Events for Farmers, by Farmers
Sometimes a 20 minute conversation with someone who gets it can change the course of a season. Join us for an upcoming event!

End of Season Farmer Gatherings: October & November, 2021

Gather with a small group of farmers to debrief about the season, share triumphs and challenges, and just enjoy good company. You'll dig into a meal (it's BYO-picnic!), and then the farmer hosting the gathering will facilitate a roughly one-hour farmer-to-farmer conversation...picture all the conversations you wish you could have at the end of the farmer's market (but never have time for). 

The conversations might give you a chance to share (and get ideas!) about things like production issues, labor, farm work/life balance, market trends, urban farming triumphs and challenges, improving your farm business via efficiency or scaling up, and more.

Each event is small (limit ~12 farmers), outdoors, and BYO-picnic so that we're being safe with Covid. 

The Gatherings are free (of course!) but RSVP's are required. ​
The RSVP asks you to tell us about you and your farm, so we can get a sense of who's coming, and prepare good questions for each farmer conversation. 

Deadline to RSVP is 4 days before each Gathering, so sign up today!

Sunday, October 17, 1-3pm - Burke Farm (North/Central Indiana...near Lafayette)
Farming Engineers is a USDA certified vegetable operation, run by Lisa Burke. Lisa is a first generation vegetable farmer in rural Clinton County. She's in year 14 of her farm, and she farms year round, selling at two farmers markets, Market Wagon, through a CSA, and via their online store.

Wednesday, Nov 3, 5-7pm - Bushelcraft Farm (Northern Indiana...near Elkhart)
Bushelcraft Farm is an nonprofit, educational farm started in 2020 in Elkhart. In 2020, Bushelcraft Farm offered over 18 classes to the community on a range of food, gardening, and soil-building topics and developed a 36 household CSA with their veggies, herbs, dried beans, flowers, and cornmeal. Jon Zirkle is has been farming and teaching for over a decade. Most recently, he coordinated the agroecology program at Goshen College.

Sunday, Nov 7, 1-3pm - Garcia's Gardens (Indy)
Garcia’s Gardens is a small but mighty urban farm providing healthy food to central Indiana. They're beginning farmers who grow a variety of fresh produce using organic methods and invite customers and neighbors to join the local food system.

Friday, Nov 12, 11:30-1:30pm CENTRAL time - Grounded Earth Farm
In collaboration with NWI Food Council (Northwest Indiana...near Crown Point)
At Grounded Earth Farm, Anne Massie is a first-generation beginning farmer growing organic vegetables, nuts, and fruit on 11 acres in Northwest Indiana. She sells her goods at two farmers markets, on-farm, and via seasonal pop-up markets. Anne regularly works with other farmers to market collaboratively in NW Indiana, and is President of the NWI Food Council. In fact, NWI Food Council is co-hosting this End of Season Farmer Gathering!
The pandemic has slowed us down - but here are some of the events we are most proud of from the past few years:

Fellowship 2021: Applications Due January 3, 2021

We are almost ready to accept applications for Year 2 of our Fellowship. Stay tuned for the application to go live the week of Dec 7. Applications will be due Jan 3, 2021. Seven farmers will be selected. Each Fellow will receive $5,000 to help propel their farm forward - and to connect with their cohort of Fellows for one year. Read more about the Fellowship here or click here to learn about our 2020 Fellows (pictures above of our Fellows, left to Right: Anne Massie, Vivian Muhammad, Emma Hawk, Mike Record, and Jonas Carpenter).

Convergence 2020/2021 

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Convergence is a gathering of young farmers from across the country. Since we're a chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, we were able to send five "delegates" to this gathering. Here's a big thank you to the five fantastic farmers and farmer allies served as our delegates:
The theme this year was "Achieving Equity through Agriculture." The four day event brought together farmers from around the country to learn, share, and listen. NYFC members can listen to some of the key notes and presentations online. Stay tuned for details.

Each of the 40+ NYFC chapters was asked to send a delegation that is majority BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). Each delegate committed to this year's virtual event, and to bringing knowledge and ideas back to our chapter so that we can all learn from this incredible three-day experience. Next year, the delegates will have the chance to participate in an in-person Convergence in the southeast, and build on this year's trainings and conversations.

Summer 2020 - Farmer-to-Farmer Webinars (Going Online in a Covid World)

Summer 2020 Update: If you missed a session you wanted to see, we've added recordings of the videos on our new Youtube channel. Click here to watch the recordings!

Small farmers are moving loads of product via online sales. Let’s talk about how, what’s working, and what you need to sell online amid a pandemic. We're hosting 9 farmer-to-farmer webinar sessions, starting May 27. Each one will feature a different farmer sharing the tools she's using to sell online. She'll share how it's going, talk about hurdles, and then of course there will be time for conversation!

About these Events
You’re probably already adapting to online sales amid this pandemic. But if you’d like to talk about how it’s going, see what tools other farmers are using, discuss best practices (on the front end, back end, or in between), and share ideas, then we’ve got a space for you. Join the Hoosier Young Farmers Coalition each week, now - mid June. Each time, a different farmer from Indiana will talk about their experiences moving to online sales and what they've learned.

