Center for Land-Based Learning

CLBL is getting ready to kick-off SLEWS 2022! Our partners Yolo County Resource Conservation District, volunteers and staff came together for a little mentor training. We started the morning off with team building activities, followed by leadership and best practice review; then we took some notes on equipment safety and learned the proper way to plant hedgerows. We can't wait to meet you Woodland High School Pioneer High School, Winters High School, and Davis High!

We are hiring a new Development Communication Manager! You will be responsible for developing out the organizational communications program and will communicate CLBL’s impact to a wide variety of audiences via the written word (website, social media, brochures). The ideal candidate will possess a hybrid experience of communications, social media management, design project management and internal traffic control. Does this sound like a role for you? If so, read on... The can...didate will also possess a strong data entry and report background, ideally with experience in Bloomerang, Salesforce, or Razor’s Edge. In addition, this role will aid in identifying a diversified range of funding sources to help ensure long-term income sustainability, including governmental, corporate and private grants, events and fundraisers. To apply, please read the full job post at: https://landbasedlearning.org/job-opportunities and send cover letter, resume and two writing samples to [email protected]

The 10th Class of the Beginning Farmer Training Program is about to begin in mid-February. To date, we’ve graduated over 140 new farmers! And three years ago, we decided to start them off on the right foot for their 7-month journey in the training program, and host an Inauguration event at Mulvaney’s in Sacramento. The dinner includes new students and their families, alumni, and many of our agriculture program partners. Purchase tickets or view the sponsorship package at: https://bit.ly/33kXsaB

Our California Farm Academy Director, Dr. Sridharan (Sri), gave a tour of CLBL headquarters to Nebraska LEAD. Nebraska LEAD is a 40+ year old organization that seeks to cultivate the next generation of agricultural leaders. The participants were farmers and other agricultural professionals who were interested in learning about CLBL's Beginning Farmer Training Program. We love collaborating and helping other like-minded organizations build programs that help aspiring farmers throughout our great Nation! #Agproud #Centerforlandbasedlearning #CFA #BeginningFarmerTraining #AspiringFarmers #CLBLHeadquarters

Today, we celebrate, honor and reflect on the great Martin Luther King Jr. His legacy has left a lasting impact and continues to be a foundation for ongoing change. "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." -Martin Luther King Jr.... These words resonate with CLBL as we strive for growth and are committed to diversity in all that we do. We have experienced so much change in the last 5 years: from a capital campaign to breaking ground, to opening our new headquarters, to diversifying our workforce development programs. Providing inclusive avenues to success is key to the future of agriculture! #MLKDay #MartinLutherKingJrQuotes #FutureofAgriculture #Foodsecurity #Agproud

We had our first FARMS Field Day of the New Year yesterday! Students from Las Plumas and Chico High School attended the North State FARMS Leadership Field Day hosted by Western Canal Water District. Students met at Gorrill Ranch in Durham where they were greeted by Anjanette Shadley the Assistant General Manager at Western Canal Water District. She gave students a brief introduction into the day and introduced guest speakers Doyle Carter the Operations Manager at Richvale Irr...igation District and Donnie Stinnett the Manager of Joint Water Districts Board. Doyle and Donnie spent the time sharing with students their educational and career pathways as well as their responsibilities at their respective water districts. The second half of the day was focused on learning about the importance of managing water for the multiple beneficial uses of Food, Salmon, Communities, and Birds. This included a visit to Larrabee Farms to hear from Eric Larrabee about his journey to the world of agriculture and receive a firsthand look at his rice fields. All in all the day was cram packed with exciting speakers who were a wealth of information as well as inspiring. We can’t thank all those who participated enough!

Staff from our Apprenticeship Team are visiting CalPoly SLO this week for their annual Ag Showcase. If you're a recent or soon-to-be graduate from an ag major and looking to start your career in farming, check out our Beginning Farm and Ranch Manager Apprenticeship Program! #apprentice #apprenticeship #farmmanagement #workforcedevelopment #agriculture #nextgen #AgLeader

The West Sacramento Urban Farm Program is looking for a new warehouse space to house our aggregation facility! 30’x30’ with 24 hour access 7 days a week is what we are looking for! PLEASE PLEASE reach out with any leads! This is an essential part of growing out local food systems! West Sac location wanted Here we are dismantling our current cooler at our absolutely fabulous partners at Campus Brewing Company. We are SO SAD to see them close up shop! They will be selling their delicious beer until THIS SUNDAY so come by and stock up!!

