{"id":489,"date":"2015-09-21T16:59:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T16:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/?p=489"},"modified":"2015-09-21T16:59:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T16:59:39","slug":"growing-the-next-generation-of-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/?p=489","title":{"rendered":"Growing the Next Generation of Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

***This post is part of\u00a0our series “<\/i>Tales from the Specialty Crop Ambassadors<\/i><\/span><\/a>” – blog posts written by farmers working with the\u00a0Center for Land-Based Learning in Winters, CA. The Specialty Crop Ambassadors are spearheading projects that\u00a0support consumption, education, and access to California specialty crops.***<\/i><\/p>\n

By Aimee Sisson of Root Cause Farm<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, I never thought about being a farmer. It\u2019s not that I was opposed<\/em> to the idea; I was just never exposed<\/em> to the idea.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping to change that through my efforts to recruit a new generation of farmers.\u00a0 Farming is definitely not for everybody, but I\u2019d like to at least have a career in farming be on the radar of young people so they can consider it as an option.<\/p>\n

At a recent West Sacramento Farmers\u2019 Market, I reached out to children and adults about a career as a fruit and vegetable farmer.\u00a0 Despite the blazing 100-degree heat, over 35 people stopped by my booth to pot up a basil seedling and chat about life as a farmer.\u00a0 Both young and old, first-time planters and experienced home gardeners alike, enjoyed the hands-on planting activity.\u00a0 \u00a0After getting over the initial shock that the plants were free, market-goers dug in, literally. Although gloves were available, everybody chose to get their hands dirty, digging in the dirt to fill their pot, make a hole for the seedling, and gently tuck a small plant into its new home before giving it a drink of water.\u00a0 There\u2019s just something about having your hands in soil that is calming and restorative, not to mention fun.\u00a0 \u201cPlants are a lot like people,\u201d I told the participants.\u00a0 \u201cThey get thirsty on a hot day, so be sure to give your plant water.\u201d \u00a0After walking customers through the basics of caring for their basil plant, I also handed them a short set of written instructions to take home. \u00a0As the evening went on, I enjoyed seeing the tiny plants making their way around the market, gently carried in the hands of young growers.\u00a0 I chose basil seedlings because they can be grown indoors or outdoors and don\u2019t take up much space, making them ideal for apartment dwellers or those without an existing garden.\"sisson<\/a> \"sisson<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sisson<\/a>

Participants gather around the table, waiting their turn to pot up a plant.<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to the basil planting, I also offered a Farmer-Aimee-themed coloring booklet to take home and\/or color at the market.\u00a0 Five pages long, the short book walks young readers through a few aspects of life as a fruit and vegetable farmer, including planting, weeding, harvesting, and selling at the farmers\u2019 market.\u00a0 Finally, I created a trifold brochure titled, \u201cThinking About Becoming a Vegetable Farmer?\u201d that briefly describes the benefits of being a farmer, what is needed to get started, and my own story of how I became a farmer and the rewards of the job. The outreach materials are available for download at http:\/\/www.rootcausefarm.com\/blog\/recruiting-the-next-generation-of-farmers<\/a> and can be used without any restrictions.\u00a0 I hope that the materials prove useful to others in recruiting new farmers.<\/p>\n

\"sisson<\/a>

Two participants take a break from coloring to smile for the camera.<\/p><\/div>\n

As the coloring book states, \u201cBeing a farmer is hard work, but it\u2019s also lots of fun.\u201d It\u2019s true: \u201cFarmer Aimee loves being a fruit and vegetable farmer because she gets to work outside, move around, grow yummy food, and meet nice people at the market.\u201d\u00a0 Maybe some of those nice people will become farmers themselves someday, and think back on how it all started with a single basil plant.\u00a0 This farmer sure hopes so.<\/p>\n

\"sisson<\/a>

A young basil seedling, ready to go home with a future farmer.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

***This post is part of\u00a0our series “Tales from the Specialty Crop Ambassadors” – blog posts written by farmers working with the\u00a0Center for Land-Based Learning in Winters, CA. The Specialty Crop Ambassadors are spearheading projects that\u00a0support consumption, education, and access to California specialty crops.*** By Aimee Sisson of Root Cause Farm When I was a kid, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-farm-to-fork-website"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4z2wv-7T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}