Center for Land-Based Learning

Center for Land-Based Learning The Center for Land-Based Learning cultivates opportunity for youth, for agriculture, for business.

Enrollment is open for AgHiRE's 2026-2027 cohort.AgHiRE gives Spanish-speaking agricultural employees hands-on training ...
08/21/2026

Enrollment is open for AgHiRE's 2026-2027 cohort.

AgHiRE gives Spanish-speaking agricultural employees hands-on training in leadership, English, digital skills, and workplace safety. The program runs 12-weeks and instruction is hybrid, with in-person courses in Woodland, running December 2026 through March 2027.

Employers who've gone through the program have seen real changes on their team. Wynette Sills of Pleasant Grove Farms said her employee "has taken on increasingly complex managerial responsibilities and contributed to important decisions, allowing us to step back and let him handle things."

Participants notice the shift too. One graduate shared: "I used to have a more aggressive leadership style. AgHiRE has helped me become a better leader. Now I'm better at controlling my emotions... instead of getting mad at my peers and coworkers, I am more calm."

Interested in enrolling an employee? Learn more and complete the interest form at landbasedlearning.org/aghire.

Want to know more about how this program impacts participants? Read our 2024–2026 Impact Report at bit.ly/aghire-impact

Hey small-scale farmers, there might be a robotic w**der coming your way.A team called Almond Robotics from Modular Lear...
08/20/2026

Hey small-scale farmers, there might be a robotic w**der coming your way.

A team called Almond Robotics from Modular Learning, Inc. in Davis, California won the Excellence in AI award in the Academy division at the 2026 Farm Robotics Challenge. Their project is a w**d management tool built around image recognition and growth-pattern sensing, paired with multispectral drone mapping. Their project is designed with small-scale, organic and regenerative farmers in mind.

Last year, it was a plan on paper. This year, the team is moving into building it, They estimated a price point around $3,000, once it's complete.

Almond Robotics is part of the Capital Region Farm Robotics Academy, coordinated by the Center for Land-Based Learning in partnership with UC ANR across the North State and Capitol regions.

With a new school year underway, a new competition season is beginning — teams from eight high schools and two community colleges will get hands-on experience with robotics, drones, and artificial intelligence to design and test solutions to real agricultural challenges.

Stay tuned for updates on this year's team projects!

California just became the first state to put an official definition around regenerative agriculture, and CapRadio came ...
08/19/2026

California just became the first state to put an official definition around regenerative agriculture, and CapRadio came out to the Center for Land-Based Learning's headquarters, The Maples Farm in Woodland, to find out what that actually looks like for the people doing the work.

CEO Mary Kimball and Farm and Climate Program Manager Delaney Sondag broke down the new framework: eight areas centered on soil health, no mandated practices, just clearer outcomes for farmers to work toward.

We talked with CapRadio about how practices like cover cropping and keeping living roots in the soil year-round can create a farm ecosystem that starts doing some of the work on its own, needing less water and fewer inputs because the soil holds onto what the plants need.

Read the full story from CapRadio: https://www.capradio.org/articles/2026/08/10/california-drew-the-line-on-regenerative-agriculture-farmers-are-making-sense-of-it/

Last week, staff, alumni, and partners from the Center for Land-Based Learning visited our neighbors at Sakata Seed Amer...
08/18/2026

Last week, staff, alumni, and partners from the Center for Land-Based Learning visited our neighbors at Sakata Seed America for a tour of their field trials, just two miles from our headquarters at The Maples Farm in Woodland.

We saw peppers, melons, and tomatoes up close, and Sakata's breeders explained what it takes to bring a new variety to market. Take beets: breeders are chasing color right now, in part because food companies want to use beet pigment instead of artificial dye.

Breeding takes patience, skill, and a little luck. It takes about five years to get a stable variety, with no guarantee the genetics will hold up against changes in disease pressure and climate extremes that emerge along the way.

We also learned that Woodland's heavy concentration of processing tomato fields creates a lot of pest pressure for specialty varieties, so Sakata works with other local growers to raise their tomatoes instead. The cherry tomatoes we sampled on the visit came from Durst Organics, grown just down the road.

Thanks to the whole Sakata Seed America team for welcoming us. Learn more about their work at sakatavegetables.com.

Ever wondered what it actually takes to grow flowers good enough to sell? Join us at Sweet Mabel's Farm in West Sacramen...
08/17/2026

Ever wondered what it actually takes to grow flowers good enough to sell? Join us at Sweet Mabel's Farm in West Sacramento to get all the deets.

Owner Elle Huftill-Balzer is a graduate of Center for Land-Based Learning's very first California Farm Academy cohort in 2012. Since then, she's built Sweet Mabel's Farm in West Sacramento from an overgrown, w**d-choked lot into a thriving cut flower operation that produces nearly year-round.