SLEWS Intern Natalia has been quite the busy bee since they joined the CLBL team back in late August. They’ve helped our team in a myriad of ways including performing conservation work of our hedgerows, creating ID labels for native plants in our hedgerows, harvesting for our Mobile Market, collecting data of plant organisms on-site, and maintaining the new rose gardens at our headquarters. Thus far, their work with our rose gardens has been at the top of their list of favorite things to do! We’re excited to see what fun learning opportunities are in store for Natalia in 2022.

The first half of the program year for our Thousand Strong Interns has been a pretty eventful experience filled with many learning opportunities. We’re excited to kick off the second half of the program year and share our favorite memories along the way! Check out some of our favorite moments from the first half.

Our team, with the help of some close friends, has been busy building our brand-new greenhouse at our headquarters. Check out these progress photos and keep an eye out for the finished product over the next couple of weeks!

Congratulations to 2018 CFA Beginning Farmer Training alum Amanda Sattler for taking the leap and officially starting her own flower farm in Kentucky, Uproot Blooms! We are so excited for Amanda as she takes this next step in pursuing her dreams and we cannot wait to celebrate all the future success she will have.

Our friends over at Notre Ferme have brought back their Meals At Home service! Chef Allyson Harvie will be taking orders via text or email for prepared take home meals. You can see this week’s menu by clicking the link below. All you need to do is choose what meals you’d like, let them know by Saturday, January 8th @ 9am and head over to their kitchen to pick up your order on Monday. https://tinyurl.com/53xbyntn

Join us in welcoming our new SLEWS Program Manager Allie Dumas! Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she completed her undergrad close to home, graduating from Kenyon College in 2018 with a B.A. in International Studies: Global Environment, a minor in Biology, and a concentration in Environmental Studies. Shortly after finishing her undergrad degree she moved to Nashville, TN to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA with a local environmental nonprofit where her love for environmental ...education began. Having gained great experience from her service and unlocking her passion for education, she chose to move out west to Seattle, WA to attend grad school at the University of Washington’s IslandWood Residency, completing her Master’s in Education in early 2021. Prior to CLBL Allie worked with a conservation nonprofit, American Conservation Experience, supporting AmeriCorps members during their service terms. During her free time Allie enjoys exploring the outdoors, getting to know more about California. Along with hiking, she also has a passion for cooking, reading, and gardening.

We had our second SLEWS field day of the year today. We had volunteers visit our headquarters in Woodland, CA in the morning and afternoon to install irrigation lines, plant native plants, and perform some mulching. This work will help to create a new hedgerow for our new home! Thank you to the Yolo County Resource Conservation District for all of their help in planning, prepping and guiding, and all the volunteers and CLBL staff who came out to work. A special thank you also goes out to the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation for helping to fund this project!

Thank you to Tasteful Selections for hosting our Kern FARMS Leadership and Advanced Programs for a wonderful virtual field day. Our students enjoyed learning about the various types of bite sized potatoes as well as the growing and harvesting process behind them. They are also loving their bite sized potato kits and the delicious recipes provided to them!

Meet Ricardo Sanchez Romero! Ricardo is our newest Apprentice in our Beginning Farm and Ranch Manager Apprenticeship Program, training at Devil's Gulch Ranch in Marin. He is starting his first class in animal science in January and is looking forward to becoming the first apprentice in the program to work primarily with livestock! We look forward to being part of your journey, Ricardo!

Next week we are celebrating National Apprenticeship Week! Did you know Apprentices earn while they learn, reducing the potential to take on debt? Join us for an Info Session and learn how our Beginning Farm and Ranch Manager Apprenticeship Program is tackling the labor shortages in agriculture by connecting apprentices with farm employers. #NAW2020 To register: https://tinyurl.com/yyg2jxyh

Happy #WorldSoilDay! We wrapped up Healthy Soils Week yesterday with a great visit from our friends from UC Cooperative Extension. Agronomy Advisor Sarah Light and Lab Assistant Puja Upadhayay came out to our new headquarters and planted a cover crop demonstration trial of legumes, brassicas, and grasses.

Our SLEWS Program had its first field day of the year yesterday! We had volunteers join us at Patchwork Farm/Capay Valley Lavender in Capay to plant native plants and install irrigation lines. We also had special guest Jerry Delsol from Woodland High School with us and he virtually brought his class so they could see some of the restoration work being completed and learn how to identify some of the native plants we were working with. Thank you to Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation for their generous support in helping to make this field day possible.

It was amazing to host members of Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation’s Tribal Council and Community Fund’s staff today at our new headquarters in Woodland, CA. As many of you may remember, it was their very generous $1.5M lead gift that kick started our Growing our Future Capital Campaign in May 2019. It was a privilege to show them the impact of their gift and the terrific work we are accomplishing in our new home. Thank you so much for helping to make this dream of ours a reality!

