Core Curriculum
Learn to farm. Farm to learn.
Successful farmers must be Jacks & Jills of all trades - i.e. growers, mechanics, scientists, businesspeople, caregivers, meteorologists, and the list goes on. At the Organic Farm School, we strive to expose our students to as many of these important skills as possible so that they will be prepared for running their own successful farm businesses. We've spent 15 years revising our curriculum to best serve our students' learning goals and the ever-changing landscape of food and farming. We use a variety of resources in our classes including the CASFS curriculum modules - Organic Farming and Gardening Curriculum and Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability Curriculum; SARE's Building Soils for Better Crops, MISA's Building a Sustainable Business, and Richard Wiswall's The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook, among others. Here is our list of our classroom topics (several topics take more than one class) and we do many more trainings out in the field:
Crop Production
Intro to cropping systems
Crop planning
Genetics & Seed production
Greenhouse mgmt.
Propagation
Cultural practices (trellising/pruning/etc)
Irrigation theory + practice
Soil & Fertility
Nutrient budgeting
Tillage
Crop Rotation
Farm Recordkeeping
Composting
Cover crops
IPM – Intro + Weeds
IPM – Insects
IPM – Disease
Harvest & post-harvest handling
Food safety
Crop by crop details
Season extension
Livestock
Animal husbandry systems
Raising Sheep
Raising pastured poultry
Raising pigs
Livestock finances
Forage & pasture
Beekeeping
Business
Small farm viability
Business Planning Overview
Using Spreadsheets
Budgeting
Bookkeeping
Land tenure & assessment
Starting a legal business
Labor
Organic certification
Risk Mgmt. - Short and Long term
Business feasibility
Capital Expenses + Production planning
Business plan and Start-up
Finances - Profit and loss
Finances - Cash flow and Balance sheet
Accessing Capital Loans
Enterprise budgeting
Marketing
Marketing overview
Market feasibility
Brand development + Outreach
Pricing concepts
Marketing plan
CSA
Farmers markets & Roadside
Restaurants + Value Added
General
Agroecology/Regenerative/Organic farming
Mechanics
Carpentry
Equipment Operation and Safety
Equipment Options
Development of US Ag
Social Implications of US Ag
Environmental Implications of US Ag
On-farm R&D basics
Farmscaping + property mgmt.
Scaling Up