Blog

This upcoming webinar/discussion, scheduled for April 18 at 6 pm (3 pm Pacific time), will examine a number of questions around apprenticeships: how much to pay, various legal definitions, and more. The National Young Farmers’ Coalition (NYFC) is partnering with the Farmer Legal Action Group to host the discussion. See the details at the NYFC’s [...]

Cornell University has produced a series of fact sheets to guide farmers producing food in urban centers and on the urban fringe. The 105-page resource guide contains fact-sheets on a myriad of topics, including tips for advocating for urban agriculture, engaging communities, dealing with contaminated soils, intensive growing techniques, urban composting, site security, urban livestock, [...]

The FruitGuys company is making small grants available to farmers in Northern California and the Delaware Valley. According to their website: Grants will be awarded in early 2013 to 5-8 small farms in the amount of $2,500-$5,000. We will fund projects that help farms and orchards operate more sustainably, both environmentally and economically. Some examples [...]

Dan Tran, a 2011 Apprenticeship grad and a second-year apprentice in 2012, is currently part of the Capitol Fellows program in Sacramento. He’s working on the startup of a new program, the California Healthy Food Financing Initiative Council (CHFFIC), a public-private partnership that was created to increase access to healthy foods in underserved, urban, and [...]

The Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) at UC Santa Cruz is hiring a Farm Site and Research Lands Manager to join a team of experienced farmers and gardeners running the CASFS Farm and Garden Apprenticeship Program, assuming primary responsibility for new farm sites at CASFS (the Hay Barn and Lower Quarry Fields) and [...]

Kylie Manson, a 2012 CASFS Farm & Garden Apprenticeship graduate, has put together a cookbook to share some favorite original and adapted recipes from the class of 2012. See the cookbook here. As Kylie says, here’s to growing, harvesting, and sharing good food with each other!  

If you’re planning to attend this year’s Ecological Farming Conference, please join us at the CASFS Farm & Garden Apprenticeship mixer on Thursday evening, January 24, from 5:30 – 6:30 pm. Hear the latest news from the Apprenticeship, meet Daniel Press, the new director of the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, and catch up [...]

Orin Martin penned these thoughts at the Chadwick Garden recently on his trusty yellow notepad (aka Orin’s blog). Somewhere past the end of the growing season, approaching the year’s shortest day, day dreamin’ about the way things sometimes are, there are cherished (read quiet) moments in the garden. One could get melancholy. But then there [...]

This article was written by Don Burgett and reprinted from the Summer 2012 News & Notes of the UCSC Farm & Garden. In mid-August a very special group of people reunited for a weekend in Santa Cruz. Twenty-four “Home Farmers,” some with family members in tow, came together to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their time [...]

Apprenticeship graduate Ana Rasmussen founded Mesa Verde Gardens to help promote food security and access to organic food through community gardening for low-income families in the Santa Cruz County. She’s now working to get a community orchard underway. Mesa Verde Gardens has just launched a KICKSTARTER campaign to raise funds for our latest project, the [...]