Course Description: Here we’ll explore the needs of common crop plant families and how to select crops for NYC’s changing climate. This course will provide participants with an overview of various crop management methods, including succession and companion planting, weed and pest management, and harvesting/post-harvest handling techniques.

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

Tues 7/1, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Tues 7/8, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Sat 7/12, 11am-3pm, in person (Bronx)
Tues 7/15, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Sat 7/19, 11am-3pm, in person (Brooklyn)
Tues 7/22, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom

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 every SOLIDARITY ticket purchased, a scholarship becomes available. If cost is a barrier, email programs@farmschoolnyc.org.

Meet the Facilitators!

Camille (they/she) is a queer, caribbean, land steward, seed saver and organizer of diasporic experience born and raised in Boriken/Puerto Rico. Their land stewardship is rooted in sustainable growing practices, anti-oppression, reconnection, while learning to be in relationships of reciprocity and respect with the land and each other. Camille is a student of jibares/campesines, has farmed in community led urban gardens, and has worked in production farming spaces. In 2016, they were part of Huerto Semilla’s agroecological school, an autonomous student-led community-centered land stewardship project in Boriken. They are an alum of the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz and a second year facilitator during 2018. They were a field and wash pack crew at Rock Steady Farms, a queer and trans led coop production farm in upstate NY. Currently they are a Farm Manager and Educator at Bushwick Grows Community Farm in Brooklyn, where they do farming education, grow culturally relevant food, while centering the experience and access for long-time Bushwick residents. For Camille, growing food needs to center care, hold intergenerational spaces of connection, joy and nourishment as we continue building the mutual aid networks that will ensure our survival.

Julia is a queer nonbinary artist, educator and urban farmer raised in unceded Tongva land known as Los Angeles, CA and based in Lenapehoking land known as Brooklyn, NY. They are a 2023 alum of Farm School NYC, and are also a farmer at Bushwick Grows Community Farm where they help to grow culturally relevant food and medicine; lead educational programming; and organize community events that bring together music, food, and land stewardship. In addition to their work on the land, Julia is the founder of Liberation Sounds, music production workshop for QTBIPOC. Julia makes music under the stage name "Chispa" and is currently working on their debut album, "Somos Medicina," a project that tells stories of composting systems of oppression, reconnecting with the land, and channeling the transformative power of queer love.

Intro to Land Stewardship: Crop Management