Course Description: What can we learn from plants? Here we’ll examine roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruit, centering Indigenous ways of knowing while also providing an introduction to Western plant science. This course will cover the basics of plant propagation and best practices for raising healthy seedlings from seed to transplant.

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

Tues 4/22, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Sat 4/26, 11am-3pm, in person (Manhattan)
Tues 4/29, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Sat 5/3, 11am-3pm, in person (Brooklyn)
Tues 5/6, 6-8:30pm, virtual on Zoom
Tues 5/13, 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 questions, email programs@farmschoolnyc.org.

Meet the Facilitators!

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.

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.

Intro to Land Stewardship: Plant Beginnings