Regenerative Farmer Training Program

The average American farmer is nearly 60. We're training who comes next.

A full-time,
paid
, eight-month immersion in regenerative farming on 115 certified organic acres — no tuition, no experience required, just curiosity and a strong back. Four trainees a season learn everything from seed to market, travel off-farm to see the wider regional food system firsthand, and leave able to run a farm of their own.

$15/hour $4 above Ohio's 2026 minimum wage

$18K+ Estimated total per-trainee earnings

115 Acres Certified organic since 1994

Over a third of America's farmers are past age 65, and climate instability is reshaping how — and where — food can be grown al food resilience isn't a someday problem. Crown Point has spent 35 years proving organic, regenerative farming works on this exact soil. This program exists to make sure that knowledge doesn't retire with the generation that holds it.

Every trainee learns on a working, certified organic farm that already feeds its own community — not a demonstration plot. The produce grown during training goes to real CSA shareholders and real food-insecure families through Crown Point's donation partnerships, the same day it's harvested.

"This program is ideal for aspiring farmers, food-justice advocates, and future land stewards who want to build resilient and equitable food systems in Northeast Ohio and beyond."

"This program is ideal for aspiring farmers, food-justice advocates, and future land stewards who want to build resilient and equitable food systems in Northeast Ohio and beyond." — Ian Roberts, Executive Director

The season, at a glance

March

Seedling propagation, greenhouse management, bed prep, soil planning.

April – May

Transplanting, succession planting, irrigation setup, low-till systems.

Daily field ops, pest and weed management, weekly harvest planning.

Wash/pack workflow, CSA prep, cooler management, distribution.

September – October

Volunteer leadership, farm business basics, and field trips to other regional farms and food hubs.

You won't farm alone

Trainees don't learn in isolation on a demonstration plot. Crown Point's 115 acres are already a full working community: 110+ CSA member families who'll ask what's good this week, more than 50 refugee families growing food of their own on the farm's certified organic acreage through the Vulnerable Voices partnership, summer campers learning where food comes from for the first time, and volunteers who show up because the mission means something to them.

Trainees become part of that community immediately – not observers of it.

Full curriculum

• Soil-building: crop rotation, cover cropping, mulching, composting
• Organic pest, weed, and disease management

• Daily field operations: bed prep, planting, cultivation, harvest
• Hand tools, broadforks, walk-behind tractors
• Irrigation installation, troubleshooting, water conservation
• Weekly harvest planning and execution
• Wash/pack workflows, post-harvest quality standards
• Cooler management, storage, CSA prep and distribution
• Seedling propagation, greenhouse management, season extension
• Crop planning, succession planting, recordkeeping
• Leading volunteers and co‑managing community workdays
• Direct exposure to Crown Point's food‑donation partnerships
• Field trips to other regional farms, food hubs, and agricultural operations to see the wider food system beyond Crown Point

• Seed saving and plant breeding basics, soil testing and fertility planning, tractor skills (as appropriate)
• Community engagement through education and events, working across a diversified system of perennials, herbs, and rotational crops

Most farmer training programs nationally ask something of participants: a course fee, a season of unpaid labor, or both. Crown Point pays $15/hour from day one, with no tuition and no fee to apply or…