This short course will provide a general overview of what factors, considerations and information influence a crop plan that is grounded in farmer wellness and environmental sustainability. Each session is intended to focus on a specific crop planning design skill and planning tool to reflect the diversity of practices that exist that can be adapted according to the purpose and vision of your farm operation.

Tuesday 9/2, 6-8pm on Zoom - Session 1: Crop Planning Foundations

Crop planning as storytelling - definition, purpose, benefits
Intro to methods - charts, lists, & visuals

Tuesday 9/9, 6-8pm on Zoom - Session 2: Crop Planning Traditions

Phenology
Lunar crop planning
Review Ayni Herb Farm's crop plan

Tuesday 9/16, 6-8pm on Zoom - Session 3: Scaling Up Crop Planning

Intercropping / polycultures and succession planting
Planning for different outlets - markets, restaurants, CSA
Collaborative, multi-person crop planning processes

A Zoom link will be shared after registering. Recordings of each session will be made available to registrants for 6 months 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.

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. Email programs@farmschoolnyc.org if cost is a barrier.

Meet the Facilitator!

Amara (they/them) is a queer and trans student of seeds, pollinators and the moon with 10 years of farming and teaching experience. Amara casts spells of love and reciprocity through their farming and education work so that we may begin to heal together with the earth. Their roots stretch all the way to the Andean highlands and down riparian habitats that feed into the Pacific coast. These roots have been nourished by deep earth-loving communal work along the Mahicantuk river and now grow at Ayni Herb Farm. Amara is the founder and lead steward for this Queer, Trans and BIPOC led herb farm growing culinary and medicinal herbs that sustain ecological abundance and nourish collective liberation.