Quick Summary of the Third Graduating Class

It can be so hard sometimes to truly reflect on an experience as you’re experiencing it. At least that is how I felt throughout my summer at the Grange School. The days were so filled and fulfilling that just now, over a month after the program, do I feel like I can take a moment and assess what actually happened. At the school we call this an, “after action review.”

Over the course of 14 weeks, eight of us lived, worked, and studied under the guidance of the school so that we could re enter the world as adaptive, resourceful, and humbled food advocates.

Here is a very brief overview of some of what we did over the summer:

Attended 59 classes; went on 29 Field trips in Mendocino, Lake, and Sonoma county, and participated in field work at least 3 days a week. Not to mention all of the wonderful extra curricular’s this county has to offer, to name a few: sheep butchering demo’s, pasture cropping workshops with Colin Seis, selling food at the farmers market, canning and preparing added value food in a commercial kitchen, foraging for blackberries and bay nuts.

In the long summer days, we all shared so much together in such a short amount of time. Over meals and during mid day heat waves spent at the lake, the conversations over regenerative ranching, holistic management, and adaptive practices continued. In such a small an intimate group of students, it is impossible for your classmates not to dramatically shape the learning experience. During my term we had a deaf student who taught us all immeserable amounts about hearing priviledge. I will always remember those lessons and bring them with me wherever I go. The bonds we all developed together as we worked at figuring out what it means to live in community and how to openly communicate seem to be just as important as the other lessons I learned in the program.

It is impossible to accurately portray this experience in writing because it is so immersive with our surroundings and relies heavily on the land to tell the story. But in an attempt, I’d just like to include a list of most the class titles and field trip hosts we had this year. If nothing else than to show the large extent and broad array of concepts we just began to touch on.

CLASSES

Agricultural Philosophies
Amaranthaceae
Animal Behavior and Low Stress Handling
Animal Matrix
Animal Shelter and Fencing
Apiaceae
Bernese and Baermann
Brassicaceae
Carpentry
Compost
Cover Cropping
Cow, Sheep, Goat, and Dairy
Crop Botany
Curriculum/ Farm Orientation
Design Theory
Drafting 101
Drafting Micro and Meso Organisms
Engines
Farming for Profit
Fences and Gates
Flight Zone
Food Safety
Food Safety and GAPS
Ground Preparation
HM Pasture Based Systems
HM: Biological Monitoring
HM: Whole Farm Planning
History of Domestication
Holistic Context
Intro to Genetics
Livelihoods and Farm Economics
Livestock Orientation
Maps and Diagrams
Marketing, Branding, Social Media, & Local Food System
Meat Production
Mechanized Farm Equipment
Metalworking
Orchards and Vineyards
Plant Families
Plant Genetics Seed Saving
Plumbing
Poaceae
Poultry
Poultry Processing
Poultry Processing II
Preservation, Canning, and Added Value
Ranch/ Campus Orientation
Record Keeping
Regulatory Systems and Certifications
Season Extension
Sheep Shear
Soil Science
Soil Science Application
Soil Science: Organic Matter
Soil Science: Organism, Food Web and Connective Structure
Solanaceae
Swine
Tool Safety and Maintenance
What Sort of Business are you?

FIELD TRIPS

Acorn Farm
Apple Farm
Bountiful Gardens
Building Convergence
Cold Creek Compost
Dancing Tree Farm
Ecology Action
Farmers Olympics
Fortunate Farm
Gardens Project
Golden Rule
Green Uprising
Happy Day
Heirloom Expo
Jim Leonardis Farm
Live Power Community
Magruder Ranch
Mendocino Grain Project
Mendocino Organics
Not so Simple Living Fair
Parducci
Penny Royal
Pine Mountain
San Hedrin Nursery
Sea Ranch
Singing Frog Farm
Tequio Farm
Tierra Vegetables
Wall to Wall