Where agriculture education intersects with social responsibility.
Operating as usual
Farming takes a great deal of land in order to be successful. Finding that land can be quite difficult for beginning farmers. Join us for our workshop on land acquisition and leasing to learn what different resources and tools you can utilize to acquire farmland. This workshop will be Wednesday, January 4th, 6 to 8 p.m. at the Fauquier County Extension Office: 24 Pelham St # 10, Warrenton, VA 20186. It is free and there will be no registration required!
Join us in our workshop, It's Time to Start Planning, as we take you through the full calendar year in the garden with suggestions about what varieties have worked well for us and when each crop will produce at its best! It is free and open to the public with no registration required. The workshop will be January 21st from 1-3 p.m. at the Fauquier High School at 705 Waterloo Road, Warrenton, VA 20186 in the Falcon Room.
📢📢Volunteer Spotlight‼
My name is Yuri Cole. When I was ready to retire from my job in law enforcement, my husband and I moved here to Fauquier County. In 2017 I completed my training with the Fauquier-Rappahannock Master Gardeners program and was introduced to the Education Farm.
I became a regular volunteer and began to take full advantage of the “education” part of the Education Farm. I attended numerous of the free workshops offered all through the growing season. When I was at the farm as a volunteer, I picked Farmer Jim’s brain, asking every stupid question that a new gardener could ask, which he would patiently answer. I took the Beginner Farmers class, not because I was going to be a commercial farmer, but because I loved learning about agriculture. I discovered a deep respect for the farmers and growers I was meeting in my new community. And the fact that the Education Farm donates every thing harvested to local food banks (over 100,000 pounds in 2022) made me love the Education Farm even more.
I was honored a few years ago to be asked to serve on the Board of the Education Farm. It is with great joy that I get to be a part of this incredible organization. I’ve learned so much over the years and am a much better gardener than I used to be. But
I still pick Farmer Jim’s brain and ask stupid questions.
We've finally reached the end of the 2022 growing season, and because of our wonderful volunteers it has been another very successful year! We donated 105,007 lbs of beautiful produce to area food banks and had a lot of fun doing it. One of the best parts of the process was that hundreds of kids played a valuable role in planting and harvesting our crops. We won't be asking for volunteers next week and will not be asking for them again until March. In the meantime be on the lookout for our upcoming educational workshops. We are deeply grateful for the support we receive from our community and look forward to the opportunity to continue to be of service in 2023!
We had six Supervolunteers show up on this frosty morning. They were able to harvest the last 11 baskets of cabbage for the season. It came to a total of 495 lbs, which brings our season donation total up to 105,007 lbs of valuable nutrition delivered to food banks across the local region. Our very heartfelt thanks go out to all of the hundreds of volunteers who showed up to help make this possible, and to everyone who made the vital financial donations that has made it possible to help make this a little bit better world. You can feed a lot of folks with 52 1/2 tons of fresh produce! Thank you all!
We're planning on our last harvest for 2022 tomorrow morning but that doesn't mean we get to take the rest of the winter off. We just placed our first two seed orders for over $2000 worth of new seeds for 2023, and we are less than a month away from planting the first seed trays for the 2023 growing season! Just as quickly as we close out this year, it's time to get to work on once again providing lots of educational opportunities next year, while we also donate over 50 tons of quality fresh produce to area food banks. It really is a beautiful world we live in!
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https://linktr.ee/PossibilityPlace
Picture and sign are from our friends at Saving Monarchs
We ought to be able to squeeze at least one more harvest out of our cabbage patch, but it looks like we've got some winter weather on the way next week. With the forecast of wet snow coming on Thursday morning we're going to ask for volunteers on Wednesday morning at 10 AM instead. It won't be a huge harvest but every head of cabbage will be another step towards easing food insecurity in our community. We hope you can join us!
