Well, after encouragement from Kelli at Sugar Creek Farm and the folks at Blue Gate Farm (along with other great reviews) we have decided to take the plunge and attend the Grow Your Small Market Farm workshop. We had considered attending last year, but the timing just didn’t work out. This year there may be a couple of classes that I have to miss because of work, but we decided there would never be a better time and this was a class that looked like it would help a lot!
The class meets each Saturday from January 24 until April 11 and after that until October there is one-on-one help at each of the farms. Finally, you end the year with one last meeting in December. Through out the weekends workshops we will be covering everything from business plans to tax stuff. I’m especially looking forward to the sessions on marketing, business plans, and of course the chance to meet with other farmers in similar situations as us.
From talking with the teacher, Penny Brown Huber, it seems like the greatest part will the the one-on-one time when she comes to your farm and helps you take stock of your resources and your business plan. It will be great to have have someone with experience on small farms to come out and take a look at our place and our plans. Also, I’m sure that we will get plenty of help hashing out some of the questions that we have.
So, this Saturday we are back in school … hopefully I enjoy it more than the last classes I took on a college campus. I’m sure that I will!
