Mariposa Agri-Nature Association
Developing Entrepreneurship — Workshop 3
Workshop #3: May 17th, 2018
Creating business and marketing plans (Tara Schiff)
Tara is the Mariposa County Economic Development Specialist.
USDA rural development business grants (Lee Takikawa)
Lee is the Business & Cooperative Program Specialist from the USDA based in Fresno. He spoke about loans and grants of various sorts available to rural property owners and agricultural enterprises.
- Rural Energy for America Program – Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency (pdf flyer)
- Value Added Producer Grant (pdf flyer)
- USDA Rural Development – California (web site)
The Mariposa Certified Farmer's Market (Marina Fisher)
Marina is the Manager of the Mariposa Certified Farmer's Market. The market
is located at 6th and Stroming streets and runs roughly from May to November.
She explained the criteria for what is considered 'certified'. Basically the
items need to be locally grown and not second-sourced from another wholesaler.
There are, however, two physical sides to the Mariposa market – one for
certified vendors, and another for any other vendor including artists and craft
vendors.
For more information see their Facebook page.
Presentation by the Mariposa County Farm Advisor (Fadzayi Mashiri)
Fadzayi is the Mariposa County Director for the University of California Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor for Mariposa, Merced Counties.UCCE Master Gardener program (Sheri Mace)
The mission of the Master Gardeners is to extend research based knowledge and information on home horticulture, pest management, and sustainable landscape practices to the residents of California. Master Gardener volunteers are trained by the University of California to educate and advise home gardeners on these issues.
Beginning in January 2019, Master Gardener training classes will begin. Follow this link for more information.
Among the other projects the Master Gardeners run:
- Plant sales – generally one in Mariposa in the spring and one in Coulterville in the fall
- Home garden tours, generally in the spring or early summer, alternating between Mariposa and Coulterville
- A help line, via phone and email (link)
- Advice to community gardens
- Advice to Junior Master Gardeners and the 4H
Links:
- Mariposa Master Gardener main web site
- Pest Notes Library
- Invasive Weeds of the Central Sierra (PDF file)
- UC ANR Gardening Website
What is Permaculture? (Ken Boche)
Ken is a former orchard owner and manager in Hawaii and gave an introductory talk on permaculture.
Next steps (Kris Casto)
Kris invited all attendees to consider becoming a location on the Farm and Ranch Tour.
For more about the Mariposa Agri-nature Association, please see our home page.