The T5R Youth Corner Project
The T5R Youth Corner Project is a
program designed to offer young folks in
their teens and twenties and opportunity
to take part in a productive garden
enterprise. The program is targeted at
young folks between 16 and 24 that
have a strong interest in developing the
skills to either produce a home or
market garden and reconnect the youth
of today with the soil and concept of
where food really comes from. The YCP
also instills the concept of team work to
achieve a higher goal. The YCP takes
the participants through every stage of
building, maintaining, harvesting and
marketing the end products of the
Corner Patch. The young folks make the
garden plan and in general manage
every aspect of the YCP with guidance
and advice available every step of the
way.
Figuring up the years of experience
available of just myself and DeeAnn in
farming, ranching and food
production..... My Self Mike Hammack
have 29 years of hands on experience
with the last 13 years in Farm to Fork.
DeeAnn Hammack 21 years of hands
on farm experience with the last 6 years
in Farm to Fork. Our partner farms and
friends who will also be offering advice
have an average of 12 years of
experience each with the low being 2
years and the old farts pushing 50 years
experience. We know of what we
speak, and practice what we preach.
The basics of the Youth Corner Project
are..........
1. To make a solid garden plan with
marketable produce.
2. To Create a business plan to bring
those products to markets.
3. To work in every aspect of the project
from starting seeds to the final cleaning
up of the Corner Patch and prepare it for
the next growing season.
4. Keep written records of all expenses
and sales.
5. Identify problems and compensate in
the marketing techniques to improve
sales.
6. To identify problems in the garden
and research methods to deal with pest,
weeds, fungus, and soil fertility that are
natural and cause no harm within the
confines of the permaculture here or the
environment off the T5R.
7. Learn to create compost using the
"Hot Pile" method to create rich soil
additives in an aerobic pile that
produces pathogen and unhealthy
bacteria free compost.
8. Determine who is who on the team
and discover each other strengths and
weakness and use that knowledge to
work effectively.
9. Learn more from the failures than you
do from the successes. KNowing how
and why something failed and then
taking the steps to not repeat those
things in the future creates more
successes than failures in the long run.
10. Learn how to make the most efficient
use of time and resources available to
get the biggest bang for the time
and resources invested.
11. Understand that every job is critical
and that turning the compost pile is just
as important as being the best sales
person. In a team everyone has to pull
their weight in the areas they are
working in or the chain breaks and the
entire team suffers and loses.
12. Folks have to understand that
producing food is not a game and that
there is no acceptable short cuts that
are acceptable if they compromise the
Safety or Quality of the food being
produced. The Thunder 5 Ranch has
practiced GAP amd HACCP in our
growing, packing and handling of
products since day one even though it
was not required and still is not
mandated from a regulatory stand
point. The YCP will learn all about GAP,
HACCP, and a food safety plan and
implement those tools at every
stage.
13. The T5R is supplying a prime piece
of well drained and very fertile land, a
well that never goes dry, the tools,
seeds, plants, and guidance for the
YCP. We are also covering the
expense and equipment of stalls at two
farmers markets in 2014. The YCP
team will receive 85% of the profits
from the marketing and sales of the
produce they raise. 15% will go into the
YCP fund to help cover the expenses of
the 2015 YCP and give the 2015
participants another avenue of
education not available in 2014. A set
amount of money to begin the season
with and the opportunity to create a farm
budget and implement the
project on that budget.
14. Learn the basic circles of life within
the T5R ecosystem and how they
function and interact with each other to
produce and bounty of food with minimal
mechanical inputs and no artificial
petrochemical based 'Cides or fertilizers.
15. Get a firm handle on the concept that
the future of food does not rest in the
hands of the factory and industrial
system that currently dominates the food
industry. Conventional practices from
the ground up are based on infinite
growth and production based on finite
resources. In the long term the
conventional system is a house of
cards that causes great harm along its
path to great wealth for a select few. It
was not so long ago that mega food was
fraction of the market and over the
course of really about 70 years changed
the trends in food and annihilated the
traditional system of food production.
We already can clearly see those trend
faltering and the consumer longing
for the days of real food and real
farmers, on those pastoral farms that
mega food uses the images of to sell
their not so pastoral products. To
continue breaking the conventional
strangle hold requires young people to
get involved and become vested in the
future of food not only for themselves but
for the generations that will follow.
The Thunder 5 Ranch stepped into this
fight between two competing food
systems a long time ago with the
intention of showing that traditional can
kick conventional ass on every level in
the local and regional scene. What we
need are more small productive farms,
strong networks comprised of
independent farms that can work
together to build the distribution and
marketing venues to move food from
even the smallest farms into the market
place. We have to do it! Not the
Government who other than through
token programs and a lot of talk offers
very little that is within the reach of the
average person wanting to get up
and running. In reality programs that slip
the chains of mega corp. control around
the necks of the small farms through
regulations and strings attached grant
funding.
The 2014 pilot YCP is open to any
young person who wants to take
part. It is a very hands on and
comprehensive program with the
potential of great success. If you
have a desire to get your hands dirty,
work hard, and work with a team of
your peers to plan, execute the plan
and work hard that success will be
realized.
I can confirms that there are two
Markets that will have YCP stands.
The RPFM Mount Vernon is one.