Horn Farm Center for Agricultural Education

Happenings

Horn Farm Happenings – November 27, 2024

With Gratitude & Excitement

Today, we’d like to share a heartfelt THANK YOU to 74 donors who helped us get one step closer to building a new Education Center. Together, we raised over $15,000 for our Building Fund during Lancaster ExtraGive! We are so grateful for their commitment to grow land-based, community education at the Horn Farm Center.A special thanks to our matching sponsors, Richards Energy Group and the Lisa Naples Team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty, as well as all the generous local businesses and organizations that support Lancaster ExtraGive, including the Lancaster County Community Foundation, High Foundation, Murry Foundation, and Steinman Foundation.

Last week’s “friend-raising” was an incredible start! We still have several months and $185,000 to go to reach our goal and Rebuild Horn Farm. 

If you didn’t have a chance to donate on Friday, there still time give a tax-deductible contribution this year. If you can’t contribute financially there are other ways to support our efforts to build a new learning center and better serve our community.

To learn more about this project and how you can help, visit rebuildhornfarm.com

Let’s build a new education center together – brick by brick at the Horn Farm!

As we gather around our tables this season, the Horn Farm Center board and staff would like to share our gratitude to those who champion our mission and work on the land: our program participants, volunteers, donors, sponsors and farm partners.

We are also grateful to the farmers and farm workers whose tireless efforts make our daily meals possible. We celebrate the land stewards who are restoring ecological health for future generations. We honor the Indigenous peoples who have cared for these lands for millennia, and continue to apply their traditional ecological knowledge to sustain and restore the natural world.

Become a Skilled Land Steward

Want to make a positive ecological impact in your community? We invite you to participate in our signature training programs at the Horn Farm Center! Now is the time to register and start training for a regenerative future!Whether you are seeking to deepen your relationship with the natural world or want to gain practical skills to advance your career, all participants will learn how to be confident land stewards.

Don’t miss your chance to become a well-rounded caretaker of the natural world.
No prior knowledge or experience is required to participate.  

Shop with a Mission in Mind

Just in time for the holiday season, the Horn Farm Center’s online store is open!

Shop from our signature “What Would Nature Do?” t-shirts and “Wild & Uncommon” merchandise.  Horn Farm’s organically-grown garlic is also available!

Looking for other gift ideas? Give the gift of a unique learning experience. We offer gift certificates for Horn Farm Center classes and workshops!

All proceeds benefit educational programs and regenerative practices at the Horn Farm Center. 

Buzzing with Sweet Rewards

Beekeeping is more than just a hobby; it’s a beneficial practice that boosts local ecosystems by supporting pollination and bee populations. It also offers sweet rewards such as honey, beeswax, and pollen, which can fuel a small business or be used for personal consumption.

Next year, we are hosting our 10th Beekeeper Training Program at the Horn Farm Center. Taught by professional apiarist Mark Gingrich, the program explores all aspects of beekeeping from the science behind this fascinating practice to managing a hive at home.

Learn alongside a community of budding beekeepers, diving deep into all aspects of the practice. The program is held once a month from January-October.

At the end of the first year, you will take home your own bee colony. In year two, you’ll have the option to further grow your skills with advanced techniques.

Register now to join next year’s cohort of beekeepers. The 2025 Beekeeping program begins on January 22, 2025

Winter Willow Harvest

The winter weather signals the start of our annual willow harvest at the Horn Farm. We invite you to join us –  to enjoy the outdoors and learn while helping on the farm.

Coppicing is a tradition steeped in history and serves as a powerful reminder of our ancestral ties. Learn about producing willow for basketry by coppicing, sorting, and bundling willow branches as part of our annual winter harvest.

Discover the unique attributes of this regenerative agroforestry crop that helps to cycle carbon and protect our waterways.  Sign up to learn, grow, and steward the land with us this winter.

Sign Up to Harvest

Help Us with an Extraordinary Need

Help Us Meet an Extraordinary Need for Lancaster ExtraGive

Ecological learning needs your support! Donate today to help us build a new Education Center and provide MORE hands-on experiences than ever before at the Horn Farm Center.

We’ve always been a grassroots organization. Even with the loss of our farmhouse three years ago, we’ve remained rooted in land-based learning, serving folks in Lancaster, York, and beyond!

Your contribution will help us overcome our biggest challenge yet. Our new education center is within reach. With your help, we can achieve our dream and “Rebuild Horn Farm” together.

Our donation page is now live – you can give at anytime today until midnight. And, starting at 9am, you can double your impact when you donate to the Horn Farm Center for ExtraGive, thanks to Richards Energy Group.

Help us build for a regenerative future at the Horn Farm Center, brick by brick!

Click Here to Donate!

