Taproots holds Emerging Farmers Field Day

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

BOISE – A new organization in Idaho’s Treasure Valley area seeks to create a farm incubator where new farmers can rent small pieces of land, share resources and learn from more experienced farmers.

Called Taproots Farm Hub, the group hopes to purchase a 50- to 200-acre piece of land where emerging farmers can share land, resources, training and market opportunities with like-minded agricultural producers.

On April 30, Taproots invited interested participants to visit five small farms in Boise’s Dry Creek area while learning more about its vision.

About 50 people attended the Emerging Farmers Field Day, which included students from the College of Western Idaho’s horticulture program.

Taproots Executive Director Casey O’Leary guided the tour and spoke about the group’s plans.

She said high land costs and limited knowledge about running a successful small farm are obstacles to would-be farmers gaining a foothold in the industry.

Ada County is one of the state’s hot spots for diminishing farmland, as development spurred by rapid population growth leads to more and more farm ground being paved over.

That makes it difficult to find and afford land to farm on, said O’Leary, who farmed in the area for 18 years and taught horticulture at CWI.

“We could teach you how to be an amazing farmer, but where are you going to do that?” she asked during the field day.

If Taproot’s vision comes to fruition, many emerging farmers could learn the business while sharing the burden with like-minded folks, O’Leary said.

“We can have shared markets and then we can get into markets none of us could get into on our own,” she said.

A common theme among the five farms visited during the tour was that each of them leases the land they farm on. Another common theme is that those leases are tenuous, at best.

The owners of one of the farms hasn’t even discussed how long the lease is with the landowner.

“It’s harder to invest in a longer-term crop” when you don’t own the land, said Whistlepig Farm owner Lyndsey Mulherin.

An incubator farm like the one Taproots is working toward could help solve the problem of tenuous leases, O’Leary said.

Fiddler's Green Farm owner Justin Moore admitted he pretty much lucked into the six-acre piece of land he farms on. The landowner didn’t know him, but a phone call from the nearby farmer he used to work for was enough for him to secure a lease.

Like most of the other farms visited during the field day, Fiddlers Green has a Community Supported Agriculture program and sells to local co-ops and restaurants.

Moore said it’s not that easy to obtain land and start farming in the fast-growing Treasure Valley area.

“I think something like this Taproots program could be really cool if it gets going and funded,” he told Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. “Linking potential farmers into land arrangements would be huge.”

O’Leary told IFBF the field day is a part of Taproots’ outreach efforts, “Where we’re trying to bring together folks who want to learn how to farm and help them to see what functioning, mixed- vegetable, diversified, small-scale farming operations look like.”

She said Taproots hopes to obtain a long-term lease – at least 50 years – on a 50- to 200-acre piece of land that it could sub-lease to emerging small-scale farmers.

“They can have access to shared equipment, shared infrastructure, shared markets if they want them,” she said. “And access to training. They can come and learn about farming. They can also learn about business. And then once they’ve trained, they can get their own piece of land….”

The Taproots initiative obtained grant funding through USDA to start the effort, and the group just launched a capital campaign.

The startup costs are not a really high hurdle, but obtaining the land will be a challenge, she said. However, it’s one she’s confident Taproots can achieve.

The group is currently looking for land in either Ada or Canyon county.

“We’re looking for somebody who’s willing to work with us for the long term,” O’Leary said.

“There are people here on this field day who want to have a spot on this incubator,” she added. “There are many people who are looking for land to farm on who don’t know how to get started.”

One of the aspiring farmers who joined the field day was Jack Vance, who is only 12 but has known since he was about 5 that he wants to farm some day.

He said he joined the tour to learn from people who are already farming.

“I was hoping to pick up on how to farm and what people are doing so I can put that into my future career,” he said.

O’Leary said while obtaining the land Taproots is seeking won’t be easy, she’s confident the organization’s vision is achievable.

“This is an idea whose time has come,” she said. “There are so many people who have been working in the local food movement for so many years who understand exactly how many different interlocking problems this solves. So I’m confident we’re going to find the right folks who have the land we need, who have the funding support we need.”