A month into the summer term, our six summer term students have settled into the routine of life on the farm. On an average day, they’re up and hard at work in our market garden by 6:30am helping our Garden Manager Joshua with harvest for the farmers markets, watering, weeding, trellising or putting together a…
“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…
They Left It All Behind To Follow Their Passion Imagine packing up your sedan with the contents of your LA apartment, hitting the I-5 for the edge of the ‘civilized’ world (where there is decent cell reception and broadband internet) to pursue your passion. One that you know could very well make the world a…
Meet the Students: Kayla and Dimitri by Daniel Spiro, graduate and rock of the SAA Stop by Ridgewood Ranch and the SAA campus on a sunny afternoon after classes have concluded for the day and you’re likely to find partners Kayla Cabradilla, 26, and Dimitri Brown, 28, putting in extra hours in the school’s diverse…
What does an average day look like at the School of Adaptive Agriculture? We get this question a lot. While no two are alike, there is a rhythm to the days. Every week we touch on some aspect of our 5 core units – Livestock, Crop Production, Business Management, Industrial Arts & Community Living (with…
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…
Week 1: Introduction to Farm Life Here in Northern California, we spend around 6 months of every year without a drop of rain. Without irrigation, soil goes dormant as the microbes are relatively still in suspended animation. On campus, however, we work on the reverse schedule. While we don’t go “dormant” in the winter, the…
This blog series is written by one of the School’s founders, Michael Foley. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series. In previous blogs I’ve made the case for “micro-agriculture,” farming commercially, that is, on just an acre or two. And I’ve shown how people are doing it. Here I want…
Welcome to this Spring’s Adaptive Agriculture Practicum Training Program! AdAPT students are taking on the challenge of producing food as a way of feeding communities and regenerating natural processes. These courageous, creative, and driven people will be working their way towards a better future. Here they are: Sarah “I currently work on a small farm…
*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,…
