Everdale and the Craft Program at Carrot Cache

“For young people who don’t come from a farming background there is an enormous amount to learn before one feels confident enough to take the plunge into organic production,” explains Reid Allaway, a former intern at Everdale Organic Farm and Environmental Learning Centre.

It was partly for this reason that CRAFT (Collaborative
Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) was founded. “Presently there are few opportunities for sharing knowledge about organic farming, especially for young people thinking about making it a career,” notes Tarrah Young, Assistant Farm Manager at Everdale, “Farm internships are practical, intensive ways of learning about the many facets of agriculture.”

There are currently 13 farms involved in the CRAFT program. These farmers have made a commitment to share knowledge with their CRAFT interns. The interns work on the farm, and once a month they congregate at one of the participating farms for a workshop given on a topic related to agriculture, such as soil fertility, marketing, seed saving and greenhouse operation. The day also includes a farm tour, potluck lunch and work project.

“Bringing together various farmers and their interns enables knowledge to be passed effectively to a large group of people,” says Young. “It also keeps the organic community in touch with one another and introduces interns to peers and mentors involved in sustainable agriculture.”

CRAFT fits well into Everdale’s overarching mandate to provide hands-on education in sustainability. Everdale was first founded in 1966 as Canada’s first free school, offering an alternative, more egalitarian and ecological approach to learning. The free school closed in 1974, however, and the property fell into disrepair. In 1998 Gavin Dandy, Karen Campbell, Lynn Bishop and Wally Seccombe came together to revive the fifty-acre property into what Everdale Learning Centre is today.

The Everdale classroom encompasses a working organic farm, a model home, classroom, forests and meadows and is located 35 minutes outside of Guelph.

Workshops on everything from straw bale construction to gardening are offered both to individuals and entire classes of children and teenagers. CRAFT participants often travel to Everdale and other participating farms for workshops and get-togethers.

This crossover between farms helps to strengthen the community. “After a season on a CRAFT farm, an intern will have met approximately 40 other aspiring organic growers and farmers from 12 other farms. This creates a broad support base that will help them establish themselves as a farmer in this region,” explains Young.

Local participating farmers seem to recognize the many benefits of the program and are very supportive of it, says Young. “The number of farms has close to doubled in the last 4 years.” Craft interns are also enthusiastic and often come back for a second growing season. “I strongly believe that Everdale and other CRAFT farms offer an indispensable opportunity to the experienced and inexperienced alike by providing an unparalleled mix of theoretical education and experience over a complete growing season,” says Allaway. A former Everdale intern, Allaway now operates his own organic farm.

CRAFT’s next challenge is to provide even more support for aspiring farmers so more can follow in Allaway’s footsteps. “We would like to see what more we can provide for interns who are serious about farming,” says Young. “We want to help them take the next step towards operating their own farm, because we realize how important this is to the viability of agriculture in Ontario.”
www.everdale.org