A Short Course for Hopeful New Farmers in Pennsylvania
If you have ever considered launching a small business related to agriculture, but were not sure where to start, this is the course for you! Designed to help guide you through an initial exploratory decision making process, “Exploring the Small Farm Dream” bridges the gap between ideas and action.
Whether your vision includes making goat cheese, selling cut flowers, or growing rare tomato varieties, this course will give you the tools to start making that dream come true. Participants will discuss current opportunities in small-scale agriculture, explore objectives, assess personal and financial resources, conduct preliminary market research, and develop an action plan for pursuing their interests in food and farming. All levels of experience are welcome. If you are thinking about starting a farm, this course is designed for you. This includes people thinking about full-time farming, farming part-time while continuing other employment, changing careers to start a farm, and/or developing an existing but informal farming pastime into a more serious business activity.
What to expect:
Creative exercise, research and class discussions that will help you assess your skills and resources.
Interviews with local farm business owners that will assist you in deciding how to carry your dream forward.
The opportunity to connect with others interested in new farm enterprises.
Who should attend:
Career changers and farm newbies breaking into agricultural pursuits.
Farm apprentices interested in launching their own start-ups.
SCHEDULE – Four evenings (All sessions 6 – 8:30 p.m.):
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 Session I: Expressing Farm Dreams and Evaluating Goals
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 Session II: Researching the Landscape
Monday, October 11, 2010 Session III: Assessing Resources and Risk
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 Session IV: Decision-Making / Identification of Next Steps
LOCATION:
Penn State Extension of Allegheny County
Lexington Technology Park
400 North Lexington Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
COURSE REGISTRATION
Course registration fee is $100 person (cost includes one Explorer workbook per participant). Please make your check out to “PSU Extension, Allegheny County Program Fund” and email or mail this form to:
Come spend a Sunday afternoon enjoying delicious sustainably grown food and a beautiful view of Pittsburgh to boot! This Sunday, August 29th, on the Rachel Carson (9th St.) Bridge the Rachel Carson Homestead Association is hosting their 4th annual sustainable feast! The event takes place from 12:00 pm-5:00 pm and costs $10 per person. Children 5 and under get in free! Come whenever you can.
Many varied organizations will be tabling on environmentally-related issues and much of the food being cooked up by local chefs will come from local producers. Click here for more information.
With the Penn State Master Gardeners of Allegheny County
Saturday, August 14
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Bring the kids, and your gardening questions, and join the Penn State Master Gardeners of Allegheny County. This free event is filled with tours, refreshments, and a garden market in the demonstration gardens in North and South Parks.
Special stations located throughout each garden will provide information on pollinators, herbs, composting and rain barrels. Visit with local beekeepers and take guided tours of annual flower trials, pollinator gardens and herb gardens while the kids enjoy hands-on gardening activities.
Sample a variety of locally-grown tomatoes, roasted garlic and basil, and vote for your favorites. At the tomato-tasting area, you can meet Doug Oster from KDKA’s The Organic Gardeners program in North Park and Denise Schreiber, known as Mrs. Know-It-All, in South Park.
The garden market will feature fresh tomatoes, garlic, peppers, and other vegetables grown by Master Gardeners. A variety of landscape plants, dried and fresh cut flowers, gardening books and other items will be available for purchase. At the Q & A table, Master Gardeners will be on hand to identify plants and diagnose problems, and to answer your gardening questions. Soil test kits will be available for sale at $9 each.
The Penn State Extension Demonstration Gardens at North and South Parks showcase annual and perennial plants that perform well in our climate and soils. Each site also includes a pollinator garden, part of a collaborative effort with the Haagen-Dazs brand to promote bee-friendly gardens and to educate the public on the importance of pollinators. The North Park garden is located at the intersection of Wildwood Road and Babcock Blvd. and the South Park garden is located at the intersection of Corrigan Drive and McConkey Road. The gardens are planted and maintained by the Penn State Master Gardeners of Allegheny County. Master Gardeners are available to answer questions in North Park on Wednesday evenings and in South Park on Tuesday evenings.
You are invited to a neighborhood block party this Friday June 25th to celebrate cyclists, pedestrians, and neighbors. We will have finger foods, soda pop, acoustic music, games, and balloons for everyone to enjoy, on the house!
At the East End Food Co-op – 7516 Meade St, Pittsburgh PA 15221
Friday, June 25th
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Penn State Cooperative Extension, Black Mommy Circle, East End Food Co-Op, Just Harvest, and Pittsburgh Food Policy Council,
in partnership with Active Voice and Participant Media,invite you to a FREE community screening of the film Food, Inc.
