Horn Farm Center for Agricultural Education

Horn Farm Happenings – October 18, 2024

October 18, 2024 Happenings

Fall Tree Tending & Winter Willow Harvest

It’s getting colder outside but that doesn’t mean we will be spending all of our time indoors! Throughout the fall and winter seasons, Horn Farm Center staff and community crew members will continue to steward the land, especially in our newly established riparian buffers.We invite you to join us – to enjoy the fresh air, stay physically active, and learn new skills by caring for the land together at the farm.

Fall Tree Tending Work Days:

Discover why riparian buffers are important ecological features while tending our newly-planted trees! Activities may include monitoring tree health, removing problematic plants, fortifying tree tube bases with rocks to protect against voles, pruning, and harvesting live stakes.

Winter Willow Harvest

Learn about producing willow for basketry by coppicing, sorting, and bundling willow 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.

Join us in making a difference at the Horn Farm Center. Sign up to learn, grow, and steward the land with us this fall and winter.

Discover More Service Learning Opportunities at Horn Farm

2025 Greenhouse Internships: Now Accepting Applications

Interested in learning about nursery plant production and greenhouse management? We have four internship opportunities available next year that will provide hands-on learning and personalized job coaching with Farm Manager, Jon Darby.

Throughout the course of the internship students will learn:

  • Production planning and seeding schedules
  • Seasonal greenhouse management
  • Plant propagation techniques
  • Materials & Methodology
  • Plant Anatomy, taxonomy, physiology, chemistry, biology, genetics
  • Irrigation – watering, water testing, understanding plant nutrition
  • Plant Health Management – foliar sprays, root dips, seed coats
  • Plant Sale Management – budgeting, pricing, product placement, retailing

We are accepting applications now through November 14th! Click here to learn more and apply. 

Become a Beekeeper Next Year

Join us for our 10th annual Beekeeper Training Program! Taught by Mark Gingrich of Gingrich Apiaries, the Horn Farm’s Beekeeper Training Program explores beekeeping from its scientific underpinnings to keeping a hive at home.

Over the course of this two year program, participants will work side by side with Mark and other program participants to learn all aspects of keeping bees.

At the end of year one, each participant will have the option of receiving a bee colony to be moved to their home property. During the second year, participants will benefit from repetition of some aspects of the program and learn more advanced techniques while managing their own hive at home.

A Coop for a Good Cause

Now until our 13th annual Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, May 3rd, 2025 you can take a chance to win a small OverEZ chicken coop by participating in our winter Chicken Coop Raffle. Don’t miss the opportunity to win big for your flock while supporting Horn Farm Center’s land-healing mission.

  • $1200 Value
  • Handmade in Lancaster, PA
  • Houses Up to 5 Chickens
  • Moisture Resistant
  • Safe Against Predators
  • Easy to Assemble

Raffle tickets are now on sale for $10.00 each or five for $40.00.

Call 717-757-6441 or email education@hornfarmcenter.org to purchase your tickets. All proceeds support educational programs and regenerative land stewardship at the Horn Farm Center. 

A big thanks to OverEZ Chicken Coops for donating several chicken coops to the Horn Farm Center to support our efforts to incorporate animals into our production and demonstration systems at the farm!

Click here for More Raffle Info

Fall Foraging Foundations

Ready to hone your foraging skills? Whether you are a beginner or an experienced forager, this weekend-long session will provide foundational knowledge for building a relationship with the land and incorporating wild plants into everyday life. Enjoy a diverse array of lecture, conversation, general plant walks, hands-on exercises, and the opportunity to sample both raw and prepared wild foods.

Foraging is an invitation to rekindle our age-old relationships with the land beneath our feet – to develop the skills, knowledge, and practices that are a critical part of our sense of place. Through this work, we can provide ourselves with healthy, FREE food, become more self-reliant, and connect on a deep level to the landscape in which we live.

Learn the fundamentals of safe, ethical, and reciprocal foraging. Join the Fall Foraging Foundations weekend intensive on November 9th & November 10th at the Horn Farm Center. Sign up soon – space is limited!

Click here for More Info & to Register