Become a Volunteer Farm Educator at Arcadia

"Watching kids see a carrot pulled from the ground for the first time is something special. Their eyes light up and and you can almost witness the synapses in their brain fire. Before your very eyes, their schema for a carrot has changed. That's pretty awesome." - Volunteer Farm Educator

Arcadia Farm field trips are full of aha! moments: when a child sees a pumpkin on the vine for the first time, when kids try radishes - and actually like them, when a teachers gets a great idea for his school garden. Volunteer Farm Educators are a key part of making it all happen.

They help monitor the space, provide instruction and supervision, and assist with general garden maintenance. We provide training for volunteers who can commit to one Wednesday, Thursday or Friday each week from 9:30am to 2:30 per week from April 1st to June 15. The full volunteer position description is here.

Helping kids discover where their food comes from is pretty magical and we happen to think it has long-term impacts, like healthier lifestyles and a healthier environment. If you want to get involved, email info@arcadiafood.org with your resume and a note describing your interest. We'd love to have your help!

Calling all early birds: Register now for Arcadia Farm Camp

Warmer months may seem far away, but we're already excited about a summer full of food, farming and fun: Registration for the 2013 season of Arcadia Farm Camp opens today! This year, we're even offering an Early Bird discount to campers who complete registration on or before March 15, so sign up now!

We're already busy planning a jam-packed schedule full of hands-on activities. There's tried and true activities, like building bug houses and making squish squash pasta, plus new ideas to try, like a food miles relay race and solar oven cooking. (101 Gardening Projects for Kids is one of our favorite resources for fun kids stuff.) We'll be working with our new Farm Director Stephen to find the right projects for young farmers and we're definitely recruiting chefs for some tasty seasonal cooking demos - email liz@arcadiafood.org if you know a chef who wants to stop by!

Plus, we're already accepting donations to the Arcadia Farm Camp Scholarship Fund. If you think it's important for all kids to have the opportunity to discover where their food comes from, head over to our scholarship fund page to learn more.

Get growing with our new workshop series

At Arcadia, we love meeting garden newbies, school garden volunteers, foodie families, and backyard gardeners. We think it's important for all these members of the good food movement to gain the skills they need to grow and eat local food.

That's why we're starting a brand new series of beginner-friendly workshops for gardeners, cooks, and kids. We're calling them Get Growing! Workshops- and you're invited!

We've designed our workshops to be family-friendly. Some workshops - like our Seasonal Cooking Class on May 13 - are intended for kids and parents to attend together. Others are designed for adults, but separate child-friendly activities are available.

All of the workshops will take place at our farm at the Woodlawn Estate (9000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA), so you'll also have an opportunity to check out our sustainable demonstration farm and tour the grounds of historic Woodlawn.

We expect many workshops to fill up quickly, and you can already sign up for Planning and Designing Your Garden, Backyard Chicken Basics, and our Seasonal Cooking Class for Families. Register now to reserve your spot!

Announcing Arcadia Farm Camp 2013!

After a wildly successful inaugural season, we're excited to announce that information about Arcadia Farm Camp 2013 is now available!

We're making a few changes this time around to make camp more accessible and more fun. For example, we'll provide a transportation option to and from the farm from Old Town and Capitol Hill.* We've also opened camp up to older kids, so that eleven-year-olds and twelve-year-olds can join us. We're even offering an early bird discount for those who sign up before March 15, 2013.

This year we're also offering different themes each week: Little Locavores, Green Growers, Small Chefs, and Young Farmers. While every week definitely includes the basics - food, farming, and fun - we'll include special activities depending on the theme.

And we're definitely sticking with what works: morning chores like weeding and collecting fresh eggs, chef demonstrations, water games on hot days, taste tests, harvesting for the daily salad bar and much, much more.

We're opening registration on February 1, 2013, so stay tuned to our blog and our website for more info. In the meantime, you can also head over to our FAQ page to learn more about camp.

*Transportation is contingent on sufficient ridership, though, so tell your friends to sign up!

Looking for a few fantastic interns

At Arcadia, our interns are essential. We love the energy and talents they bring to the farm, and they're involved in all aspects of our small operation. Interns gain important skills and knowledge that help prepare them for careers in sustainable agriculture, outdoor education, nutrition, nonprofit management, and more.

This spring, we're offering two different internship positions. Farm Interns will focus on our small-scale sustainable farming operation, while Farm Education Interns become an integral part of our farm field trip program. Follow the links to learn more.

Deadline for applications is February 1st. Help us spread the word!

