Completed Project Report


Boots-2-Bushels: Improving farm viability through comprehensive education and hands-on training for veterans and farmers with a disability

  • Award Amount: $35,374
  • Regional Center: Northeast Extension Risk Management Education Center
  • Grant Program: 2021 Education Projects
  • Project Director: Caragh Fitzgerald
  • Email: cfitzgerald@maine.edu
  • Organization: University of Maine Cooperative Extension

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Project Overview


Boots-2-Bushels (B2B) is a comprehensive 9-month market gardening education and training program for beginning farmers with an emphasis on military veterans, their family members, and farmers with disabilities in Maine. This program, led by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension's Maine AgrAbility and collaborating with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) provided instruction to 28 meaningful participants, and an additional 13 occasional participants using the “Five Fs” framework (Farming, Family, Finances, Future, Fitness) to address production, marketing, financial and human sources of agricultural risk. B2B creates a near-peer cohort that fosters unit cohesion in an empathetic and therapeutic environment. During ten weeks of instruction by subject matter experts, students were introduced to production, marketing, and best business practices for small fruit and vegetable farms.  Participants further implemented this knowledge by attending monthly farm field days that highlighted and demonstrated various aspects of the "Five Fs". This grant provided support for the two years of hands-on field days at demonstration farms, farm coaching on resolving conflict, collaboration and farm planning and for one year of remote, online instruction.

Number of Participants: 28

Outcomes

Project Steps

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EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

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DELIVERY AREA

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