It was probably our next to last harvest for the season, but we still had 6 wonderful volunteers show up to help make a difference in our neighbor's lives. We harvested 29 baskets of cabbage this morning which has already been donated to the Fauquier Food Bank, Fauquier FISH, the Rappahannock Food Pantry, and the Northern Virginia Food Rescue. It came to a total of 1305 lbs this morning which brings our season total up to 104,512 lbs so far. Weather permitting, we'll do one last harvest next Thursday
💧🌱Did you know that plants can grow without soil? Come join us December 14th from 6-8 p.m. at the Fauquier County Extension Office at 24 Pelham St # 10, Warrenton, VA 20186 for our workshop on aquaculture and hydroponics with guest speaker Chris Mullins from VSU to see how this is possible.🌱💧
Drones, automated feeders, robots; the agricultural industry is one of the fastest growing industries in terms of technological advancement. Come join us for our workshop on agriculture technology to learn about some of the different ways farmers utilize modern-day technology. Join us Saturday, December 10th from 1-3 p.m. at the Fauquier County Extension Office at 24 Pelham St # 10, Warrenton, VA 20186.
We're not finished with this growing season by a long shot! This upcoming week we are asking for volunteers on Thursday morning at 10 AM for a pretty large cabbage harvest. The temperature should be pretty mild and you and your family can help make a big impact for the area food banks. We've only got a few more harvest to go so don't miss your chance!
📢Calling all Beginning Farmers! This January we are starting our next Northern Piedmont Beginning Farmer Course. This will be an 8 week course walking you through creating a Whole Farm Plan with a soils lab, a farmer panel, and a tour of the Fauquier Education Farm. Registration is $100 per person and $150 per couple. Contact Ashley Goodwin at [email protected] to register. You can also come to our information session Monday Dec. 5th from 6-8 p.m. at the Fauquier County Extension Office at 24 Pelham St #10, Warrenton, VA 20186.
It is a wonderful world we live in, and it is even more beautiful when folks quietly step up to help one another. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who gave to the Fauquier Education Farm during Giving Tuesday!
Today is the day! Please show your support for the Fauquier Education Farm so that we can continue to provide meaningful educational and volunteer opportunities, and donate over 100,000 lbs of fresh produce to area food banks each year. It's quick and easy!
https://givingtuesday.mightycause.com/organization/fauquiereducationfarm
We had 3 of our hard core regular Supervolunteers this morning and were able to harvest 21 baskets of very pretty cabbage. It was wonderful to see that the bitter cold from last week did very little damage to the cabbage. This morning's harvest came to 945 lbs and has been donated to the Fauquier Food Bank and Fauquier FISH. Our season donation total is now up to 103,207 lbs. We're getting close to the end of the season but we're not there yet!
So that unusually cold snap in the teens last week really put a hurting on our cabbage and broccoli. This upcoming week we are only going to ask for volunteers on Monday morning at 10 AM to see what we can salvage in the cabbage patch. Fortunately, most of the frost damage is just on the outer leaves and once they are peeled away there's a perfectly fine cabbage underneath. These cool season crops can take a frost but temps in the teens can cause some serious damage.
The Fauquier Education Farm is growing! Our educational programs help grow new farmers and better home gardeners. Our volunteer programs help hundreds of families become involved in giving back to our community. And our volunteers are growing and donating over 100,000 lbs of fresh produce to area food banks each year. Please consider a financial donation on this Giving Tuesday to support our programs. It's quick and easy!
https://givingtuesday.mightycause.com/organization/fauquiereducationfarm
Where agriculture education intersects with social responsibility.
I know they call cabbage and broccoli cool season crops but this is taking things a bit too far. It was probably the coldest day that we've ever done a harvest on, but we still had 26 volunteers show up to help feed our neighbors in need. We harvested 1384 lbs of cabbage and broccoli and it has all been donated to the Fauquier Food Bank, the Haymarket Food Pantry, the Bull Run Emergency Food Pantry and the Northern Virginia Food Rescue. It really is amazing to see the generosity of these families that came out to volunteer on such a cold morning! Our season donation total is now up to 102,262 lbs.
We harvested a literal ton of cabbage on Thursday but there's still a lot more in the field, plus some broccoli and possibly some cauliflower will be ready soon. We are asking for volunteers on Monday morning at 10 AM for one more round of pre-Thanksgiving harvesting. Bundle up and come join us as we help supply the area food banks with fresh produce!
We had 12 of the very best volunteers on earth this morning for a large cabbage harvest. These generous souls braved a chilly wind and wet hands to help supply the area food banks with a lot of cabbage to include in their Thanksgiving offerings. We harvested 2025 lbs this morning which has been donated to the Fauquier Food Bank, Fauquier FISH, the Rappahannock Food Pantry and the Northern Virginia Food Rescue. This puts our season donation total up to 100,878 lbs, and there's still much more to come. Our volunteers may have left the field with cold, wet hands but they should all have warm hearts because you can help feed a lot of families with a ton of cabbage. We'll be back at it on Monday morning. We may have reached our goal for the year but there's still much more in our fields!
