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Old 07-01-2009, 09:49 AM
 
11 posts, read 20,920 times
Reputation: 11

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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
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Old 07-02-2009, 10:12 AM
 
Location: Orland,Ca
27 posts, read 139,330 times
Reputation: 25
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.
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Old 07-02-2009, 11:18 AM
 
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
2,901 posts, read 12,724,950 times
Reputation: 1843
Quote:
Originally Posted by New Heritage Farmers View Post
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/

Last edited by coyoteskye; 07-02-2009 at 11:46 AM..
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Old 07-02-2009, 11:48 AM
 
1,312 posts, read 6,469,173 times
Reputation: 2036
Quote:
Originally Posted by New Heritage Farmers View Post
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?
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Old 07-02-2009, 12:02 PM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,329 posts, read 93,755,036 times
Reputation: 17831
Quote:
Originally Posted by New Heritage Farmers View Post
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve97415 View Post
You want to be sharecroppers?
Or one of these kooks?



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Old 07-02-2009, 12:09 PM
 
1,658 posts, read 2,694,459 times
Reputation: 2285
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles View Post
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.
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Old 07-02-2009, 12:16 PM
 
Location: 38°14′45″N 122°37′53″W
4,156 posts, read 11,009,296 times
Reputation: 3439
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!
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Old 07-02-2009, 01:01 PM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,329 posts, read 93,755,036 times
Reputation: 17831
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustPassinThru View Post
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.
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Old 07-02-2009, 01:32 PM
 
1,658 posts, read 2,694,459 times
Reputation: 2285
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles View Post
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.
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Old 07-02-2009, 05:04 PM
 
Location: Not tied down... maybe later! *rawr*
2,689 posts, read 6,933,979 times
Reputation: 4341
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles View Post
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).
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