Phase two of the Sunflower Field School orientation took place on Saturday, March 9, 2013 at Plymouth Congregational UCC with four of our participating organizations in attendance -- the Glenncrest Community/Make A Difference House Youth Ambassadors; Sasha Bruce House and Beet Street Gardens' Youth Garden Stewards/Yolo Pies; and the Fairfax Village Community Garden. These organizations represent 11,500 square feet of urban land. Young  farmers, Gail Taylor, Zachari Curtis, and Xavier Brown presented farm busines philosophy and the importance of creating a network for success.

The excitement generated during the first session carried over to this week's session as the groups shared scaled drawings of their growing spaces, were guided in their presentation of break even analysis homework assignments, as well as in sunflower yield/order simulations. After just two hours of working together, many of the participants, for whom the concepts were new and who initially shied away from some very different calculations, demonstrated a better grasp of the material and confidence in carrying out the calculations.

The session also included an exploration into the practice of co-ops as Allison Basile of Co-op DC, shared with the teens and sponsors the philosophy, principles, types and the overall co-op landscape in DC. Sponsors had the opportunity to meet separately to discuss program outcomes and logistics.

Although this was the last of the two part orientation, everyone left energized knowing that the seeds of working together were just being planted and the future was ripe for a bountiful harvest of many kinds -- a model teen co-op enterprise, emerging youth leaders, urban growers and environmental stewards, employment opportunities, job skills, organization partnerships, a bumper crop of sunflowers, newly established markets and more!

Organizations agreed to establish monthly planning and work share sessions. Nature's Friends will make site visits to growing sites in April, and will distribute sunflower seeds for planting in May. Monthly business seminars for the teens will continue through the summer. We're looking forward to the evolution of the teen farming co-op and the best practices we will be able to share with the local and national community.