Project Lead: Erica Frenay
Trainer’s Toolbox is a past project, but this page has resources and information that is still relevant for people who serve beginning farmers. It includes information about land access, farm incubators, and details from the Beginning Farmer Learning Network (BFLN) gatherings in previous years.
Beginning Farmer Learning Network
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About the BF Learning Network
Sharing events or opportunities that could benefit new farmers anywhere in the Northeast Sharing professional development opportunities…
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Land Access
Notes and documents shared or discussed during the Sept. 30, 2011 afternoon working session on Land Access…
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Assessing BF Skills and Competencies
Farming successfully requires a comprehensive set of skills from production to marketing and financial management. Assessing a…
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Farm Incubators
There is a growing movement of organizations and landowners seeking to develop farm incubators. Here’s a place…
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BF Learning Network Meetings & Webinars
Looking for past presentations? Did you miss a webinar? View slides and listen to recordings here! Summer…
About Trainer’s Toolbox
From 2008 – 2018, the Beginning Farmer Learning Network was a Northeast-region-wide network helping organizations that serve beginning farmers to learn from each other.
With funding support from NE SARE and the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, we organized annual 1-3-day conferences drawing on the expertise of the professionals within our network–and sometimes bringing in experts from other parts of the country–on topics from land access to incubator farms, from business management skills to social justice.
The goal was to foster a collaborative rather than competitive relationship among the organizations involved, and to help these organizations take their programming to a new level by learning lessons from those who preceded them.
About Erica Frenay
Erica has had several different roles with the Small Farms Program since she began working there in 2005. In 2006 she co-founded the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project, and launched the first online course in 2007. For 10 years she facilitated and organized the Beginning Farmer Learning Network, a professional development network for service providers in the Northeast who support beginning farmers. She has shepherded the development, publishing, and updating of several key SFP publications, like the Guide to Farming in NYS, the On-Farm Poultry Processing Guide, and the Guide to Direct Marketing Livestock and Poultry. As the SFP’s menu of online courses surpassed 20, she shifted her role primarily to managing these courses, providing ongoing training to instructors, and ensuring a high quality experience for students.
More about Erica Frenay
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