Blog

Reminder! Greenhorns will be at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday for a screening & discussion. 7:30-9pm at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Forum Severine and Laura Hannah discuss the film process and the farm process and the relevancy of all this in a feminist context. Contact [email protected]

The Soil Association, supported by the Daylesford Foundation, are launching 300 Organic Farm School courses over the next two years. The Organic Farm School offers hands-on courses in growing your own food, rearing animals, cooking and rural crafts. Participants will learn practical skills direct from organic farmers, growers and producers with personal experience. Courses include […]

Another Greenhorns Ally, Al Attara, in the News: The Green Economy, A Work in Progress http://blogs.journalism.cuny.edu/nycondeadline/tag/flatbush-avenue/

Greenhorns, nominate yourselves or those you know who are doing important work! 2009 marks the 7th Glynwood Harvest Awards. To find out more about the Awards and Glynwood go to http://www.glynwood.org/Programs/HarvestAwards/ThisYearOverview.html Glynwood is doing something a little different this year recognizing farmers are VERY busy folks in the summer - when applications for the Awards […]

Exploring the Small Farm Dream - May 13&14, 2009 Orientation & Train the Trainer Session The New England Small Farm Institute (NESFI) will offer a training session to introduce its course and workbook, Exploring the Small Farm Dream: Is Starting an Agricultural Business Right for You?, to potential course sponsors and instructors. The 1-1/2 day […]

Need a place to stay in Providence this summer? Here's the latest from Dirt Palace Some Dirt Palace News! First off - The Secret Restaurant of the Dirt Palace is BACK!! Sunday April 26th HAPPY EASTER! OK, maybe it's not really easter - however, We are going to have a very special "Peaster" day Brunch. […]

via East Bay Permaculture: I have found a "trailer" (2 bedrooms with a third huge room built on) that I want to live in and am looking for a roommate (couple considered). It's on an organic farm just outside of Woodland, California, about 67 miles from Berkeley (about 13 miles from downtown Davis). You'd need […]

Greenhorns. cowboys. young farmer icons -- we welcome submissions of 'graphic identity' totems. The American Farmer Needs A Cowboy Image by Gary Truit No image of America is more widespread and more enduring than that of the cowboy. Over a century after the heyday of the western cattleman, the image of the tough, independent, hardworking […]

We just got wind of this organic farmland in Iowa via the Women, Food & Agriculture Network (a great resource, by the way)  It's calling out for a young farmer!  Dolf Ivener has 30 acres of certified organic farmland within the Sioux City city limits. He is looking for someone to lease that farm. If […]

Greenhorn Erin Bullock of Mud Creek Farm just got a shiny new tractor!  It's that time of year.  You can read about it on her blog, http://www.farmererin.blogspot.com/ And in the meantime, here's a sneak preview.

If you're on the mailing list, you already know this, but... Goat tshirts are in! Here are the nitty gritty details: - Organic bespoke cotton tee shirts in a short boxy cut that my stylish friends say is "very good". - Printed on the front is this beautiful image of a purple goat.  On the […]

Joining us for Land. Liberty. Sunshine. Stamina., our propagandist/conspirator friends at Bouwerie are showing their latest project, Legalize Ag. About the project: Legalize Ag is calling for agriculture reform of the most immediate sort. Recognizing America has no future without food, we seek that the government sanction, by law, policies that limit the agri-industrial control of our […]

We met Grace, the creator of these awesome t-shirts, at the Georgia Organics Conference. Handmade and 100% recycled, they come in a variety of sizes, both men's and women's. Grace can try to take requests for colors as well. $10.00 each plus shipping & handling. Email orders to: [email protected]

Lovely 4 acre farm in Livingston NY (10 minutes south of Hudson). The farm is surrounded by Rockefeller Trust lands; sits upon an aquifer; and holds a 3,000 square foot recently renovated, super energy efficient house.

Check out the latest newsletter from Common Vision with news on their Fruit Tree Tour! Greetings- Common Vision's epic 3,000 mile journey, Fruit Tree Tour 2009 is now ½ way to its final planting event. Apples, Figs, Peaches, Plums, Oranges, and Lemons are in the ground at public schools in California and saying hello to […]

Does that excite you?  Do you want to be a part of it? Join the Greenhorns mailing list! We'll keep you inspired and in the loop. In the meantime, some reading from the New York Times. On the Andalusian Strawberry Harvest. And the first flowers of the season!

Looking for help creating organic kitchen garden and sustainable lifestyle Hi there, I have an old normal manoir in France with one hectare (around 2.5 acres) where I live with my wife and child. I work from home. I'd really like to to create an organic kitchen garden and make more use out of the […]

Dear musicians near and far. urban and rural. we have begun the song search. lyrics of food farm sunshine. electronica to match the lazerlandia anti-suburban/post-suburban we need grunge we need grange we need the soul-rumblings of the punk yeoman revival. If you sing songs or mix them or are in any way producing the cultural […]

City Dwellers - green your roof! http://alivestructures.com/home A Focus on Local and Unique: The Alive Structures team includes committed environmentalists who have a practical plan to improve air and water quality, reduce energy dependence, make open green space and natural habitat for wildlife, and stimulate new educational and economic opportunities in New York City. We […]

Please take a moment to survey the prodigious and visionary films of our elder, advisor and favorite estuarian, Les Blank.  - Severine For example... Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980) The latest, All In This Tea (2007) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNw1PwlNRWk] For more, check out Flower Films: The Films of Les Blank