You can’t replace a farmer potluck - but we can still gather to swap ideas. We have a small grant from SARE (USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program) to help farmers adapt to selling online. We're using the grant funds to host 8 farmer-to-farmer webinars in the coming weeks. 
  • Each hour-long session will feature a different farmer and the online platforms, tools, and strategies she’s using to sell food amid a pandemic. She will share what's working (and what hurdles she’s encountering). 
  • And of course there will be time for conversation! Farmers from across the state will be able to chime in. We hope you’ll join us to share how these platforms and strategies are working on your farm (or what you’re struggling with!), best practices, and new ideas that you’re coming up with as the season unfolds. 
  • It's not as good as talking over a potluck, but it's still a good chance to connect and trade ideas. These sessions are scheduled at lunch and dinner time on purpose - in part because we know you’re busy - but also because we hope you’ll bring your meal or a mug of tea. Food and drink can still help us connect. 

Sessions will be Wednesdays at Noon Eastern and Thursdays at 7:00 PM Eastern starting May 27. We’ll meet via Zoom (or you can call in). The link to each meeting will be sent out one hour prior to the start of the meeting (we'll send it to the email you use to register). 

If you can tear yourself out of the field, you’ve gotta eat anyway. Why not eat with us, and connect with farmers in this wild time?

And if you missed these farmer-to-farmer conversations, fear not: We’ve recorded the farmers’ presentations and we're posting them to the Hoosier Young Farmers Coalition's new Youtube channel for you to watch on your own time. Enjoy!


Schedule of Presentations
Big thanks to Purdue Extension, IU Center for Rural Engagement, SARE, and the Northwest Indiana Food Council for helping make these farmer-to-farmer webinars happen. 

p.s. If you need more about the nuts and bolts of selling online, check out our Resources page for info!

Past events that we hope to bring back (or adapt) in the future.

Cancelled: April 1 & 2 - Two Days of On-farm Learning with NYFC and Other Friends...Behind the Scenes on Produce Safety, Plus a Listening Session!

Update: These events have been cancelled because of the Covid-19 crisis. Please stay tuned as we try to reschedule or adapt these programs!

You've heard about FSMA rules, and maybe you've been to the Food Safety workshops. That's useful. But what does food safety really look like on the farm?

Come learn with other beginning farmers at these casual, practical events for diversified veg growers. These two days are jam-packed. NYFC is here in the midwest, helping us put these programs on (and a bunch with chapters over in Illinois, too). We hope to see you there.


April 1: IL/IN Produce Safety Tour: Employee & Volunteer Training in Indianapolis at Flanner House Farms, 9-11:30am

Let Food Safety be your first chance to create a team spirit and get your workers jazzed about food safety. We'll dive into how to train employees & volunteers while keeping in mind food safety. Details and RSVP here.

April 2: IL/IN On-Farm Produce Safety Walk Through with Perkins' Good Earth Farm (De Motte, IN, 9am-11am)

Food Safety Walk Through: Dan and Julie are opening their wash/pack area for everyone to learn from. What have they done right, for FSMA...and where is there room for improvement? Details and RSVP here.

Produce Safety Walkthroughs are modeled after On-Farm Readiness Reviews (OFRRs), which are free educational assessments being offered by Departments of Ag and Extension to farmers to help them understand FSMA’s Produce Safety Rule on their operation and how it will be enforced. We've been trained to conduct OFRRs, but since we're educators working for non-profits and not depts of ag or extension, we can't offer official ones. This is our unofficial version, which is geared more toward smaller, diversified farmers who may be qualified exempt. We like to keep the walkthroughs very conversational and encourage growers to come with questions. 

April 2: IL/IN Wash and Pack Station Design with Grounded Earth Farm (Crown Pointe, IN, 2-5pm)

Deep Dive Workshop: Wash Station Design and FSMA: How to improve your space to save time, save your back, and lessen food safety risks. Details and RSVP here.

April 2 - IL/IN NYFC Young Farmers Listening Session at Grounded Earth Farm (Crown Point, IN 5:30-7pm)We hear that young farmers need better access to higher quality, more applicable business services, and we want to know more!

Join us on April 2 at Grounded Earth Farm to make your voice heard and help shape the future of the National Young Farmers Coalition’s Business Services program. We’ll want to hear about resources you’ve used, what’s worked, what’s failed, what you can't find, and more. Details and RSVP here.
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These two days of workshops, walk throughs, and listening sessions are brought to you by Hoosier Young Farmers Coalition, the National Young Farmers Coalition, NWI Food Council, IDEA Farm Network, Flanner House Farm, Perkins' Good Earth Farm, and Grounded Earth Farm. 

March 6, 2020 - Young Farmer After Party - Nonna's by So Italian

We love the Indiana Small Farm Conference - and the chance to hang out afterwards.

We'll gather  in Plainfield after the conference at a new venue this year - Nonna's by So Italian (likely starting around 8pm). It's near the Baymont Inn (but not within walking distance...alas, the Black Swan where we used to hold our party has closed).