Featuring a panel discussion: “What can we do to improve the health of our neighborhoods,” question and answer session, and community resource tabling
Wednesday, June 9, 2010, 6:00 pm – 8 pm
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Homewood
7101 Hamilton Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
Healthyrefreshments provided by the Ujamaa Collective
Childcare available – RSVP required
Please RSVP by phone (412-431-8960) or email (info@justharvest.org)
Food, Inc., a feature-length documentary by director Robert Kenner, lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing a system controlled by international corporations that prioritize profit over the health and safety of consumers. Please visit www.foodincmovie.com.
The Ingredients for Change Campaign includes public screening events of the film Food, Inc. in thirty lower income communities around the country in an effort to raise public awareness of the U.S. food system, and to address issues of food access, childhood obesity, and other diet-related health problems.
Penn State supports entrepreneurship of all kinds, particularly endeavors related to agriculture. The Allegheny County office is running an entrepreneurship class in May called Exploring the Small Farm Dream. This class helps people with ag related business ideas, get through the initial planning and research stages necessary to begin writing a business plan. The response from folks interested in starting their own business was so overwhelming, that we maxed out facility space and have a waiting list large enough to run a second class. Further, discussions around the economic recover regularly include small business and start ups as critical to job creation and growth. For these reasons, yum is excited to let you all know about the Entrepreneur’s Growth Conference [EGC] June 10 at Duquesne University.
Since its debut in 1998, the[EGC has been empowering new and seasoned entrepreneurs with information designed to catalyze business growth. Over the past ten years, the EGC has risen in prominence and is now among Pennsylvania’s preeminent entrepreneurship events, annually attracting more than 500 attendees, many of whom return year after year to reignite their entrepreneurial spirit and receive the latest information on building entrepreneurial growth and wealth.
If you are starting a business or transitioning one to the next level, you won’t want to miss this once-a-year opportunity to discover the latest business-building tools, resources and ideas – information that you can implement in your business the very next day!
Yum is really excited to let you all know about the Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival happening on May 15-16. This is a great spring roadtrip, just an hour plus south on I79 from Pittsburgh. It will be held at the Greene County Fairground from 10am -5pm both days.
For fiber art enthusiasts this is a great place to pick up some high quality locally hand spun yarn. Most of us might be putting our needles away for the summer, leaving time for gardening, or road trips, but this level of quality can’t be bought in a store. It may inspire you to stock up for fall or make something special for a summer gift. It is wedding season, and there’s always a baby shower on the horizon.
This festival is MUCH more than just a yarn fest. So feel free to pack all your loved ones in the for the ride. There will be music, delicious local lamb and other food for feasting, dog shepherding demos, tractor pulls, kid’s (no pun intended) activities, local wineries, and more.
We are running a class called Exploring the Small Farm Dream next month. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Bob Batz wrote up a great article on the class you can read here.
Whether your vision includes making goat cheese, selling cut flowers, or growing rare tomato varieties, this course will give you the tools to start making that dream come true.
Participants will learn about opportunities in small-scale agriculture, assess their personal and financial resources, network with farmers, even develop an action plan for pursuing their interests in food and farming, full- or part-time.
The sessions run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on four Mondays:
• May 10: Expressing Farm Dreams and Evaluating Goals
• May 17: Researching the Landscape
• May 24: Assessing Resources and Risk
• June 7: Decision-Making and Identification of Next Steps
The classes will be held at the extension’s offices at 400 N. Lexington St. in Point Breeze. Email: kmb6011@ag.psu.edu or call 412-473-2540 for more info and the registration packet.
St. Anne Spring Festival – A Gathering of Fair Trade and Organic Vendors
Taking place on the St. Anne Church Grounds in Castle Shannon on Sunday, April 25th this event will include a variety of local fair trade and organic vendors. Featuring; Ten Thousand Villages, who will be showcasing and selling hand-crafted artisan items from around the world, Don Kretschmann, a certified organic farmer who will have fresh produce for sale while also discussing Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives, and La Prima Espresso, offering a variety of fresh-brewed coffee and espresso drinks while also taking pre-orders for La Prima Fair-Trade and Organic coffee & espresso. Grow Pittsburgh will be selling seedlings too.
Where & When:
Sunday, April 25th, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM,400 Hoodridge Dr.Pittsburgh, PA 15234
The Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network is pleased to announce its 2010 Field Day schedule. Through member requests, we have developed an exciting array of educational and networking events for 2010 and encourage PA-WAgN members to take advantage of these opportunities to increase your knowledge and strengthen networks.
yumpittsburgh is part of a Penn State project which strives to strengthen the local food infrastructure in Western Pa by connecting the supply and demand sides of our foodshed. This site will highlight timely info for and about farmers, food, events and resources in our community. Yum is coordinated by Heather Mikulas, Program Associate, Community Based Agriculture, Penn State Extension, Allegheny County. Email Heather at hem12@psu.edu.
Visit the 'about' page to learn more.
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