County workshop aims to make farm management a breeze

For 25 years, Cecilia Redding, owner of Down 2 Earth Farms, worked as an agricultural engineer in the food industry, but she always had hopes of growing her own food.

“I have always wanted to farm but didn’t have the land,” Redding said. “In 2011, I bought land.”

To learn the skills necessary to start her farm, Redding attended the PLANT@Breeze Farm workshop series. People Learning Agriculture Now for Tomorrow, known as PLANT, is an eight-week workshop series teaching necessary skills like production, marketing and business plans to people interested in farming.

“I took the workshop to learn hands-on and practical skills rather than book knowledge,” Redding said. “I had book knowledge already, rather than hands-on experience.”

PLANT will begin its eighth annual workshop series Wednesday. Each class is three hours long. The program has a $110 registration fee.

“A great thing about the workshop is that it brings in other farmers,” Redding said. “They go through what they do and why. It is really a lot of applied information from other farmers, so that was really helpful.”

The number of farms in North Carolina decreased from 52,913 to 50,218 farms between 2007 and 2012.

Despite the statewide decrease, Orange County farms actually increased from 604 to 645 during that time, though total farm acreage in the county decreased from 60,057 to 56,666 acres.

Michael Lanier, Orange County Cooperative Extension’s agricultural economic development agent, said local food has a higher quality than mass-produced food, even with the smaller acreage.

“They put a lot more time and effort into their food,” Lanier said. “The varieties in grocery stores are primarily selected for high yields and a long shelf life. Quality is a big issue and a reason why there is a growing demand for local food.”

Kent Duke, a former PLANT participant, said he wanted to learn how to grow food on a farm after he and his wife, Lueann, retired.

“My wife and I bought some acreage to retire on, but I also wanted to grow food, not only to feed us but to sell at a market,” Duke said. “And I needed to learn how. “

Since the workshop series, Duke and his wife now run Willow Ridge Farm, a fruit and vegetable farm that also breeds Olde English Bulldogges and has a flock of chickens.

“Even if you just want to grow something in your backyard, the workshop is well worth the time and little expense,” Duke said.

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