Here is the 2nd in a series of profiles of young farmers in America, written for The Greenhorns by Amelia Spilger. These short young farmer profiles will help inspire and shape our collective understanding of the movement with specific examples of lives lived. Think of it them case studies in the PHD program we are […]

Check out: Coming Home to Hogs Niman Ranch hogs are among the enterprises launching a new career From Severine: I'm getting pigs this year...and so are quite a few others. It turns out that cooperative marketing structures like Organic Valley and Niman Ranch are super helpful for small, young and new producers. Meaning - if […]

Let's focus on what we have. Windmills The Harden Foundation is restoring a rare 115-year-old windmill and historic mill building. The Challenge Double Header Wind Engine, built in 1892 for Duncan McKinnon, is a masterpiece of Victorian engineering-a mighty windmill that supplied power to operate millstones, a grain elevator, water pump, and a woodworking shop. […]

It's not just doused with poison, it actually poisons the soil. Monsanto's Bt Cotton Kills the Soil as Well as Farmers ISIS Press Release, 2/23/09 Biosafety refers to ensuring that GMO's do not harm the environment or health. The soil, its fertility, and the organisms which maintain the fertility of soil are a vital aspect […]

Not farming on your own, but longing to get your hands in the dirt? Plenty of farmers could use some help! Including Greenhorns Kaycee & Owen of Awesome Farm in Tivoli, NY... Saturday April 4th 10-6 Sunday, April 5th 10-5 Lunch will be served both days. Please dress for cold, wet weather. Hopefully you will […]

As so often happens, this comes to us via comfood. And is worth re-posting.   Ray Offenheiser Oxfam America sent via e-mail February 8, 2009 Dear Ray, I started writing this letter in response to the panel lineup that Oxfam is co-sponsoring this month at the Asia Society, "The Global Food Crisis: Time for Another […]

Historic Holly Hill Farm, in Cohasset, MA has published an awesome resource for Greenhorns, educators, and anyone who wants to get kids outside and in the dirt. A project of The Friends of Holly Hill Farm, "A Growing Relationship: The School Garden, Classroom and Organic Farm" provides 15 lesson plans that use gardens for teaching […]

When recently faced with the prospect of Winter, I had to make a tough choice - should I buy winter tires (thus assuring my survival in eastern New York) or should I spend the same 900 dollars to buy some draft horses. In the end, I opted for a plane ticket to California to overwinter […]

These kinds of listings are actually quite common on craigslist. If you don't mind being a "kept farmer" - We'd recommend you take a look there before you start despairing that it's too late for an apprenticeship and too dark for a mortgage. Reply to: [email protected]: 2009-02-24, 10:35AM EST Guest House Available in Large Private […]

Yes. We agree with this. Family farmers. ...and the family of farmers that includes: city farmers farmworkers young farmers aspiring farmers we are the team of agricultural conspirators who are launching our small businesses around the country-- carving out new territory and growing strong soil in the hills, and in the laser-land valleys of the […]

off - farm income for some farmers off- farm subsidies for others whats next? off-farm social lives for new farm entrants in towns across america. off-farm support from community members invested in a sustainable food system off-farm contributions of food scraps and useful lumber http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/business/08feed.html?_r=1

Nothing Lasts Only the land lasts, not you. Only your steps upon it, the cut glass of memory and your smile within it survives. Only the land lasts; simple rock and the dumb scape of lusting lack, the rack and pinion of flight and fall. Autumn doesn't last. Not spring with all its fine tithings. […]

A few great bicycle blogs: Streetsblog.org - By turning transportation reform into a daily beat, this blog became a real force for change in NYC. Streetfilms.org - Video blog that highlights best practices in transportation planning/policy. Folks in dozens of cities have used these videos to advocate for bike lanes, better transit, and pedestrian-friendly changes. […]

This comes via Comfood, in response to a posting about Wegmans Featuring Kids' Gardening Kits and Tools.  As always, we recommended subscribing to comfood & joining the ever-widening, engaging conversation. I replied off-list to my Cornell colleague, Christine Porter, about this posting, and she suggested that I share what I wrote with the list.

This is a report that Annie Myers completed last year, but it will stay relevant. It can be found on her blog, Thoughts on the Table. "Over the last two months, I have conducted a research project focused upon urban farms and city planning, for the course City Planning 252 ("Land Use Controls"), taught by […]

Any Greenhorns out there with advice on funding & other financial matters for start-up Greenhorns? Hello, My name is Nic Koontz and I am working towards starting a small farm of my own in the northern Colorado front range area, near Ft. Collins. I have been a follower of yours since I heard about your […]

Forest Garden Immersion Course Camp Epworth Permaculture Demonstration & Education Center April 23-26, 2009, High Falls, New York For full details, including pricing, check out http://www.livingmandala.com/Living_Mandala/Forest_Garden_April_09.html Summary: This course immerses participants in the thriving local forest gardening culture of the Hudson Valley. Together we will engage in the practical skills of forest gardening: propagation, grafting, […]

Greenhorns friend & ally Jana Blankenship shared this beautiful quotation with us.  It comes from artist and ecologist Aviva Rahmani.  You can see some of Aviva's work at http://www.ghostnets.com/ "What is inspiring is to consider how we can start an idea that can keep growing, deepening it's roots, shedding the witches broom and broadening a […]

This is a re-post from the United Farm Workers. Pesticides are Poison.  Click on the link at the end of the post to send an email to the EPA. Agricultural company wreaks havoc. Tell new EPA chief to protect us from pesticide abusers.

For a while we've been mentioning that the reliable data on young farmers was not yet in. Well, it's here!