Practical Residency In Agroecology

about this course

Join us for an exciting opportunity to learn the practical skills needed to grow food and practice horticulture whilst working with nature and biological cycles.

Our current mainstream food system is in need of profound healing and repair. If you want to gain skills and learn about new approaches to help achieve this, then this six month residency is for you. Explore with us how to protect and restore the soil, foster and sustain a healthy ecosystem, and use renewable resources whilst growing an abundance of delicious vegetables for use in the college kitchens.

Schumacher College has an international reputation for its holistic and systems approach to sustainability. We have over nine acres of land integrating food production with beauty, biodiversity and quiet spaces for contemplation.

We adjoin Martin Crawford’s 27 year old forest garden and are close to his research trials site. We are two miles from Totnes, home of the Transition Movement and are part of the historic Dartington Trust estate, with its beautiful listed gardens. We have an outstanding network of local horticulture projects, many of whom support the course with volunteering placements and opportunities for site visits.

In addition, on completing the course, you will have the opportunity to apply ford our Regenerative Farming Incubator Programme which offers access to land from which to launch your own enterprise.

What you will be doing

The residency is full-time for 6 months including a 2 week break. Each week you can expect to be in the Schumacher gardens for up to 4 days helping grow and harvest local organic food in an ecologically sensitive way for the college community. You will experience the pleasure and challenges of growing vegetables in regenerative ways with minimal machinery.

Alongside this there is a mixture of workshops, seminars, structured practical activities and site visits. We have built up strong links with other local growing projects and you have the chance to volunteer regularly for half a day a week during your time at the college to gain wider perspectives on growing with and for others.

“Growing food, like eating, is a community activity. The Growers network in Devon is a supportive community of passionate people who love to share their skills, knowledge and experience with others. We are proud to be part of that network, contributing to the health of the soil, diversity of ecology and provision of local, nutritious food.”

– 20-2021 course student

Integral to the College’s international learning community, you will get to know students, staff and volunteers through daily meetings and shared activities. There is also a diverse programme of events and evening talks, offered by college residents, visiting teachers and local experts.

The college pedagogy rests on three foundations of Peer to Peer Learning; Whole Person Learning and Learning by Doing.

“An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.”

― E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered

watch: overview of the agroecology residency