Farm Incubator, Apprenticeship, and Farm Startup School: Site Visit

Meet at Mote Aquaculture Park, 12300 Fruitville Road at 5:30 p.m., or as soon as you can make it. We will meet at the field and finish in the classroom after dark, if needed.

This is a site visit to the Mote Aquaculture Research Park to explain the incubator and apprenticeship and to see the facilities.

Sarasota County is dedicated to helping beginning farmers. We have launched the following programs to increase the likelihood of a successful small farm launch.

• Small Farm Startup School
• Beginning Farmer Incubator
• Agriculture Apprenticeships

It all begins with our 8-week start-up school that exposes participants to the resources and knowledge they will need to succeed:

• technical information for growing,
• business planning,
• sales and marketing,
• finances and record-keeping,
• legal and regulatory, and much more!

The apprenticeship program pairs beginning farmers with successful growers, ranchers, distributors and marketers. The job-shadowing provides the best practices and how-to that can't be captured in a class.

Our incubator program provides land, water, tools and other supplies and materials needed to grow 1/8- to 1/2-acre of produce. The incubator program is a high-learning, hands-on opportunity with limited risk. The produce can be sold independently or marketed with and through our program partners.

It can take 12-24 months to navigate the complete program.

Investment costs for program components are still in development but likely will be close to the following:

• Small Farm Startup School - $299 (with some limited scholarships)
• Incubator Plot with Support - $199 for 1/8ac, $329 for 1/4 ac.
• Apprenticeship - $99 for each rotation with a grower/company.

• COMPLETE PROGRAM - $499 for school, 1/8ac and 1 job apprenticeship

(PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Join us for an information session on May 22 to learn more about each aspect of the program.

Contact Rod Greder, Sarasota County Extension ag agent, 941-861-9810, rgreder@ufl.edu.

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Type: Take a Class

Topic: Food, Energy, Nature

Organization name: UF/IFAS Extension Sarasota County