Foodstand

etsummer 9yr It's crazy how difficult it can be for young farmers to get started. There's a project starting up out in CA headed by California FarmLink that is working to pair elders and young farmers in a mentorship and succession program. Just getting started but I think they'll do good things!

annefood 9yr That's fantastic. I was just talking about apprenticeships and mentors the other day. We've lost that in our country and its an important element.

JenniferEmilson 9yr Hard to believe that it wasn't that long ago when pretty well every family farmed in some way!!

olivettefarm 9yr Very important stuff. There are a lot of great things going on to help young farmers get started now, but not nearly enough.

DietID_TeamDietitians 9yr Have you guys seen sharedearth.com? I love this idea I just don't know how practical it is and if it can really remove friction from the process of setting up

etsummer 9yr The Shared Earth model looks cool, at least to get small farmers started out, might have problems scaling up after that though. I'm always curious about land ownership issues with stuff like this, and how the farmers are protected against the owners up and kicking them out. There's an ag park out here near SF that houses a few small farms that's created through a partnership b/w the public utilities commission and a non-profit and the farmers were constantly worried because there was talk of the city giving it up and selling to a private owner. 😬

DietID_TeamDietitians 9yr Ahhhhhhh yes it's like the community garden issues in New York - such amazing impact but constant fear of getting pushed out. I agree probably a scaling problem but at least it's something! :)

olivettefarm 9yr I began farming by renting land through a local farm incubator program. I wish there were more people like the owners of that land across the country. One of the biggest hurdles to stating a farm is access to land. Unfortunately, there is a lot of unused farmland out there that young farmers are unable to access for various reasons.

DietID_TeamDietitians 9yr Ah interesting! I'd love to know if there is land anywhere in the northeast because there are so many young farmers getting training

olivettefarm 9yr @rachna the seed farm in PA is a great example - theseedfarm.org - there is something similar in NY, but the name escapes me at the moment.

Bigo

Bigo I tried cinnamon in my coffee but was very disappointed. However, I used far less than a teaspoon. I'll try again with more cinnamon. :D

annefood

annefood I'm sorry to hear that @Bigo ! I have not yet had a chance to try. Let me know how it goes with more.

cathyG

cathyG I brew my coffee with cinnamon. I found that adding it to already brewed coffee just added a film, and a bit of a grainy bitter textural experience.

If there are no new farmers, who will grow our food?