriculture from McGill University.

Of the five, not one comes from a farming background. All passionately believe more producers their age need to repopulate the countryside.

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SO YOU THINK YOU’D LIKE TO FARM?

For anyone interested in taking the leap to becoming a farmer, Reid Allaway and the team at Tourne-Sol Co-operative Farm offer these tips:

DO:

- Spend lots of time planning.

- Spend at least one season as an apprentice on another farm like the one you’d like to operate.

- Aim for direct marketing whenever possible (farmers’ markets, CSA basket programs, direct sales meat, food buying clubs, etc.), thus ensuring that every dollar spent on your products is yours.

- Assemble a strong business plan and use it to leverage start-up grants or wage support for start-up period.

- Budget carefully for start-up and establishment phases, making modest investments as necessary but maintaining solvency.

- Follow organic production rules and certify your farm organic as rapidly as possible.

- Pursue rental or barter agreements for land but protect yourself with legal leases or contracts.

- Find a way to live on the farm or very close by.

- Get to know your neighbours; they can rapidly become strong supporters and powerful allies.

- Keep lots and lots of records during the growing season, aka learning from your successes and mistakes.

- Aim for exceptional quality and freshness in all your products.

- Learn to live simply, thus avoiding need for off-farm income in establishment years.

- If you’re building a greenhouse or walk-in fridge (cold room) build as large as you can afford at the time – you’ll grow into it.

DON’T:

- Target markets at great distance or offer home delivery – farm tasks can’t get done if you’re stuck in traffic.

- Take the first land opportunity you find unless you know it’s ideal. Shop around and learn about soils, communities, resources, etc. before committing to put down roots.

- Enter into binding working partnerships with people you’ve never worked with before.

- Work 80-plus hours per week unless that is what you really want.

- Let weeds get ahead of you or produce seed.

- Spend a whole lot of money on a tractor, new or used, until you know what you really need.

- Take on debt or an off-farm job to service debt.

- Undercut other farmers’ prices at market.

July 23 2008
Pamela Cuthbert
special to the star

Clutching bunches of just-picked heritage beets at her Sorauren Park stall on a sunny afternoon, Matchbox Garden & Seed Co. founder Hanna Jacobs, a trained chef, explains the prime motive behind her start as an urban farmer. In 2006, as a new mother, Jacobs set up a retail herb garden in the heart of hip Queen St. W. Customers were invited to stroll through the small backyard patch and order a bunch of chives, mint, basil – whatever took their fancy. Then Jacobs, the daughter of a horse farmer in Maple, Ont., would pull out the snips. Talk about fresh.

Today she has two business partners, one acre of cultivated land in Brampton, five urban plots and “more beets than I know what to do with.”

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Food for Talk

OUR ROLE IN THE INTERNATIONAL FOOD CHAIN

The price of rice has risen by as much as 70% over the last year.

Why? And what does that mean for Canada and the rest of the world?

Rising populations, trade and climate change have sent food prices

soaring across the globe. These factors have recently prompted the

United Nations to declare a world food “crisis”. Join us for a public

dialogue bringing together youth, senior and local community members

with representatives from business, government and NGOs. Hear from

expert guest speakers and have your say.

TUESDAY JULY 29, 2008

Great Hall, University of Toronto

7 Hart House Circle, Toronto

9:00 am – 4:30 pm

(Registration begins at 9:00)

Lunch will be provided

This dialogue is free, but registration is required.  Register by emailing jameshaga@ewb.ca.  Include your full name, phone number and dietary restrictions.  Or call 416-642-9145 ext.237 to leave a message.

For more information Canada’s World, visit www.canadasworld.ca

The New York Times follows its March profile of young, hipster farmers with an article on second-career farmers abandoning high profile careers for a future in sustainable agriculture.

“In recent years, as the local food movement has grown and farmers’ markets have proliferated, a new breed of back-to-the-landers has emerged. Some, like their predecessors in the 1960s and ’70s, are earnest, college-educated young people, turning their backs on professional career paths in favor of a life of hardscrabble idealism. But many others, homesteaders in their 40s and 50s, have already enjoyed the perks of professional life, and may even have made a fortune, or at least a comfortable nest egg.”

Continue reading…