Incubator Farmer Cane Creek Farm
- Date Posted May 23, 2017
- Location Cumming, GA
- Category Agriculture
- Job type Educational program
Cane Creek Farm is a small family owned, CSA farm in suburban Forsyth County, Georgia. Located about 40 miles above Atlanta, the land has changed rapidly in the last 15 years with subdivisions springing up around the farm. The farm’s seventeen acres of pastures, fields, and woods are surrounded by a creek, with most of the growing area in the fertile creek bottom land. Small numbers of sheep, cattle, and chickens have been added in recent years. There are 3 unheated hoop houses and a solar-heated greenhouse for transplants.
In addition to a production farm, Cane Creek Farm is also an educational farm. We offer a variety of learning experiences from classes to internships to work shares to incubator farms for those interested in discovering or deepening their understanding of how to grow food, using sustainable, chemical-free growing practices. Our students include the beginning backyard gardener, the experienced farmer wanting to learn more, and school children spending a day or a week on the farm..
Our mission is to encourage others to create a more sustainable lifestyle for themselves, their families and their communities. We are a Certified Naturally Grown farm, as this grass-roots organization best fits our philosophies and goals as a small-scale producer selling locally and directly to our customers.
As many of our farmers in the USA reach their retirement years, a supply of new farmers is needed to produce the good food for our people. One of the best ways to learn to farm is to work on a farm.
We are looking for farmers who are at the beginning of their career, have some experience under their belt, and are ready to move up to the next level in establishing their farm business. The Incubator farm will provide land, infrastructure, training and mentoring for three years to help get a farm business up and going. Workshops on soils, plants, crop management, composting, cover crops, crop rotation, crop planning , certification, record-keeping and business planning will be offered.
Farmers in training will be matched with appropriate land after an assessment and joint discovery period. Access to infrastructure such as greenhouses, coolers and packing shed will also be available. Weekly and monthly meetings will be held with the farm manager. Occasional workshops will be held on relevant topics. Produce can be sold to the CSA at Cane Creek Farm, or other markets.
The ideal candidate would have at least two seasons of experience working on a production farm and should have a vision for their farm business. A business plan is not necessary to start, but will be developed during the first year of the incubator experience. Farmers in training must be able to work their land at least 20 hours a week.