2025 California Small Farm Conference: Full Schedule

Welcome to the 37th annual California Small Farm Conference, a week-long event featuring over 40 online workshops as well as a dozen in-person gatherings around the state. Whether you’re a beginning farmer or a seasoned grower, a local food advocate or a farmers market manager, you’ll find something here for you. This year’s theme, "Rooted in Place", honors the vital relationship between farmers, communities and the land they steward.

Check out the schedule below for event times and locations. Click "Reserve Tickets" to register. Admission is on a sliding-scale, to ensure everyone can attend. Please select the amount you’re comfortable paying. Enjoy the conference!

Interested in sponsoring this event? Learn more here

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8:00am PST

Practical Tools for Implementing Regenerative Agriculture Practices

Wednesday February 26, 2025 8:00am - 9:15am PST

Online

Regenerative agriculture practices can build soil health and increase the resilience of farms to climate extremes. Access to equipment and information can be a barrier to entry for farmers who wish to experiment with new practices. This workshop will include a 30 min presentation on practical equipment considerations for implementing regenerative practices on California farms. In addition, the workshop will share practical resources and tools from the Western Cover Crops Council and the University of California Cooperative Extension that farmers can use to manage cover crops and adopt other soil health practices. Stories from California farms will be shared including successes, challenges, and strategies for when things do not go as planned. There is no one-size-fits all for implementing regenerative practices in a Mediterranean climate with diverse cropping systems and short crop rotations. Big picture considerations for maintaining soil health, implementing soil building practices and selecting cover crop species will be shared.

Speakers

Sarah Light

UC Cooperative Extension

Wednesday February 26, 2025 8:00am - 9:15am PST
Online

Farm Production / Practices

Audience New & Beginning Farmers, Experienced Farmers, General Public (including non-farmers), Farm Advisors & Technical Assistance Providers

9:45am PST

Soil Health In-Field Tests and Lab Analyses: What do they tell us? What are their limitations? How do they compare?

Wednesday February 26, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am PST

Online

There is no one metric that can be used to quantify soil health. Instead, we rely on measurements from an array of indicators to paint a picture of what is going on in the soil. With all of the options available, how do you know which tests to use? Are the results accurate? How do you put those results into context and build strong soil health on your farm? In this workshop, we will explore the various lab analyses and in-field measurements of soil health and talk about their benefits, drawbacks, and usage for farmers and technical assistance providers.
UC Cooperative Extension and UC Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program staff will share our experiences with measuring soil health and working to develop an in-field soil health assessment for farmers in Northern California.

Speakers

Margaret Lloyd

Small and Organic Farms Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension

Lindsey Kelley

Small Farms Program Community Education Specialist, UC Cooperative Extension

Vivian Wauters

UC SAREP

Wednesday February 26, 2025 9:45am - 11:00am PST
Online

Farm Production / Practices

Audience Experienced Farmers, Farm Advisors & Technical Assistance Providers, General Public (including non-farmers), New & Beginning Farmers

11:30am PST

Apple Orchard Health

Wednesday February 26, 2025 11:30am - 12:45pm PST

Online

This virtual workshop will provide a big-picture overview of key management strategies to promote apple orchard health. We will start with a 30-minute presentation that covers soil, nutrient, and water management and Integrated Pest Management strategies for insect pests and diseases focusing on organic/agroecological approaches. This will include examples and helpful photos of visual symptoms of different issues. At the end of the presentation, I will share a quick poll with the audience to ask them to rank which aspects of orchard health they'd like to hear most about from experienced apple growers. I'll share the results with everyone so we can all see which topics are highest priority. For the remainder of the time, we'll hear from a panel of small-scale commercial apple growers to learn which strategies they use in their orchards to promote orchard health, what works best for them in their context, and why. This will help show attendees what these strategies look like in practice and how strategies can be tailored to different orchard situations. After panelists feel they have covered the attendees' identified priority topics, we'll open it up for Q&A to help attendees explore how to effectively apply these strategies in their own orchards.

Speakers

Ted Richardson

Bella Ridge Farm

Zea Sonnabend

Fruitilicious Farm

Stan Devoto

Devoto Orchards

Dave Hale

Hale's Apple Farm

Ellie Andrews

Specialty Crops Advisor for Sonoma, Marin, and Napa Counties, UC Cooperative Extension

Wednesday February 26, 2025 11:30am - 12:45pm PST
Online

Farm Production / Practices

Audience Experienced Farmers, Farmers, New & Beginning Farmers, General Public (including non-farmers), Farm Advisors & Technical Assistance Providers

3:00pm PST

Legal & Business Considerations for Non-Farm Income

Wednesday February 26, 2025 3:00pm - 4:15pm PST

Online

Are you exploring income generating activities for your farm that go beyond what your farm produces? Perhaps you have a new invention that you'd like to sell to other farmers, a service, agritourism activities, or perhaps a new product that you plan to develop & sell? This workshop will provide perspective on legal and business assurances to help a farm prepare for receiving additional income. Topics to include tax requirements, employment law, land use, adding an additional business entity, and a review of protecting intellectual property.

Learning objectives:
1) Understand what legal protections and business considerations should be in place when
selling a produce or service outside of farm income.
2) Understand how to prepare for product development and sales of product.
3) Protecting your intellectual property. Understand the differences and benefits between trademarks, patents, non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality agreements.

Organizer

Elizabeth Vaughan

Small Farm Technology Specialist, CAFF

Speakers

Rachel Armstrong

Attorney/Consultant, Farm Commons

My passion for farming goes way back to the days when I proudly proclaimed that I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up. I’ve lived out that dream in many ways, from working on farms to managing a community garden, starting a catering company that featured local foods and running... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2025 3:00pm - 4:15pm PST
Online

Farm Biz & Management

Audience General Public (including non-farmers), New & Beginning Farmers

4:45pm PST

Water Rights, Rural Water Systems and Water Use Efficiency

Wednesday February 26, 2025 4:45pm - 6:00pm PST

Online

Analysis of California water rights concerning small-scale agriculture and rural water consumers. Exploration of primary rural water systems, focusing on system reliability, life spans, and expenses. Examination of water usage efficiency, including a guide on conducting a distribution uniformity test and overall assessment of water systems, along with the importance of conducting such tests.

Speakers

Tom Hammond

Abundance Ag Engineeirng

Wednesday February 26, 2025 4:45pm - 6:00pm PST
Online

Farm Biz & Management

Audience Experienced Farmers, Farm Advisors & Technical Assistance Providers, General Public (including non-farmers), New & Beginning Farmers

2025 California Small Farm Conference

From $20.00