We are very happy to announce our Commercial Organic Growers Course for 2023. Our 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.
Dates:
- Saturday 16th September - Woodbank Community Food Hub
- Sunday 17th September - Zoom
- Saturday 23rd September - Zoom
- Saturday 7th October - Zoom
Itinerary: The first session on Saturday 16th Sept will be 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.
Each session with Kate will run from 10am - 1pm and 2pm - 5pm.
The session with Adam on 23rd Sept will run from 10am - 1pm with a short comfort break.
Course cost:
£200 (incl. VAT) - Instalment plan option available on request to farmstart@kindling.org.uk
Applications can be made by completing the application form below and emailing the completed version to farmstart@kindling.org.uk with any questions. Please include your telephone number as it might be quicker to chat.
The deadline is midnight on Sunday 20th of August
