Center offers educational workshops, entrepreneurial ag degree

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. — Inspiring people towards innovation in farming and supporting farmers in business viability are just a couple of goals for the Center for Agrarian Learning at McHenry County College.

The center was launched in January 2020 by the college.

“Our college has had an associate’s degree in horticulture for over 25 years focused on ornamentals, landscaping, trees and shrubs,” said Sheri Doyel, director of the Center for Agrarian Learning at McHenry County College. “We also had workshops and non-credit education for gardeners and beekeepers.”

However, Doyel said, over the past seven to eight years, the school kept receiving requests for more food production training. “Farmers were interested in continuing their education with a focus on business viability,” she explained during the Land Conservancy of McHenry County Women Learning Circle meeting.

After completing a needs assessment, the college opened the new center. “We offer non-credit workshops, speaker series and we’re helping to build the infrastructure for the McHenry County College student farm,” she said. “Our specialty crop series covers topics that include tree fruits, grapes and hops and berries and it is geared towards people who have some experience growing but don’t have experience with these crops.”

The new entrepreneurial agriculture associate’s degree, Doyel said, is quite unique. “This two-year degree is where students get foundational training in classes in business and marketing,” she explained. “They can put together a farm plan, marketing plan and also take soil science, plant science and horticulture classes.”

In addition, students complete internships by working on the MCC student farm or on a local farm. “We have relationships with area farmers so you can do your internship off campus or on campus,” the director stated.

Greenhouses on the campus provide hands-on learning for students. “The first bay has student projects that are mostly indoor plants and tropicals,” Doyel said. “The second bay is production growing for sales and the third bay is aquaponics and hydroponics.”

The college has a spring plant sale where they sell bedding flowers, organic vegetables and herbs, which are grown in the second bay. “Now we have poinsettias growing there which is a really interesting plant to teach because you have to manipulate the light to get them to turn the color you want,” the director explained. “Each student gets a section to grow their poinsettias and do experiments and then we have employees that buy them.”

Two tunnels have been built by the horticulture mechanics class at the MCC student farm. “One tunnel is set up to be a demonstration of having no electricity,” the speaker said. “The windows and vents open on wax pistons so when it warms up, they shift their position.”

The second tunnel is a demonstration of a tunnel that uses electricity.

“We are doing season extension with carrots, spinach and kale where we will continue to harvest through February,” Doyel said. “Oftentimes, school gardens can’t match with the school year but with the tunnels, our production season doesn’t stop.”

Outside of the tunnels, the farm is in an expansion phase. “This week, students planted trees and we are showing how to develop a high density, tensile apple trellis,” Doyel said.

In addition to three varieties of apples, the farm also includes pear trees, grape varieties for wine and for eating, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, a flower plot and a pollinator garden.

“The vegetables will be certified organic and I’m holding tight on the fruits and flowers but we’re constantly weighing what people need to learn and the jobs they seek are different,” the director said. “We don’t want to compromise someone’s job prospect by not teaching them about sprays and the conventional management of fruit.”

However, Doyel said, one of the goals with the center is to promote sustainable agriculture. “So we’re figuring out how to do that,” she added.

Another area of the farm features a new planting of hops. “We sourced black locust poles that are debarked from Wisconsin,” the director said. “Because we wanted to keep the option of being certified organic open, we needed to make sure we didn’t use treated lumber.”

The college has completed a feasibility study to develop a food hub on campus. “We want to aggregate product from local farmers,” Doyel said. “Farmers and food entrepreneurs want a space for cold storage and frozen storage.”

In addition, the college is looking at food processing. “We are really interested in growing things that can be processed like vegetables that can be chopped up and frozen or pickled,” the director said. “And fruits that can be used for syrups, juices, jams, jellies or making wine and beer with grapes and hops.”

For more information about the Center for Agrarian Learning at McHenry County College, go to www.mchenry.edu, or call 815-455-3700.