Giving Tuesday is coming up on November 29th and it's a perfect opportunity for you to show your support for the Fauquier Education Farm. Your donation is vital to our ability to continue to offer a wide variety of educational and volunteer opportunities, plus our volunteers have donated more than 100,000 lbs of fresh produce to area food banks in 2022. Help us keep growing in 2023! Just follow this link, it's quick and easy.
https://givingtuesday.mightycause.com/organization/fauquiereducationfarm
We had 8 volunteers this morning and they all had the same last name. It was just one family with Mom, Dad and all six wonderful kids. We picked quite a few tomatoes from the high tunnels, 5 baskets of cabbage and some very pretty broccoli. There was a lot going on so we didn't get a picture of our exceptional volunteers or of the entire harvest, but it came to 619 lbs. We split it between the Fauquier Food Bank, Fauquier FISH and the Haymarket Food Pantry. This brings our season donation total up to 98,853 lbs. We will very easily reach 100,000 lbs on Thursday!
The cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale are absolutely loving the rain and will be bursting at the seams next week. We will be harvesting broccoli and a few cabbage on Monday morning, but our big cabbage harvest will be on Thursday when we will make a large pre-Thanksgiving donation to the area food banks. Our harvest on Thursday should also help us reach 100,000 lbs of donations this year so far. Join us for a couple fun harvest for our neighbors in need. We will start at 10 AM both days.
We had 4 volunteers this morning and made very quick work of harvesting a full truck load of cabbage. We picked 600 lbs, which has been donated to the Fauquier Food Bank Fauquier FISH and the Rappahannock Food Pantry. Our season donation total is now up to 98,334 lbs.
The Fauquier Education Farm offers a variety of programs, workshops, and classes. In this information session we will be discussing the different agricultural education opportunities available. Join us Monday, December 5th from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Fauquier County Extension Office at 24 Pelham St # 10, Warrenton, VA 20186
The Fauquier Education Farm offers a variety of programs, workshops, and classes. In this information session we will be discussing the different agricultural education opportunities available. Join us Monday, December 5th from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Fauquier County Extension Office at 24 Pelham St # 10, Warrenton, VA 20186
With increased forage production, greater soil nutrition, a longer grazing season, and many additional benefits, rotational grazing is becoming a common practice among livestock producers. Join us for our workshop on rotational grazing with guest speaker Michael Sands located at the Fauquier County Extension Office Saturday, November 19th from 1 to 3 p.m.🐄
Over the weekend we only asked for volunteers on Monday morning, thinking that our harvest would be pretty small this week. However, after getting a closer look at the crops it looks like we need to add Thursday morning back in the mix. So... We are asking for volunteers on this Thursday morning at 10 AM to help us harvest cabbage. Come out and help us supply the area food banks with fresh produce!
We had 9 volunteers on this glorious morning and they were able to bring in a pretty big harvest of broccoli, kale and cabbage. It came to 767 lbs today, which brings our season donation total up to 97,734 lbs so far. We've got more than we expected that will be ready to go this week so we are adding a harvest on Thursday morning at 10 AM. The harvest will mainly be cabbage on Thursday.
Watching cabbage grow is a pretty slow motion activity, they just don't feel a need to get into a hurry to mature. This upcoming week we are only going to ask for volunteers on Monday morning, and because of the time change we will also changing the start time to 10 o'clock. We will have a pretty limited harvest this week.
This morning our volunteers harvested 7 1/2 baskets of very pretty broccoli, 5 baskets of kale and the first few cabbages of our fall harvest. Today's donation came to 355 lbs, which brings our season donation total up to 96,967 lbs.
It's that time of year when some things come to an end. This morning was the very last day for Shawna and Nicole to work at the farm this year. They picked these three baskets of broccoli, which went to the Fauquier Food Bank, and also loaded up the very last of our sweet potatoes for the Rappahannock Food Pantry. These two donations came to 712 lbs, which brings our season donation total up to 96,612 lbs.
Patience is a virtue in farming and we will harvest no cabbage before its time. This upcoming week we are going to let our crops have a little more time to mature before the next harvest. We will only be asking for volunteers on Thursday morning at 9 AM to harvest some kale, broccoli and maybe a few cabbage. We are far from finished for the season, but we don't have to be in a rush.
