Growers' Academy

Are you interested in farming or production as a business? Do you need business management training for your land-based business? The Growers' Academy may be for you!

The Growers Academy is a learning series designed to build a peer cohort to help new and transitioning vegetable production businesses succeed. It is an 8-week learning series offered on Tuesday nights starting January 24, 2012, from 6 – 9 pm, at the VT Roanoke Center in the Roanoke Higher Education Building in downtown Roanoke.   The Growers' Academy is offered through VT EarthWorks in partnership with Virginia Cooperative Extension. 

Academy topics include production planning, low-input vegetable production, soils and cover crops, pest and weed management, business plan development, rotational plantings, equipment, marketing, and more.  Each weekly session is presented by subject matter experts, including successful producers.  Previous participants value hearing from the “local speakers who actually work in the markets, restaurants, and farms.”  Participants complete the course with a preliminary business plan for their new enterprise.

“The Growers' Academy consists of much more than just traditional coursework,” VT EarthWorks Director Christy Gabbard shared.  “Participants are able to network, work on business plans, and learn from successful growing operations.”

In the 2011 Academy, resource professionals coached participants how to write business plans.  Successful producers talked about the realities of farm life, including being at the mercy of weather.  Chefs defined the most marketable products.  After completion of the course academy graduates are offered the opportunity to sell at some of the nearby farmers markets.  

If you don’t have land and still want to pursue your vegetable production dream, no worries. Graduates of the Growers Academy receive a preliminary membership to VT EarthWorks and are eligible to lease land through VT EarthWorks at the Catawba Sustainability Center in Catawba, VA.  

Click here for a Growers' Academy flyer.

Registration for the Academy is $215 per person for the 8-week series.  Click here to register online.

Click here for a registration form to print and mail in with payment.

Registration is requested by January 17, 2012.