Horn Farm Happenings – November 15, 2024

The Season for Giving & Gratitude

While there’s gratitude to be had in all the seasons, autumn is especially ripe with abundance and thanks. That’s why this past weekend at the Horn Farm Center felt so right: gratitude abounding!In our Fall Foraging Foundations Intensive, 10 students made acquaintance with seasonal wild foods and medicines like dandelion, stinging nettle, amaranth, and ground ivy. With hands in the dirt, weeds became gifts, and the landscape felt a little more like home.

We also hosted over 50 donors for a special get-together, touring the progress in our agroforestry demonstration spaces while sharing our vision for an even-more regenerative future at the Horn Farm. Donors enjoyed an educational walk around the farm, seasonal refreshments, and storytelling, all on a perfect autumn evening.

In this season of gratitude, we’re so thankful for all of the folks who make our work possible! After all, it takes a village to uplift ecological education, land stewardship, and revitalizing connection to the earth like we strive to do. Thank you!

Looking for a way to help our ecosystem thrive? Mark your calendar for Lancaster ExtraGive – next Friday, November 22nd – when you can double your impact by donating to help us build our new education center!

“Being a part of HFC has been life-changing…. I was able to find like minded people who truly appreciate Nature’s beauty and have created achievable ways to design and impact our own spaces…

The Ecological Gardening class at Horn Farm adds invaluable knowledge to anyone interested in helping restore natural habitats.”

– SC Wharton, 2023 Program Participant

Be the Change in Your Community: 2025 Ecological Gardener Training

Entering its fourth year, the Ecological Gardener Training Program with Waxwing EcoWorks has empowered dozens of community members with the knowledge, tools, and compassion to help nature thrive at home and in their community.

From your own backyard to the wild spaces next door, the Ecological Gardener Training Program is an invitation into the world of designing and caring for beautiful, ecologically-friendly gardens that support wildlife, bees, and beneficial insects – in the spaces where we need it the most!

This 16-week course runs once a week from February to May and provides classroom education and hands-on training with a cohort of like-minded individuals.

Join the movement to restore and revitalize the spaces we live, work, and play with the 2025 Ecological Gardener Training Program at the Horn Farm Center.

Apply today, spaces are filling fast!

Help Us Meet an Extraordinary Need for Lancaster ExtraGive

This fall marked 3 years since lightning struck our farmhouse, damaging it by fire.

While the road to recovery has been challenging, we haven’t let our work be defined by this tragedy. We’ve continued to carry out our mission of connecting people with the land: expanding our programs, multiplying our restoration efforts, and enriching the lives of folks in our community even without an operable building.

Now, after years of recuperation, design, and fundraising, a new education center is finally within reach. The renovated farmhouse will center our community, serving as a versatile and accommodating educational facility unlike anything we’ve seen at the Horn Farm Center.

Next Friday, November 22nd, you’ll have the opportunity to double your impact during ExtraGive when you donate to help bridge our funding gap and build a new education center at the Horn Farm .

Click here to learn more

Learn the Art of Beekeeping

Keeping bees is an amazing experience with sweet rewards! This time-honored craft supports community pollination, food supplies, and much-needed bee populations in our local ecosystems.

Beekeeping can also provide a multitude of personal benefits: honey, beeswax, and pollen, all of which can support a small business or simply your own household use.

Next year, we are hosting our 10th Beekeeper Training Program at the Horn Farm Center. Taught by professional apiarist Mark Gingrich, the program explores all aspects of beekeeping from the science behind this fascinating practice to managing a hive at home.

Learn alongside a community of budding beekeepers, diving deep into all aspects of the practice. The program is held once a month from January-October.

At the end of the first year, you will take home your own bee colony. In year two, you’ll have the option to further grow your skills with advanced techniques.

Register now to join next year’s cohort of beekeepers. The 2025 Beekeeping program begins on January 22, 2025

A Few Spots Left: Eco-Restoration Program

Join us this winter for our Ecological Restoration Certificate: a three-week, hands-on workshop series where you’ll learn how to partner with nature and restore degraded ecosystems.

Taught by Waxwing EcoWorks and Reviving Wisdom, this program is an essential resource for professionals, volunteers, and homeowners aiming to advance environmental conservation. It offers practical stewardship skills for impactful ecological restoration.

Topics covered include: site assessment, nature-inspired planning, project implementation, and lifelong sustainable practices.

This program runs for 6-8 hours on three Saturdays in winter:

  • December 14, 2024, 9am-3pm
  • January 11, 2025, 9am-5pm
  • January 25, 2025, 9am-3pm

Become an active, compassionate steward of the local landscape! We only have a few spaces left – register soon!

Register Now

Crafting Holiday Fun at the Horn Farm

The holiday season is a perfect time to connect and learn with friends and nature.

Join us at the Horn Farm Center for our Saturday kitchen classes! From baking to hand-made holiday gifts, these guided get-togethers in the kitchen are sure to spark your sense of community and creativity.

Let’s gather around the hearth to share warmth and learning with one another!

Click here for More Info & to Register