Beginner Farmer Training Program Graduates - News and Events

• Check out this article from FRESHFARM Markets written about our graduate, John Dove ('10)! 

Current Status of Beginner Farmer Training Program Graduates 

2012 Graduates

• Founded Hidden Harvest Farm located in Baltimore City, MD selling fruits and vegetables with the Farm Alliance farmers at the Waverly Market, at a farm stand, and at restaurants like Woodberry Kitchen. Hidden Harvest Farm has also held workshops in conjunction with the Maryland Institute College of Art.
• Farm Manager at Kayam Farm located at the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Reisterstown, MD, offering a CSA as well as donations to area homeless shelters and food banks. Kayam Farm offers produce, eggs, and goat cheese, milk, and meat.
• Founded Oak Spring Farm in Freeland, MD, offering a CSA and selling to local restaurants, like Woodberry Kitchen. Oak Spring Farm offers fruit and vegetables, eggs, and meat.
• Farm Manager, Trainer, and Teacher at EcoCity Farm, located near Washington, D.C. EcoCity Farm is a not-for-profit farm that produces all-season fruits and vegetables, poultry, and honey that are sold to various local farmers’ markets, co-ops, and restaurants. EcoCity Farm also promotes and teaches sustainable agriculture to the community.
• Farms fruits, vegetables, and honey at Five Seeds Farm located in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, MD. Five Seeds Farm has a CSA, and also sells to local restaurants and farmers’ markets. Five Seeds Farm began in Baltimore City, where they transformed many abandoned urban lots into thriving gardens that inspired the community.
• Founded Shadows of Catoctin in Thurmont, MD, selling to local farmers’ markets. In the process of applying for organic certification. 
• Just purchased a farm in Cecil County, MD, and also founded Gideon’s Garden and Perryville Community Garden.
• Farms Blue Jay’s Perch on the Johns Hopkins Campus in Baltimore, MD. All produce is donated to local soup kitchens. This community garden is designed to educate the local community about sustainable agriculture.
• Farming Cherry Hill Community Garden, and just started a graduate program for agriculture in PA.
• Farmed at a Community Garden in Lower Allen Township and at Sunnyside Farm in Dover, PA. Sunnyside Farm produces pasture-based eggs, chicken, turkey, pork, and beef and sells on-farm and at the Hershey, PA farmers’ market. 
• Owns and operates Stone Run Farm in Rising Sun, MD. Stone Run grows pesticide- and chemical-free produce for their CSA, as well as care for pasture-raised broiler and layers for local farmers' markets.

2012 Trainers

• Jack and Beckie Gurley of Calvert’s Gift Farm located in Sparks, MD – Certified organic farm that has been operating since 1994. Calvert’s Gift practices and advocates various sustainable practices, and produces fruits and vegetables that are sold through their CSA and at various local farmers’ markets.
• Tom Paduano and Sarah Rider of Flying Plow Farm located in Joppa, MD – Harford County’s only certified organic vegetable farm. Flying Plow produces pasture-raised chicken, fruits, vegetables, and herbs and sells through their CSA and local farmers’ markets.
• Rick Hood of Summer Creek Farm located in Thurmont, MD – Operating since 1992, and certified in 1998, Summer Creek Farm produces many fruits and vegetables, as well as free range eggs, small grains, and honey. Summer Creek sells through their CSA, farmers’ markets, and wholesale accounts.

2011 Graduates

• Farms two sites in Baltimore City, MD, and one site in Baltimore County, MD at Five Seeds Farm, selling to restaurants and farmers’ markets.
• Registered Sassafras Creek Farm in St. Mary’s County with the state of Maryland and Certified Organic in 2012. He sells vegetables, herbs, fruit, and cover crops at the California (MD) Farmers’ Market and the Home Grown Farmers’ Market, as well as at a local natural food store, local-only products store, and a farm to table restaurant in Baltimore. He is also the Vice Chair for St. Mary’s County Government Agriculture, Seafood, and Forestry Board.
• Started a farm on a leased property Cockeysville, MD and is helping to initiate a farming project on the old Memorial Stadium site in Baltimore City, MD.
• Farms a small property in northern Baltimore County and sells at a roadside stand.
• Started farming on two locations and blogs about farming in Anne Arundel County. She is currently searching to purchase or lease a property with land to farm.
• Preparing to start a new vineyard in Frederick County on a family farm that is currently used for hay, beef, and horses.

