Summer Pruning in the Butler Cherry Orchard

What’s “Alternative Agriculture”? The Grange School is unique among farmer training programs in providing intensive introductions to livestock as part of its regular curriculum. The current generation of alternative agriculture programs started out with Alan Chadwick’s intensive vegetable production program at the University of California Santa Cruz. The apprenticeship program there at the re-named Center…

Stop WWOOFing, Start Farming By James Bording            At any young farmer gathering, I’ve heard the same conversation about how people got started in Agriculture play out dozens of times. “How long have you been farming?” “Oh about 3 years, I raised backyard chickens , I took some classes and then I WWOOFed before I…

*Read part 1 of Michael Foley’s post on Micro-Agriculture here * Making Micro-Agriculture Work I recently made the economic case for micro-agriculture, farming on three acres or less.  A handful of farmers in Mendocino County are showing that very small-scale farming can produce a respectable income; and farmers around the country, including some well-known farmer-authors,…

“I could do with less,” says Andrew Brown, current student at the SAA, and this sentiment succinctly captures the minimalist style of the one who prefers to go only by “Brown.” A former member of the California Conservation Corps, Brown, 22, can be identified any given day by the beanie and safety spectacles he wears…