Mobile Market to be Featured in Upcoming Conference

We’re excited to be presenting at the “Farming for Profit and Stewardship” Conference this January 18^th and 19^th in Lansdowne, Virginia, hosted by one of Arcadia’s partners, Future Harvest CASA.

Our workshop will discuss “Evolution and Innovation” in farmers’ markets, and will be co-presented by one of the Mobile Market’s funders, Wholesome Wave.  Arcadia’s Mobile Market will be on-site at the conference as an innovative example of how to establish a farmers’ market in a low income, low food access neighborhood.

Arcadia's Mobile Market at LeDroit Park, D.C.

The two-day conference will have six tracks for a variety of audiences, including “Beginning Farmers,” farmers wanting to “Scale Up,” “Grass-Based Systems” of livestock husbandry, members of “Local Food Communities,” “Fruit & Vegetable Production,” and “The Business of Farming.”  A full list of the workshops can be found here.

The Early Bird registration rate ends December 31^st – get your discount while you still can, and we hope to see you there!

Welcome Stephen, new Arcadia Farm Director

Stephen Corrigan is Arcadia's new Farm Director! We're really glad to welcome him to the team. While there will surely be plenty of opportunities to meet him in person, read on to meet him virtually.

What experiences have prepared you for this position?
I’ve been growing and raising food for the better part of a decade now, working in a commercial setting for about 6 years, and as an educator for the last 4 years. Throughout that time, I’ve learned that in order to connect people with their food, we have to get them out there doing the work, seeing where their food is grown, and meeting the people who raise it. Once that curtain is lifted, it’s very difficult to see food as something that doesn’t matter. I’ve had the great fortune to have had thousands of these interactions with CSA members, chefs, students, fellow farmers, and random passers-by, and the experience of sharing what I’m doing and why I’m doing it, as well as delicious recipes, gardening advice, and, of course, beautiful, tasty food, has been an incredibly rewarding experience.

What is most exciting to you about your new job as Farm Director at Arcadia?
I feel fortunate to be joining a relatively new organization filled with bright, passionate, and motivated individuals and an inspiring line-up of programs. I’m also looking forward to being part of the future growth of this farm, which I hope can develop into a showpiece for the region.

I’m incredibly excited to be jumping into a new region, where the local food scene seems to have so much interest and steam building behind it. Having spent most of my time growing in New England, I’ve seen the passion that many have for local and sustainable food begin to taper off, which has made it difficult to be innovative or creative. While these are just first impressions, the market here seems to be clamoring for new products, ideas, and, overall, simply more farms and farmers to supply it.

I’m also eager to be a part of this historic piece of property and its rich agricultural and culinary traditions. I’m looking forward to scouring through the historical documents that are available to find out more about with kind of things have been raised here over time.

What challenges do you anticipate you'll face as the Farm Director?
Moving to a new piece of land is never an easy task, and I anticipate that it will take me a little while to figure out exactly what this piece of land can do and how best to improve it for the future. I’m fortunate to have Mo’s guiding hand a bit to hear more about what’s been done and what is possible for the future.

Getting to know the rhythms of a new region is also going to be a bit difficult and yet present me with a wealth of new opportunities. Farmers can easily fall into a rut of the same schedules (planting, harvesting, pests, etc.), but being here will allow me to work with crops and varieties that I’ve never had a chance to grow and a longer overall season, which will be a welcome challenge as I’m doing my planning and continue into next season.

What are some of your goals for the 2013 growing season?
I’m still working out which of these goals are feasible and which are harebrained, so perhaps I’ll keep my goals here on the modest side. I’d like to keep up the aggressive improvement of the soil quality through active management, cover cropping, and amending. As part of that, I’d like to really nail down a good larger scale composting system. We’ve got an excellent supply of raw materials (manure, food scraps, etc.) around, and I’d like to be making use of that much better. I’d also like to begin growing more beneficial plants on the farm not only for soil and plant nutrition, such as nettles, equisetum, and comfrey, but also for beneficial insects and bee forage.

As a model of what I want this farm to become, I want to be meticulous in the farm’s succession planting to ensure a consistent supply of what we grow and always having top-quality produce.

If you were a vegetable, what would you be?
No question, garlic. It’s humble, definitely not the flashiest vegetable out there, but it’s indispensible to almost any method of cooking , incredibly versatile and got a spice that you won’t soon forget. I also like how it can provide a crop in several different ways, from scapes to green garlic to full-sized mature heads, providing different flavors for you throughout the season.