Farmer Incubator is a not-for-profit organisation established in 2013 who are contributing to building a fairer food system by reimagining how we access, relate to, steward, and share land. They are currently based in and around Naarm, Melbourne, Victoria but are branching out to Canberra to run one of their successful Pop Up Garlic Farmer courses at Canberra City Farm in 2023.
Farmer Incubator’s work directly focuses on empowering aspiring farmers to get the hands-on, agroecological knowledge and experience needed to grow food regeneratively, while growing their business skills. They believe that this, in turn, will build our greater culture of custodianship, nurturing community and country
The Pop Up Garlic Farmer course is a ten month beginners course in small scale farming.
“From February to November you can take a crop of garlic right through from seed to harvest and market with a load of learning experiences and farm tours across the year to teach you everything you’ll need to know.”
The course is designed to fit in around existing work/study/life commitments and requires participants to attend 8 workshops and give around one day per month tending to their crops.
Aspiring garlic farmers will gain hands-on experience, mentoring, access to land at Canberra City Farm, and resources to help them grow their first crop, which they are then able to sell, keep, gift, or plant elsewhere to continue their garlic growing journey!
“As it is, we do not as a nation collectively hold the skills needed to power the food system into the generations to come. Nor do we offer clear and accessible pathways for those who want to learn how to grow food and steward our land in a way that regenerates ecosystems and soil health….
“With the uncertainty that a changing climate and degrading landscapes has us facing, this work – of regeneration, of knowledge of place, of growing farmers, of transforming our food system, of building soil, communities and our role as custodians – needs to be our priority.”
Farmer Incubator are currently looking for participants in the program, and are also looking for some presenters to assist with course content delivery.
For questions contact Roberta at pugfcbr@farmerincubator.org
