The University of Illinois Extension has just announced an Urban Ag training program being held on 12 consecutive Wednesdays from May 10th through July 26th from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.

Location: the Children’s Farm at The Center, 12700 S. Southwest Highway, Palos Park, IL.

Intended for Entrepreneurs who want to start an urban produce farm operation, Community members in underserved/food insecure communities who want to increase food security and/or establish a community food system project in their neighborhood, Educators who want to bring food production knowledge back to their organization; and new growers interested in more intensive training programs.

Class size is limited to 25 participants in an effort to engage individual participants at greater level. There will be “eyes on” and “hands on” opportunities to incorporate concepts learned during the modules:

• Site Selection Issues
• Intro to Soils, Testing, Analysis, and Corrections
• Composting
• Vegetable Production Systems, Planning, and Scheduling
• Transplant Production
• Season Extension
• Insects, Diseases, Weed Management
• Integrated Pest Management
• Tools, Equipment, and Irrigation
• How to Choose a Farm Enterprise
• Business Planning, Financial Statements, and Marketing for your Urban Agriculture Project
• Bees & Native Pollinators
• Food Safety , GAP’s, and Post-Harvest Handling
• Keeping it Legal
• Fruit Production
• Grant Programs and other farm programs/resources

 
For more information visit: http://web.extension.illinois.edu/cook/muft/

For questions please contact Sarah Batka, Extension Program Coordinator at University of Illinois Extension at sbatka@illinois.edu.