We aren't buying (sorry!) but we will create a space for all the young farmers who want to come!

​Grab yourself a brew and some pizza, and hang with excellent folks from across the state.

Hoosier Young Farmers @ Winter 2020 Farming Conferences

We work hard to make young farmers a part of the conversation a farming conferences across the state. We hope you'll register for the conferences, learn a ton, and have fun connecting with other beginning farmers this winter. And of course, come hang with us at some point during the conference.

January 30 - Indiana Uplands Winter Food Conference: We'll have a table in the afternoon networking session. 
February 1 - Food and Growers Association Winter Conference: We'll have a table and two of our chapter leaders (Nate and Liz Brownlee) will be presenting.
February 7 - Northwest Indiana Food Council's FED Expo: Find us in the Exhibit Hall AND record a story at our storytelling station (details TBA)
March 5-7 - Indiana Small Farm Conference
  • On Saturday: We're helping bring Lindsey Lunsford, of Tuskegee University, to lead a session about how you can help build equity in your community's food system. This session is geared to eaters and farmers who want to do more to fight racist in their communities, and help their communities talk and engage to grow together.
  • On Friday: We'll also host the brand-new Advanced Grower Learning Circles (a place for conversation among folks whose farms are up and running, and want to dig into details like working with employees, farming with your spouse, and so much more).
    • 2Building, Balancing, Right Sizing Your Farm - with Jeff Hawkins of Hawkins Family Farm. We’ll talk together about when (and how) to add new enterprises, and strategies for “load leveling” to create a more even farm year. Friday, March 6 at 3:45-4:45 pm, Conference Rooms
    • Managing Relationships on the Farm with Genesis McKiernan-Allen of Full Hand Farm. Farmers can talk together about employee management, from the hiring process to making it through the season, and strategies for farming successfully with a partner or spouse. Friday, March 6 from 11:00am-12:00pm
March 23 - Northeast Indiana Local Food Forum in Ft. Wayne: Record your food and farm stories at our booth. Cancelled due to Covid-19.

November 17, 2019 - End of Season Farmer Hangout *REGISTRATION IS FULL*

Update: This event is sold out! The restaurant can only fit so many, and we are full. We are sorry! Want to host a farmer hang out in your neck of the woods? Fall and winter can be perfect for connecting. Let us know and we can help make it happen!

Original event posting...now closed. :(

Let's catch up! End of season farmer hang out on Sunday, November 17 from 1-3pm at Albano's Pasta in Valparaiso, IN.  

This event is a cosponsored by our friends at the Northwest Indiana Food Council and the Idea Farm Network.

 October 20, 2019 - Mad Farmers Collective + HYFC     *RSVP, Please!*

​Mad Farmers Collective and Hoosier Young Farmers Collective are partnering for a fall event that will include everything a weary farmer needs by the middle of October:
  • A tour of a highly productive urban farm (inspiration!),
  • Some focused and slightly nerdy discussion about best practices when it comes to washing greens (education!),
  • A review and close look at the MFC homemade greens bubbler (specific how-to info!),
  • And of course plenty of time to socialize and unpack the season over snacks and beers with other farmy types (physical and soul food!).
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The event is free and will be held onsite at the Mad Farmers' gorgeous urban farm, just a few miles south of downtown Indianapolis. Light supper fare will be provided thanks to MFC and a generous SARE grant.

​We hope you can join us, and hope you'll take the time to RSVP so we can order food appropriately.

The afternoon will unfold like this:
3 pm - Gather and Welcome, quick tour of the 1.5 acre farm
3:30 - Greens Bubbler Review from the Mad Farmers. We'll post up at the wash/pack to hear about the research and process that went into building the greens bubbler and get a review of its performance and potential for increasing productivity and efficiency on a production farm. Lots of time for questions and hopefully a chance to hear from other attending farmers about their own greens washing procedures.
4:30 - Scott Monroe, Purdue Extension Specialist for Food Safety, will give a brief overview of his recent research into best practices for washing greens to eliminate contamination concerns.
5:00 - Eat and talk! Talk and eat! We'll provide light supper fare to enjoy while you ask a few follow up questions, catch up with folks you haven't seen all season, and hopefully meet lots of new folks.

We'll also have information available about joining the Hoosier Young Farmer Coaltion (it's free!) and about an exciting Fellowship opportunity (it includes money!) unfolding for the 2020 season.

Hope to see you October 20th! Don't forget to RSVP!

Farm Crawl: Sunday, April 28 - Central Indiana

Plans are in motion for a Farm Crawl for our spring 2019 event! 

Get a behind the scenes look at Teter Organic Farm, Full Hand Farm, and Free Folk Farm...

...that means we'll see an organic fruit and veggie farm (that's tied to a church's outreach),  a four-season farm in year 8 of production, and an urban farm in Year 1, all in one day.

We'll add more details, but know that:
- We'll start at 1pm
- You'll have the chance to carpool with other farmers between the sites
- We'll share a potluck meal at the end of the tours

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more info.
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Don’t see something in your area on our schedule?  
Contact us and let's make something happen!
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