We planted 4000 sweet potato plants just after Memorial Day. We started harvesting them on September 28th and had several different groups join us over the next few weeks to spread out the harvest, and to spread out our donations to the food banks so that no one got overwhelmed. It took lots of hands and lots of work but it sure has been fun. We have donated just under 10,000 lbs of sweet potatoes to the food banks in Fauquier, Rappahannock and Prince William counties, that's a lot of yummy nutrition that's always welcome. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of the volunteers that helped make it such a joyful experience! You can feed a lot of folks with 5 tons of sweet potatoes!
We had 8 wonderful volunteers show up this morning to help sort out the last few baskets of sweet potatoes from our formerly giant pile. Stephanie from the Northern Virginia Food Rescue stopped by and picked up 8 baskets of sweet potatoes that they will store for our friends at Fauquier FISH, (we love it when our partners work together!) Plus, before the volunteers showed up the paid staff harvested two baskets of very pretty broccoli, which we donated to the Fauquier Food Bank. Our two donations this morning came to 550 lbs, which brings our season total up to 95,900 lbs so far. We still have more sweet potatoes which will go to the Rappahannock Food Pantry on Monday, and there are lots of long rows of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale to harvest in coming weeks. There's still much more to come!
Sorry to jerk folks around but we need to cancel the last minute call for volunteers this afternoon at 1 PM. We do still need volunteers this morning, Thursday the 27th at 9 AM, but we do not need volunteers at 1 PM
This morning Shawna and Nicole loaded up another 15 baskets of sweet potatoes for the Fauquier Food Bank. We have been very fortunate to have these two working with us as our paid crew this growing season, but these are seasonal positions and tomorrow morning will be their last day working with volunteers. They helped a lot of volunteers feel very welcome and they were vital to making this another successful growing season! This morning's donation came to 930 lbs which brings our season donation total up to 95,350 lbs so far, thanks to Nicole and Shawna and some of the very best volunteers on earth!
We had 14 volunteers show up this morning. They picked the first few broccoli crowns and then moved on to harvest 14 baskets of kale. With such a great crew on hand we moved down to the big barn and cleaned up 20 more baskets of sweet potatoes to be distributed to the food banks today. All together it came to a total of 1465 lbs that we donated to the Fauquier Food Bank, Fauquier FISH, the Haymarket Food Pantry and the Bull Run Emergency Food Pantry. Our season donation total is now up to 94,420 lbs!
8428 Meetze Road
Warrenton, VA
20187
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We picked a few watermelons and cantaloupe today!
So we use a lot of woven landscape fabric in our no till demonstrations. This morning we covered a large area to get ready for planting peppers and eggplant on Friday. A couple of our wonderful missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints got pretty speedy about spreading out the next piece. The very best volunteers on earth, and fast too!
It's a lot of work spreading a full truck load of compost over 7 rows of asparagus but these folks made it look easy!
Our friend and regular volunteer Henry sent this video of the dibble roller in use. It has spikes that can be adjusted to make holes in the plastic mulch so the volunteers will plant the seedlings at the proper spacing. This is a really valuable tool that makes everything much easier for the farm staff and the volunteers. And properly spaced veggies are happy veggies, and we want happy veggies!
One of our volunteers sent along this quick video from this afternoon. You can hear happiness and if this doesn't make you grin a little... Well, then you need to spend a little more time hanging out with kids! Thanks Joan!
One last video!!
What a crew! What a morning!!
This was the last row of tomatoes we planted. Sure hope this weekend's rain won't spoil too many of them.
Good morning!
A little good morning video, it's hard to capture everything in regular photographs. There is even another big section on the other side of the high tunnel that you can't see in this video, and all of this produce is going to be donated to area food banks. We expect big things this year!!!
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.seedsofchangegrant.com%2FGalleryDetail.aspx%3Fid%3D1909&h=KAQHYfp1K A vote for the Fauquier Education Farm will help us qualify for a $20,000 grant from Seeds of Change. As a non-profit farm we cannot exist without grants and donations. It only takes a second to vote on the link above, you can even vote everyday until April 18th. Vote early and often!!
Cows-N-Corn at Maple Tree Farm
Maple Tree Lane
Cows-N-Corn at Maple Tree Farm
Maple Tree Lane