Young farm family looking for opportunity (Chico, Petaluma: for sale, lease, homes)

[New Heritage Farmers]

Hello,
My Husband and I have been traveling around different areas of the US for a few years now looking for a good community to settle down in. On our travels we worked at many small family farms and have been researching self sustainable homesteads and sustainable farming methods. We are interested in finding a community in the northern half of CA (SF and up the western side of the state) that we could move to and volunteer our time to. We want to work with schools, churches, nursing homes, and other community places to grow and maintain gardens to feed the local community. We are interested in after school farm programs to give kids a project to participate in and teach them how to provide food for them selves and their familys.
We also plan to have our own spot to farm, and become off grid and self sufficient and have workshops teaching others how to become more self sufficient in their life.
We know that we can get federal grants for these programs. We just need some land to get us started. We are pretty open to a lot of areas but would like to be close to a big ish city so we could attend farmers markets and sell our value added goods that are produced on the farm.

Any suggestions on areas of CA that would need and welcome this program? Also, does anyone know of some fallow land we might be able to farm and work out a deal with the owner for profit sharing/ crop and meat share?
We are open to a lot of different farm opportunities and are hard workers.
We are currently located in Boston, MA after having our son and moving from WA to be with family. We are now ready to move and continue on the path to our dream.
Thank you for your time and I would love to hear your suggestions!
-Hollie

[FlyGuy]

You should check out the Chico area. They have a couple of framers markets. I know that land owners do lease their land for things like this. Chico is home to Chico State and they have a collage farm. The farmers market is big there. There are places for sale that have land. Where you would be able to have your gardens and such. Chico is not a real big town nor a small town. It is pretty laid back for the most part. There are smaller farm communties around chico also. A lot of the farm's or ranches around the area have almond's, rice, walnuts,prunes, olives and some have peaches, oranges and apples. It is a great area for a garden and such. It sounds like you and your family have a great plan. Good luck to you!!!! I hope that this has helped you a little bit. If you have any questions I will try to help out has much as I can. My family has farmed almonds down in the area for many years.

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by New Heritage Farmers

Hello,
My Husband and I have been traveling around different areas of the US for a few years now looking for a good community to settle down in. On our travels we worked at many small family farms and have been researching self sustainable homesteads and sustainable farming methods. We are interested in finding a community in the northern half of CA (SF and up the western side of the state) that we could move to and volunteer our time to. We want to work with schools, churches, nursing homes, and other community places to grow and maintain gardens to feed the local community. We are interested in after school farm programs to give kids a project to participate in and teach them how to provide food for them selves and their familys.
We also plan to have our own spot to farm, and become off grid and self sufficient and have workshops teaching others how to become more self sufficient in their life.
We know that we can get federal grants for these programs. We just need some land to get us started. We are pretty open to a lot of areas but would like to be close to a big ish city so we could attend farmers markets and sell our value added goods that are produced on the farm.

Any suggestions on areas of CA that would need and welcome this program? Also, does anyone know of some fallow land we might be able to farm and work out a deal with the owner for profit sharing/ crop and meat share?
We are open to a lot of different farm opportunities and are hard workers.
We are currently located in Boston, MA after having our son and moving from WA to be with family. We are now ready to move and continue on the path to our dream.
Thank you for your time and I would love to hear your suggestions!
-Hollie

you may want to explore this intentional communities web-site.
it's the most comprehensive one and there's also a classified section where you can introduce your vision.
Intentional Communities (ecovillages, community, communes, cohousing, coops, sustainable living...)

http://classifieds.ic.org/classifieds/

[Steve97415]

Originally Posted by New Heritage Farmers

Also, does anyone know of some fallow land we might be able to farm and work out a deal with the owner for profit sharing/ crop and meat share?

You want to be sharecroppers?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by New Heritage Farmers

teach them how to provide food for them selves and their familys.


We also plan to have our own spot to farm, and become off grid and self sufficient

Originally Posted by Steve97415

You want to be sharecroppers?

Or one of these kooks?

[JustPassinThru]

Originally Posted by Charles

Or one of these kooks?

Charles, it's a damn shame that kids are allowed to spend a day in the fields helping dad. Wipe them smiles off yer faces.

[bellalunatic]

take a look at and maybe contact the folks at

Petaluma Bounty Petaluma Bounty

and

Daily Acts Http://www.dailyacts.org

and green string farm Green String Farm

these are all great people doing similar things to what you described. If they can't help you directly I'm sure that they can point you in the right direction.

all of these links above are in and around Petaluma, north of SF by 32 miles in Sonoma County.

See also unincorporated Marin county there are lots of ranches and farms out there as well, (pretty much west of Petaluma) and also search around the towns of Valley Ford, Bloomfield, Graton and Sebastopol.

good luck!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by JustPassinThru

Charles, it's a damn shame that kids are allowed to spend a day in the fields helping dad. Wipe them smiles off yer faces.

It is. I sure wouldn't want to do it forever. Maybe it would be for an hour, on a nice day, with temps in the 60s and 70s, and some good music playing, and if I needed a little sun.

I don't know how anybody would really want to live in the 19th century, unless of course they think god wants them to.

[JustPassinThru]

Originally Posted by Charles

It is. I sure wouldn't want to do it forever. Maybe it would be for an hour, on a nice day, with temps in the 60s and 70s, and some good music playing, and if I needed a little sun.

I don't know how anybody would really want to live in the 19th century, unless of course they think god wants them to.

I don't think that Amish kids want to do it forever either, as about 2/3 of them eventually join the general society. However, there is less stress and less depression in that society, so maybe laboring outdoors contributes to their overall state of mental well-being.

[canibeyou]

Originally Posted by Charles

Or one of these kooks?

She didn't say she wanted to run a puppy mill!

(off topic: the Amish are the #1 owners/ breeders in the puppy mill industry in the United States).