The Center for Land-Based Learning grows opportunities for beginning farmers with training program

By Joan Cusick | Solving Sacramento“Hands-on” best describes the Beginning Farmer Training Program at the Center for Land-Based Learning in Woodland. And prepare for those hands to get a little dirty.Over seven months — from mid-February to mid-September — trainees attend classes twice a week, work in the 1-acre training plot, visit existing farms, write their own business plan and sell produce at the West Sacramento Mobile Farmers Market. The center also operates another mobile market that frequents Woodland and parts of Yolo County.“People are way more excited about growing than they are about selling,” said Program Manager Jon Kupkowski.The training program began in 2011, Kupkowski said, “because people wanted to farm and they didn’t know how. Being a hands-on program, it’s really adults mostly who have already had careers and they’re looking at how to transition. They don’t want to go back to college for four years, so it’s ‘How do I get to this new career that I want to do in a relatively short amount of time?’Jennifer Ezieke of Oakley prepares for a classroom session. Out of nearly 120,000 farmers in California, only 427 are Black, according to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture. (Photo by Joan...