The Lost Art of Growing
Growing food from the soil is an ancient practice but most modern people have lost touch with the art.
VIGA provides education so that everyone from the backyard gardener to the serious farmer can participate in the joy of sustainable agriculture and reap the benefits.
Farming in Community
Let's be real, it's hard to set boundaries around farm work, there’s always something that can still be done, every day, and having a community of other growers around you can be hard to facilitate. Farming in Community (formerly C.RA.F.T.) hopes to help fill in those gaps, those social connection needs, because we shouldn’t do this vital work alone! We should be inspired and held up by each other, celebrated in our successes, buoyed in our failures and encouraged to know we have others around us working towards the same goals and passions.
The goals of VIGA's CRAFT program are to:
Give a broader experience to beginning farmers than they can receive on their farm alone
Connect and sustain connection between farmers and producers on the island
Provide a space for peer to peer mentorship and mutual support
Increase the knowledge and skill base in sustainable agriculture
Get Growing
Educational programs include educational programs such as CRAFT (focusing on farmers and interns) and Get Growing (focusing on home growers) which share and build our knowledge about sustainable and regenerative agriculture through community-based, inclusive workshops.
VIGA's GET GROWING is a Garden Workshop series about growing food.
Designed for beginning vegetable gardeners and those with some experience who are looking to expand, Get Growing is a series of four, hands-on workshops held on Sundays throughout the growing season. Each of the workshops will be led by a group of experienced Island growers, and will combine fun presentations with discussion and in-the-dirt projects aimed at getting you growing your own vegetables and fruit at home. The 2 – 3 hour workshops will be held at different garden locations around the Island, with one class each in February, May, July and September. Workshops require a donation, or Membership at the SOIL and above levels, more about Membership here. You can follow the action on the Get Growing Facebook group. Ask your questions and get answers to other questions that you didn't know you had.
To watch videos from Get Growing, click here!
Other Get Growing Resources