Imagine a city full of healthy, fresh produce grown by local urban farmers. Imagine neighborhoods that were once labeled as “food deserts” flourishing with delicious, fresh vegetables grown locally on urban farms. The Cooperative Extension’s Urban Farm School was developed to help increase the amount of fresh produce available in our urban neighborhoods.
The Urban Farm School includes a Market Gardening course that prepares unemployed or underemployed audiences to develop and run their own urban farm businesses. The Urban Farm School is a 12 week training program where students meet twice weekly for lecture and lab sessions. The first day is a classroom session and on the second day the classroom learning is put into practical exercises, with hands-on urban farming. Students learn how to develop an urban farm business plan, an urban farm landscape, manage a market garden and sell their produce at farmers markets for supplemental income.
If you or someone you know is interested in learning how to farm and sell produce at farmers markets, you can apply to the spring 2019 Urban Farm School now. We invite you to fill out the urban farm school application here, by clicking on this link. You can also reach us at the N.C. Cooperative Extension Forsyth County office by dialing 336.703.2859 or email at covingtc@forsyth.cc.