Commercial Organic Growers Course
We are very happy to announce our Commercial Organic Growers Course. Our annual 4-day Commercial Organic Growers Course gives participants the opportunity to receive in-depth instruction from the growers themselves, as they begin to learn how to develop an organic food growing business.
Run by Kate Collyns and Adam Rayne, two hugely experienced and successful market gardeners (see below for more about them), the course will impart their knowledge and wisdom on the key areas in any food growing enterprise, including:
- Running a food growing business (including finances, legal issues, record-keeping, Health & Safety, organic certification, and managing volunteers).
- Understanding and maintaining soil fertility.
- Small-scale market gardening – focusing on plant propagation, sowing, and salad leaf production.
- Field-scale vegetable production, including pests and diseases and machinery maintenance.
Kate Collyns.
Kate Collyns started her own very successful market garden business, Grown Green, in 2011, and sells to farm shops, cafés, local pubs, and restaurants. Kate is also Author of the book 'Growing for Profit' in which she answers all the questions she had when starting out in business herself, and has written for magazines including The Independent magazine, Countryfile, and Grow Your Own.
Adam Rayne.
Adam is a hugely experienced grower. He spent 12 years managing Glebelands City Growers, a hugely successful Manchester based growing business with a strong focus on salads and leafy greens. He has a wealth of knowledge on many different aspects of commercial growing.
Itinerary: The first session is held at Woodbank Community Food Hub, Stockport. This gives the opportunity to use the site for some practical activities and gives context to the learning. It also gives the tutor and participants a chance to meet each other. The remaining sessions will be run via Zoom. In 2020, due to Covid-19, we started running the course online and participants found it to be a really positive way to learn without travel, especially for those who are not Manchester based.
Course cost:
£200 (incl. VAT) - Instalment plan option available on request.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next course dates and email farmstart@kindling.org.uk with any questions.
Commercial growers call to action 2
We are really keen to hear about your training needs and if together we can develop new opportunities to share good practice. We are always looking for opportunities to develop training with our partners Land Workers Alliance, Organic Growers Alliance, Organic Lea, and Growing Communities.
Commercial growers call to action 3
There is no better introduction to commercial veg growing than spending a day with like-minded people volunteering at our market garden in Stockport. We have regular volunteer days, both during the week and at weekends carrying out a range of crucial tasks.
