The UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology’s Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, a hands-on training program that prepares participants to work in agriculture and the food system, will resume starting June 2022. In 2022 the Center will also offer a series of intensive short courses on focused agricultural topics for continuing farmers and gardeners.
The Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, started in 1967, is an internationally recognized residential training program that blends the virtues of hands-on learning with traditional classroom studies. The program was put on hold in 2020 to allow staff to focus on strategic planning, and the COVID-19 pandemic extended the pause through 2021.
The traditional six-month Apprenticeship has been revised as a 10-week residential program that will offer participants an experiential study of soil health and cultivation, plant physiology, and crop production and distribution, while also touching on the social and political context in which food is grown. The Center will host two Apprenticeship cohorts each calendar year, with summer programming in 2022 beginning in June and fall programming beginning in September. Program dates for 2022 will be announced soon, and applications will open in early 2022.
The Center will also debut new short course programming in 2022. These courses, taught by Center for Agroecology instructors, will provide intermediate and experienced gardeners and farmers hands-on, land-based professional development and skill-building opportunities focused on specialized agricultural topics including seed propagation, soils and cultivation, food preservation, fruit tree pruning and care, and more. The course schedule for 2022 will be announced in the coming weeks.
To learn more about the Center’s Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, Short Courses, and other educational programs including community workshops, visit https://agroecology.ucsc.edu/education/index.html .
