Growing New Farmers

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The forty acre Seattle Tilth Farm Works in Auburn, which provides farm business training and support to refugees, immigrants and others with limited resources, will be hosting the next Tilth Producers of Washington and WSU Small Farms Program Farm Walk Monday, July 14 from 12:30 to 4:00 pm. Angela Anegon, Education Coordinator with Tilth Producers, explains what farm walk attendees will see.

ANEGON: We’ll focus on how they use the farm incubator model to train new farmers and help them overcome barriers to start new farm businesses. We’ll meet some of the 22 farms incubating small farm businesses during this 2014 season. We’ll include a tour of mixed vegetable farms, a pork enterprise, laying hen flock, and a small scale apiary.

Those attending this farm walk will also learn about the Seattle Tilth Produce 100 member multi-producer CSA and how the program helps to channel farmers products through Seattle Tilth’s other wholesale and retail outlets.

ANEGON: Farms incubating can sell through their own market channels if they like, through farmers markets or their own CSA’s, or they can contribute to Seattle Tilth Farm Works small type producers CSA, which people from the community sign up for and then all of the produce sort of gets congregated into the CSA and then goes out through that.

We’ll be visiting more with Tilth Producers of Washington about future farm walks throughout the summer months. For more information about farm walk times and locations and other Tilth Producers education programs be sure to visit tilthproducers.org.

That’s Washington Ag Today.

I’m Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.