from the Just Food Community Farm Team
With widespread damage from the May 22 derecho, many Ottawa region residents were still without internet service on May 24, 2022. To ensure equal access to the sessions, we postponed the start of the Training Series for New/Canadian Farmers to Tuesday May 31 from 6-9pm and delayed the May 24, 26 and 29 sessions.
FULL CALENDAR OF SESSIONS (with new dates) BELOW!
Starting Tuesday, May 31 we are offering a 12-session series of workshops for new and New Canadian farmers, focused on vegetable production and covering a diverse set of topics to prepare you for a role in food production—whether as a paid worker, or starting or enhancing your own farm business.
This 5-week series is offered in English, with 3-hour sessions mostly online Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Some sessions will be in-person at the Just Food Community Farm.
Educational content is geared toward new farmers as well as New Canadian farmers, and is open to all aspiring new farmers who want to update or grow their farming knowledge, or apply their knowledge in a new climate.
Where:
Partly online via Zoom
Partly at Just Food Community Farm
2391 Pepin Court, Blackburn Hamlet
(On bus route #25)
Pre-requisites: None
Language: English
Thanks to funds from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, the Rural Affairs Office at the City of Ottawa, and Just Food, all courses in this 2022 Spring Training Series are free of charge. (Regularly $500).
To register, please send an email with your contact information to phil@justfood.ca
(Starting this summer, the same training series will also be offered in French, Arabic and Mandarin. You can email Phil above to get more information on these courses.)
Trainers:
Mat Levinson – Capital Greens
Brett Weddle – Cadence Ecological Farm
David Thompson – Farm Labour and Skills Development Project Manager,
National Farmers Union – Ontario
Simon Neufeld, MSc, CCA – Chief Agronomist, Earth Alive Clean Technologies Inc.
Phil Mount – Flat Earth Farm
Moe Garahan – Just Food Community Farm
+ Guest trainers
Full Calendar
Spring Training Series for New Canadian Farmers:
Vegetable Production
1. Tuesday, May 31 (6-9 PM) – Online
Farm worker rights in Ontario
2. Thursday, June 2 (6-9 PM) – Online
Farm Safety
3. Sunday, June 5 (10AM-3:30PM) – In-person – Just Food Community Farm
Small-scale farm irrigation and equipment use
4. Tuesday, June 7 (6-9 PM) – Online
Organic certification and record-keeping
5. Thursday, June 9 (6-9 PM) – Online
Farm Business Planning (including CSA model)
6. Tuesday, June 14 (6-9 PM) – Online
Farm Planning (Financial, Ecological and Social), Investment Strategies and Funding
7. Thursday, June 16 (6-9 PM) – Online
Soil fertility through organic production practices
8. Monday, June 20 (6-9PM) – Online
Best practices for Starts and Transplanting, sourcing supplies (e.g. irrigation)
9. Thursday, June 23 (6-9 PM) – Online
Crop planning and production (includes organic record-keeping, planning for pest
control)
10. Thursday, June 30 (6-9 PM) – Online
Marketing, pricing and sales
11. Tuesday, July 5 (6-9 PM) – Online
Accessing Land; Land tenure agreements
12. Sunday, July 10 (9AM – 12PM) – In-person – Just Food Community Farm
Intensive vegetable production techniques (including pest control) and post-harvest
handling