A big thank you to Woodland Irrigation for coming out today to install a new irrigation system, which will irrigate 10 acres of land for Incubator Farmers and the Beginning Farmer Training Program!

With the holiday season around the corner, a lot of our shopping will be online this year. When you shop for the holidays on AmazonSmile you can donate a portion of your purchase price to the Center for Land-Based Learning and help support our programs. You can shop for gifts with the link provided to generate donations for the Center for Land-Based Learning and help to make a difference this holiday season! smile.amazon.com/ch/68-0472121

Our literal "skeleton crew" of CLBL staff celebrated Halloween Eve today with lunchtime pizzas made in the new pizza oven. We all agreed that this is going to be a regular Friday tradition! Happy Halloween! #COVIDween #Halloween2020

Our Board Secretary, Dawn Miller, shares her message of education and developing the farmers of the future in this week’s video for the Harvesting our Future Monthly Giving Campaign. All month, we’ve been bringing you the voices of our Board and of our Founder, to provide the foundation for our ask of you today. Your support, at this critical time in our history, propels us to provide educational opportunities for those who have historically had the least investment. Did you ...know that since 2012, we have trained and supported over 200 beginning farmers, 56% of which are from BIPOC communities? Black, Indigenous, People of Color have never had the level of investment and access to land, education, training, and support for their farming ventures. The Center for Land-Based Learning is a part of reversing that trend we ask your help in investing in them, and to the many more that are waiting for their opportunity. Thank you for being a part of their success, which in turn means OUR success as a nation and a community. https://landbasedlearning.org/harvesting-our-future

FARMS Tehama and North State came together today for a virtual field day with Peterson Sisters Pumpkin Patch. We were lucky to have FARMS Program Alumni Mary Pat Peterson show us around her pumpkin patch and discuss what goes into growing pumpkins, the varieties grown at her pumpkin patch, and the team of people it takes to run a successful pumpkin patch. Our students also received their pumpkins from the pumpkin patch and learned how to remove the strings of pumpkin seeds and roast them! You can watch the full field day by following the link below. https://youtu.be/JcJr72oopQ4

350 Sacramento’s Future of Food Roundtable is tomorrow! There is still time to register for this FREE event and hear Executive Director Mary Kimball share her thoughts on urban farming. You won’t want to miss out on this great lineup of panelists. https://tinyurl.com/yxoha7c2

Join us for a virtual info session to learn how you can participate in our Beginning Farm and Ranch Manager Apprenticeship Program! We have sessions for both interested applicants and farm employers. To sign up, register through the links in this flyer: https://drive.google.com//1u_X3ufE3rDkqx70TlZYmOiI2x/view

For today’s Farm Fresh Friday, check out this interesting bit of history! Tomato Wellness Don't blame the tomato Read about why one of Yolo County's top crops was once called the poison apple. https://getpocket.com//why-the-tomato-was-feared-in-europe

Our Center for Land-Based Learning Board member and Treasurer, Mike Boldt, didn’t grow up around agriculture. He, like many of the students in our programs, didn’t know the first thing about farming, how food is produced, and agriculture’s importance to our society. Over the years, with your support, you have helped CLBL continue to reach thousands more high school students and adults looking to change their careers that’s thousands more people who are now farmers, natural ...resource stewards, environmental scientists, AgTech innovators, school garden coordinators, community leaders, and better-informed customers at the grocery store, farmers markets, and beyond! We know that you agree that this education is needed for as many more students as possible and that they will help us create a better future can you help us reach our goal of $8,000 in new monthly donations? The response has been great so far, but we’re only halfway there. Every donation is important, and the monthly donation portal is easy to use, we promise. https://landbasedlearning.org/harvesting-our-future

Our Executive Director Mary Kimball has been selected as a panelist for 350 Sacramento’s Future of Food event and will be covering Urban Farming. You can register for this FREE event next Wednesday, October 28th by following the link below. You won’t want to miss out! https://tinyurl.com/yxoha7c2

Our friends over at California FarmLink are hiring! The Senior Associate is a critical member of FarmLink’s Land Access and Farm Business Education Program team and will primarily help develop and execute FarmLink’s Wealth Building Strategic Initiative, an approach that integrates land and capital access with business training to support success among Latina and Latino entrepreneurs in Central Coast communities. If you or somebody you know may be interested in the role, follow the link below to learn more. https://www.californiafarmlink.org/about-us/careers/