Welcoming the New Year

Community Update January 2019

Upcoming Programs

Despite the depths of winter, more courses are just around the corner! Our February newsletter will share course registration for all of our spring favorites including Propagation, Growing Soils, and Carpentry.

Meanwhile, we're excited to launch a new mushroom cultivation course this February partnering with two Cornell programs.

Cultures around the world have revered mushrooms as a vital source of nutrition and healing for centuries. For contemporary farmers, mushrooms can be much more than an emerging and lucrative niche crop, they offer communities opportunities to address issues of unequal access to land, infrastructure and capital, which are all identified barriers to equity and justice in food production.

Farm School NYC, Cornell Cooperative Extension Urban Agriculture Program and Cornell Small Farms Program are partnering on this six-week course that explores the ethnography and social justice aspects of growing mushrooms and trains new and experienced farmers in the background, techniques, and economics of farm scale indoor commercial production. Students will learn about mushroom cultivation, harvesting and marketing and will receive spawn and guidance to try mini mushroom experiments at home.

Indoor Specialty Mushroom Cultivation

with Cornell Small Farms Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension Urban Agriculture Program, and Farm School NYC

Tuesdays, 2/26, 3/5, 3/12, 3/19, 3/26, 4/2, from 6pm – 9pm

Sliding Scale: $240, $180 or $120

(This course is free for current advanced students in our Citywide program)

Registration will be available soon

Zooming Out

Welcome, FOTO!

The new 2018 Farm Bill was signed into law on December 20, three months late and FOTO-ready. The Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach (FOTO) program is a new initiative that unites two critical programs for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander farmers and beginning and veteran farmers. FOTO combines the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, which currently funds Farm School NYC, and the Outreach and Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers program, which has supported outreach for people of color and veterans for nearly three decades. This initiative should streamline and strengthen the programs, which will remain distinct, but will better coordinate their complementary goals in this new arrangement.

Read more about FOTO here. >

Program Reflections

Currently, our first year students have moved on from Training of Trainers to Food Justice, while second year students are beginning advanced courses with Crop Planning.

" Training of Trainers shifted my paradigm regarding power dynamics in the classroom-- it helped me realize we all have the potential to be effective facilitators."

-Certificate student, 2018

"I really appreciated how the facilitators modeled the learning approaches they discussed with students. One of the best things as we move away from oppressive learning models is to show an example, and now I feel I have examples to walk away with!"

-Certificate student, 2018

Farming While Black

Brunch & Book Talk with Leah Penniman

Sunday, February 3, 2 - 5pm

Mayday Space, 176 St Nicholas Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Farm School NYC is proud to join the Mayday Collective , the Central Brooklyn Food Coop , and the Black Youth Project 100 NYC chapter for an afternoon of storytelling and breaking bread among Black farmers and farmers of color from New York as we celebrate award-winning author, farmer, and educator Leah Penniman ’s new book, Farming While Black. A team of community chefs will be making a home cooked meal with locally sourced ingredients. Non-black, non-POC identified folks are welcome to attend. Save the date, and check here for more information.

Seeding Power Fellowship

We're excited for the launch of Community Food Funders' Seeding Power Fellowship , an 18 month training program aimed at strengthening the food justice movement by connecting food system leaders in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island. The program centers racial equity, cultivating leadership, and movement building through a combination of peer coaching, weekend retreats, and independent project development. Applicants should have experience working on food system change, and be in a position to influence a nonprofit organization with similar goals. Applications are due by January 31, so let's get planning!