Make Money as an Urban Farmer!

A workshop presented by the

Sustainable Commercial Urban Farm Incubator (SCUFI) program

Earn a good part-time or full-time income farming backyard, front yard, church yard and other neglected or unused small land plots in your own neighborhood.

October 8th & 9th, 2011, 8am – 6pm, Walnut Creek, California

Featured Trainers:

Curtis Stone, of Green City Acres, an urban Small Plot INtensive (SPIN) farm in Kelowna, BC Canada.

Curtis will share with you how in 2010 he used the SPIN Farming system to build a multi-lot 1/2 acre urban farm that in its 2010 six-month first season grossed $20,000. He's on track to gross over $60,000 in his 2011 second season.

If Curtis can do it so can you!

James Kalin, of the SCUFI program, an urban farm business incubator that trains urban farmers and helps them secure financing and land for their own commercial urban farms.

James will share how the SCUFI program works. He will also explain how your commercial urban farm can generate additional profits by integrating your farming operations into the grounds, structures and systems of neighboring buildings and businesses. He will also describe a new SCUFI farm home rental or ownership program.

Special Guests:
Molly Bloom, of California FarmLink, will talk about sources of urban farm startup grants and loans as well as commercial urban farm business planning.  http://www.californiafarmlink.org
Laurie Zerga, of Chef-K, will talk about why healthy eating and good nutrition, and about including such info and recipes in your product marketing to increase your sales and profits.  http://www.chef-k.com
Robert MacKimmie, of City Bees, will talk about how having bee hives on your urban farm plots can improve your crop yields and farm profits.  http://www.citybees.com

A team of workshop trainers will help you...

• Learn how the SPIN farming system and SCUFI program can help you build your own high-income urban farm.
   
• Hear how the SCUFI program can help you with training, financing, and securing land to launch your own urban farm business, and a farm home to rent or own.
   
• Meet people at the forefront of the growing sustainable commercial urban farm field, share ideas, gain knowledge, pool resources and form alliances to build your own profitable urban farm.

Saturday: Indoor lectures and demonstrations.

Sunday: Outdoor hands-on field and business exercises.

Green City Acres
Farming 6 small urban plots totaling 1/2 acre, Curtis sells to a farmers market, restaurants and a 20 member CSA veggie box program. Moving of veggies, compost, tools and a 400 lb rototiller are all done with a bicycle towing a custom 6’ trailer.

Before starting his SPIN farm in Fall 2009, Curtis had little experience farming or gardening. Curtis proves the SPIN farming system can be done inexpensively and effectively by people with limited farming or gardening experience. SPIN-Farming is being practiced by a growing community of farmers across the USA and Canada.

The Gardens at Heather Farm
Both days of the workshop will be at The Gardens at Heather Farm. The Gardens at Heather Farm is at 1540 Marchbanks Drive, in Walnut Creek, California.  The Gardens at Heather Farm is a nonprofit educational garden.  For more info: http://www.gardenshf.org/

People taking the two-day training also become eligible to apply for an urban farm training plot at a SCUFI program site.

For more details about the 2-day workshop, Curtis Stone and his Green City Acres farm, SPIN, and the SCUFI program, you can view and download an 8-page brochure about the Workshop at:
http://www.virtuallygreen.com/scufi/wceventbrochure.pdf

and a one-page flyer at:
http://www.virtuallygreen.com/scufi/wceventflyer.pdf

Questions?  Email James Kalin at: urbanfarms@virtuallygreen.com