In Flower Farming Fundamentals, Elle will walk participants through the full lifecycle of cut flower production from how to select varieties for continuous seasonal harvests to how to evaluate crop health and spot a bloom that's actually ready to cut. You'll learn proper harvesting technique and post-harvest handling that keeps flowers fresh from field to vase. No prior experience required.

Workshop details:
Date: Saturday, September 19
Time: 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Location: Sweet Mabel's Farm, West Sacramento
Cost: $125 (scholarships available for U.S. military veterans

Learn more and enroll at landbasedlearning.org/flower-farming

08/14/2026

Enrollment is open for Intro to Integrated Pest Management, starting August 31, Live ONLINE lectures!

Participants will learn to identify common pests, beneficial insects, and plant diseases in California fields, along with monitoring techniques like degree-day tracking that help catch problems before they spread. The course also prepares participants to sit for the California Private Applicator Certificate (PAC) exam through the County Agricultural Commissioner's Office.

Course details:
Dates: August 31 – October 21
Format: Live online lectures Mondays & Wednesdays, 5:30 – 7 p.m., plus (optional, but highly encouraged) in-person field days on August 31 and October 19, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Full scholarships are available for U.S. military veterans, thanks to a grant from the Farmer Veteran Coalition California.

Enroll now at landbasedlearning.org/ipm

Hey Carmichael, we've got Sunday plans for you! This Sunday, join us at Mesa Mercado in the Milagro Centre for a Oaxacan...
08/13/2026

Hey Carmichael, we've got Sunday plans for you!

This Sunday, join us at Mesa Mercado in the Milagro Centre for a Oaxacan bunch and a Mobile Farmers Market, all in one stop — fresh, local produce right in your neighborhood.

The Mobile Farmers Market, a program of the Center for Land-Based Learning, brings fresh produce and connects small local farmers with communities across the region. SNAP users get 50% off through Market Match.

📍 Milagro Centre – Mesa Mercado, 6241 Fair Oaks Blvd, Carmichael
🕐 Every 3rd Sunday, 9 – 11 a.m.

Know someone in Carmichael? Tag a friend so they don't miss it, and find the full schedule at followthetomato.org.

Full scholarships are available for our 2026 California Farm Academy courses and workshops. Open to military veterans wh...
08/12/2026

Full scholarships are available for our 2026 California Farm Academy courses and workshops.

Open to military veterans who want to build a future in farming. Thanks to a grant from Farmer Veteran Coalition -California, veterans can gain hands-on skills to launch or strengthen their farm operations.

"The California Farm Academy set me up for complete success as a farmer. I now manage my 10 acres with multiple crops throughout the year — everything from laying hens and lambs to corn, beans, squash, and tomatoes for local farmers' markets. All of which I wouldn't have been able to do without CLBL and the California Farm Academy."

Upcoming Courses:

👉 Integrated Pest Management — Aug 31 – Oct 21, online
👉 Flower Farming Fundamentals — Saturday, September 19, West Sacramento
👉 Welding 101 — Oct 6-29, Tues/Thurs, Woodland
👉 Urban Farm Start: Essentials for Aspiring Farmers — Oct 15, 16, 17 & 24, Sacramento

Apply for your scholarship at landbasedlearning.org/veteran-scholarships

SLEWS takes high schoolers out of the classroom and into hands-on habitat restoration.Working alongside mentor volunteer...
08/11/2026

SLEWS takes high schoolers out of the classroom and into hands-on habitat restoration.

Working alongside mentor volunteers and land partners, more than 38 students planted a full hedgerow of 153+ native trees, shrubs, and forbs, plus 78 native grass plugs, across three field days.

Students aren't just learning about environmental stewardship, they're being exposed to new career paths, sustainable practices, and what it means to actively steward land.

"SLEWS has impacted my post-high school experience because I wanna go into general biology now. SLEWS showed me what it's like to work outside and just experience different ecosystems and just get my hands dirty and just enjoy nature."

We need mentors to run programs like this one. No experience required, just curiosity, a desire to promote habitat restoration, and ability to guide students through projects like this one.

Let us know if you're interesting in becoming a SLEWS mentor at landbasedlearning.org/get-involved

Ever think about growing quinoa?This year at The Maples Farm, we used our no-till drill to direct seed quinoa in March, ...
08/10/2026

Ever think about growing quinoa?

This year at The Maples Farm, we used our no-till drill to direct seed quinoa in March, watered for three weeks to get the plants established, and then let them grow with minimal intervention. By June, it was ready to harvest.

Quinoa is one of several crops we're trialing at our research farm at our headquarters in Woodland, looking at what performs well and what doesn't under different conditions. Low-input, drought tolerant, and a solid rotational crop, quinoa checks a lot of boxes for farmers looking to diversify.

Follow along and we'll share how we are hand processing the crop.

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40140 Best Ranch Road
Woodland, CA
95776

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+15307951520

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