Course Description: Healthy soil is the foundation for growing healthy plants. This course will explore the fundamentals of soil science and current conditions of soil in NYC. Participants will get to know irrigation and cultivation techniques that maintain and restore soil fertility, including compost biology and system design.

Dates, Times, Locations: A Zoom link and exact addresses will be shared after registering.

Wed, 4/8, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Sat, 4/11, 11am-3pm, in-person (TBD)
Wed, 4/15, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Sat, 4/18, 11am-3pm, in-person (TBD)
Wed, 4/22, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Sat, 4/25, 11am-3pm, in-person (TBD)

Please get to know our community-created COVID practices. Face masks and testing are required for in person classes. FSNYC can provide you with a KN95 mask and/or rapid test(s) upon request.

Recordings of each Zoom session will be made available to registrants for 6 months after the course ends.

To complete the course, participants must:

Attend a minimum of 4 out of 6 classes.
Complete an assignment (no more than 2-4 hours weekly outside of class time.)
Complete a self assessment and course evaluation after the course ends.

Community Engagement Practices:

Care for ourselves and each other. At the beginning of each class, we usually take a moment to step out of our busy lives and "ground" ourselves. This may look like stretching, breathing, or a similar activity.
Embrace difference and diversity. One way we do this is by sharing our gender pronouns when introducing ourselves. By doing this, we respect the breadth of gender and the way everyone identifies.
Lean into growth. It can hurt. Students are encouraged to engage with open hearts and minds. Transformation requires expanding our growing edge by sitting through discomforts that may arise in learning spaces.
Pass on the gift. Knowledge and expertise do very little if kept to yourself. Because our model is popular education, we expect everyone to continue sharing with their wider communities. We are all teachers and learners.

Tuition: To reserve your ticket, click the “Register here!” button. See the Programs Tuition page on our website to guide your contribution.

For questions, email programs@farmschoolnyc.org.

Meet the Facilitators!

Jessica Tobon (she/they) is a Colombian-American farmer, compost consultant, educator and caregiver to her mother. She has multifaceted experience working at a plant nursery, landscape design company, The New York Botanical Garden and at farms and kitchens in upstate New York. Since 2021, she has been managing Iridescent Earth Collective (IEC), a mutual aid farming operation in Delancey, NY, alongside her longtime friend, Kitty. With the support of a group of friends and volunteers, they are growing vegetables, herbs and native plants on 3 acres of leased land along the Delaware River. Food that is harvested is distributed from upstate to the Bronx and local churches and organizations in Delaware county. To relax, she enjoys baking, crochet, pottery, and sudoku puzzles, as well as hanging out with friends, cats, and dogs.

Kitty is a Black Queer educator, farmer, and activist growing food in Upstate NY for distribution in the Bronx. Born and raised in the Bronx, they grew vegetables with their family at Taqwa Community Farm, a community garden founded by their activist parents and grandfather to provide safety and food to the Highbridge community. They were drawn to working in horticulture, agriculture and education because they deeply value community building through information sharing. They have over a decade of experience as a farmer, and educator and have worked and continue to work with institutions such as The New York Botanical Garden, and Lehman College as an educator and urban farm consultant. Now, Kitty is the Co-founder and Co-Manager of Iridescent Earth Collective, a Queer, Black & Latinx led farm duo from the Bronx dedicated to increasing the capacity of communities. IEC does this by growing and distributing food for mutual aid in the Bronx and through information/knowledge exchange with our friends and colleagues in this work. Kitty's long term goal is the creation of an inclusive agro-ecological and educational space for marginalized farmers like themselves and to steward land in a way that honors their roots and the voices of those around them.

Intro to Land Stewardship: Growing Soils

By FARM TRAINING COLLECTIVE NYC INC

Intro to Land Stewardship: Growing Soils