Buzzing with Benefits: Become a Beekeeper in 2025
From pollination to pure honey, backyard bees are a gift that keeps on giving.
Partake in the bounty this new year by joining the Horn Farm’s 10th annual Beekeeper Training Program. Our next swarm of students sets off in January, so now is the time to register!
Learn alongside a community of budding beekeepers! This program is made for those with a busy schedule – held once a month from January-October.
The Beekeeper Training Program covers hive management across the seasons, giving you an in-depth experience working with live colonies at the Horn Farm Center. And with the option to take your own bees home at the end of the program, you’ll wrap up a year of learning with just the tools you need to continue your journey!
Register now to join next year’s cohort of beekeepers. Spaces are limited!
The 2025 Beekeeping program begins on January 22, 2025
Click here to register.
Education at the Horn Farm Center can take many shapes! This fall, thanks to the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement at Franklin & Marshall College, we were fortunate to bring another thoughtful, creative, and nature-loving collaborator to our team to help us move the needle on new educational initiatives.
Jess Kinter, a Studio Art and English major at F&M–worked with Community Engagement Coordinator, Andrew Leahy, to conduct independent research and develop educational content for future self-guided tours through the Horn Farm Center’s restoration landscape. Jess synthesized complex ecological information to produce written material that will make its way to our website in the new year.
In addition, she transformed what she researched into eye-catching sign designs that soon will find a home in our riparian buffer and other demonstration spaces at the Horn Farm. Check out one of the new signs below!
We’re grateful to Jess for helping to enhance educational experiences here at the Horn Farm. We’re also thankful to F&M College for providing opportunities for talented, imaginative students to make an impact in our community!
“Through interning at the Horn Farm Center, I was reminded that restoration isn’t some unobtainable thing only pursued by those with the largest corporations and deepest pockets; restoration occurs in small scales, done by individuals or communities, with the growing, magnificent hope of a better future.”
– Jess Kinter, 2024 F&M Intern
You Can Make a Difference
By the end of next year, our new education center could be a reality. Your support this year will help us get there.From donations to sponsorships to collective support efforts, there are many ways to help us achieve our goal to Rebuild Horn Farm.
Your gift this holiday season means more than just a building. With an accessible, versatile, energy-efficient classroom to serve our community, the new education center will be a gathering space for more transformative programming than ever before.
Horn Farm Center is a grassroots organization committed to fostering love for the land and empowering our community to live in sustainable, regenerative ways.
Brick by brick, help us make a bigger impact than ever before – starting next year!
REBUILDHORNFARM.COM
Order by December 18th for Holiday Gifts
Looking for the perfect holiday gift for your nature-loving friend or family member? Check out Horn Farm Center’s online store!
Don’t sleep on these unique gift ideas – place your order by December 18th to receive your purchases in time for the holiday gift-giving season.
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.
Volunteers Needed: Sunchoke Harvest
Ever heard of a sunchoke (Helianthus tuberosus)? This native, perennial food crop brings together ecological value and local abundance. Cultivated by Indigenous peoples up and down the east, sunchokes are members of the sunflower family that produce prolific and nutrient-dense tubers harvestable throughout the winter.Their high prebiotic content gives them a bit of a “windy” reputation, but with proper preparation and rekindled relationship, sunchokes can serve as a rich and versatile winter food source. Moreover, their self-sufficiency, low impact, and high yield makes them a star spud for local agriculture that regenerates the health of the land while creating place-based food resilience.
Want to learn more about this native plant? Join Farm Manager, Jon Darby this Saturday for our annual sunchoke harvest. We could use a few more hands in the dirt!
From 9am to 12pm on Saturday, December 14th, we’re inviting volunteers to join in harvesting hundreds of sunchoke tubers. We hope you can join us tomorrow for a cool, active, and educational morning in the sunchoke patch!