2010 Graduates

• Hired as a full-time Farm Manager at Serpent Ridge Vineyard in Carroll County. Serpent Ridge sells wine to several local pubs and taverns, restaurants, and liquor stores. Serpent Ridge is the first vineyard in Westminster.
• Established a new organic farm as owner-operator of Radix Farm in Prince Georges County, MD. Radix Farm sells vegetables, herbs, and flowers through their CSA, local farmers’ markets, D.C.-area restaurants, and Arcadia Farms to the Southeast waterfront market.
• Farmed at Real Food Farm and then started Twin Compass, an organic produce farm on the same property as Baltimore County, MD dairy farmer Bobby Prigel’s Family Creamery.
• Manages and farms Whitelock Community Farm in Reservoir Hill, MD, incorporating neighborhood involvement through volunteer programs. She also started a This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for new city farmers and other farmers. She also participated in the 2011 Master Gardener Program.
• Started Love Dove Farm in 2012, farming several acres organically on a 200-acre family farm in Howard County, MD. Love Dove Farm sells fruits and vegetables to local restaurants and farmers’ markets.

2009 Graduates

• Farm Manager who started a 5-acre produce farm at the Samaritan Women’s Center in West Baltimore, MD with the help of Civic Works workers. Samaritan Women’s Center sells fruits, vegetables, and herbs to city farmers’ markets, at a farm stand, and through a CSA.
• Started her own farm, Common Seed Farm in New Market, MD in 2012, offering vegetables, small fruits, herbs, and eggs through a CSA and at a farm stand. She was also hired as a farmer on Cherry Glen Goat Farm in Montgomery County, MD. She started veterinary school in the fall of 2012.
• Shared in the start-up of Side By Side Farm with a landowner in Baltimore County, MD, but has recently taken a new position managing Pennypack Farm in Horsham, PA that grows for a 400 member CSA and 150 member winter CSA, as well as for food pantries and farmers' markets. 
• Started and held workshops with the Maryland Institute College of Art at Participation Park, a community garden in East Baltimore, MD. He is currently enrolled in graduate school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Started Foggy Hill Farm in Long Green Valley, MD, selling produce to Baltimore City farmers’ markets. He is currently looking at farming opportunities in Oregon State.
• Currently growing food on an acre lot for his family, while saving up to purchase land and begin a farm enterprise in the next 3-5 years.

Funding Support and Other Notable Events

• The USDA-funded Maryland Collaborative for Beginning Farmers will provide additional funding to expand the program throughout Maryland, with an emphasis on the Eastern Shore, over three years beginning in 2012. The Prince Charitable Trusts has also provided a grant in 2012 to begin work on expanding the BFTP program to Northern Virginia.
• Received funding support for training in Baltimore City from United Way of Central Maryland for the 2012 program year.
• Applied for and awarded Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) Specialty Crop Grant funding for the 2011 program year.
• Received funding support from Abell Foundation and Baltimore County Farm Bureau and Mid Atlantic Farm for alternate program years.
• North County Preservation (NCP) held the Tour de Farms bike fundraising event sponsored by Mid Atlantic Farm Credit in 2010.
• NCP fully funded the first program year after the successful "Meals from the Meadows of Maryland" event, which brought local farmers, wineries and restaurateurs together for an evening of music and food tastings for 200
• Established partnership agreement between Maryland Agricultural Resource Council (MARC) and Future Harvest. FHCASA will continue the sustainable agriculture training, and MARC will initiate a program to train traditional farming in animal husbandry or other traditional crops.
• Received numerous publicity opportunities with the radio and newspapers.
• Acknowledged that the most valuable part of the program for new farmers is mentor and peer support, which continues postOne of the graduates started the Baltimore Farm Network for city farmers with which farmers along with city officials (from the Office of Sustainability) now use at least a few times a week to post events and other relevant information.