Day One

Today College of Marin's IVC Campus was abuzz as the students of COM's inaugural Organic Farming class met for the first time.  One student summed up the enthusiasm in the room perfectly, "I'm so excited, I can't stop smiling."

That the class was taught by renowned local gardeners Steve Squirt (Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator for UC Davis Cooperative Extension) and Wendy Johnson (Green Gulch Farm, author of Gardening at the Dragon's Gate) was inspiring enough, but our classmates were inspiring too: a 16 year veteran of St. Anthony's garden (which sadly just shut its "doors"), a representative from MALT and from Marin Organics, several graduates of Environmental Forum of Marin's Sustainable Earth Training Program, current participants in the Regenerative Design Institute's Permaculture Program, the list goes on...

Getting to know each other was great, hearing from Wendy and seeing from Steve (nice slide show!) was also great but I think the highlight for all of us was turning the soil of our new garden for the first time and planting our first row of lettuce seedlings!  We took a photo of that scene, our classmates and the blank canvas behind us, and I know we were all anticipating the photo we would take in the future, the canvas not so blank, and the experience and knowledge we will have gained between now and then.