Top to bottom: Each Flower Share subscription receives a vibrant bouquet of arranged Regenerative Organic Certified™ flowers from the Center. The EcoTots program brings together parents and their children to learn about farming and the environment. A Peace Dome will host everything from yoga to sound baths for the community.
and geodesic “peace dome,” and to convert the existing barn on the property into a commissary focused on pantry products to be supplied to local organic farms, thanks to a grant from the USDA. In addition, The Ecology Center is working to expand its apprenticeship program, which it began offering in 2020. Currently, the 10-month program pays farm apprentices as they learn about soil enrichment through techniques like crop rotation, as well as irrigation
land under development in the region, so they can learn how to run those sites more
there’s already “a great deal of de- mand and enthu-
independently. The nonprofit also has its sights on growing a network of satellite farms — or what Zaidman calls “incubation centers” — modeled after The Ecology Center across the country and managed by a fleet of farmers trained by its apprenticeship program. Speaking of their 10-year plan, Marks and Zaidman talk of the hub- and-spoke model as inspiration for the
siasm for spaces like this from some of the largest landholders in our ge- ography.” He adds that “they want to bring these [farms] to their community, and they want to bring them to life.” However, he says, The Ecology Center’s mindset is not one of an infinite appe- tite for growth. “We have a vision we like to think of as ‘more farmers, more farms, more food.’ The vast majority of those, we don’t want to have our name on them,” Zaidman says of the farms, adding that they should “be cultural- ly appropriate to their geography and also scalable from a community stand- point.” After all, as The Ecology Cen- ter’s focus has been since day one, it’s all about community.
nonprofit’s future and see the eco village as the hub at the center of “dozens of new values-aligned farm operations.” Zaidman says
systems, responsible pest management, and more. The Center is looking to build on this existing model by extending the training to two years and pairing its apprentices with areas of
The Ecology Center Village
Visit THEECOLOGYCENTER.ORG to learn more.
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ISSUE 01
LET IT GROW
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