Farmers as makers: An inquiry into the viability of developing a MakerSpace in the Albany County hill towns

Farmers as makers: An inquiry into the viability of developing a MakerSpace in the Albany County hill towns

Summary

This project is specifically interested in answering the question: will a makerspace for small farmers in the Albany County, New York, four-town rural region enhance their prosperity, assist in greater production, and provide a space for nurturing and expanding farmer enterprises in our rural region?

We are on track with regard to all of our tasks. I have prepared all materials for workshops, including paper copies of Frequently Asked Questions and Resources documents, and a powerpoint presentation that provides details about our region, it’s challenges, the definition of a “makerspace” and how it might fit in with a general goal of increasing rural enterprises in our Hilltowns. We held 5 workshops for far, promoted through social media, posters, online calendars, word-of-mouth and via a press release to our local papers.  I have decided to add to the scope of our project, and hold several more in the spring, prior to our scheduled mini-conference, in order to provide feedback to interested participants and compile some more information, (per suggestions). Workshops are tentatively scheduled for March and April.

Participants in workshops have ranged from 4 to 12, per gathering. I have also completed our survey and gathered 30 responses from area farmers, and plan to continue promoting the survey for the next month. Per the timeline, I have begun preliminary analysis.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Preparation for outreach/education workshops (June – Sept). Completed as planned. Presentation materials are available on demand.

Promotion of workshops to farmers and residents. (July – Sept). Completed as planned. Press releases and flyer available on demand.

Tentative dates. (Sept – Oct).  Completed. Workshops held on Sunday, October 11 at 4pm in Medusa (firehouse), Tuesday, November 3, at 6pm, at the Berne Library (community room),

Wednesday, November 4, at 6pm and 7:30pm, at the Rensselaerville Library (community room), and Saturday, November 7 at 4pm, at the Knox Octagonal Barn.

Administer questionnaires / upload to web instrument. (October – January). Completed (and ongoing). Our questionnaire (available as paper survey, as an emailed pdf, and as an online survery tool on SurveyMonkey – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/W5C939R) was uploaded in November and we have been collecting responses.

Publicity and Outreach (July – January). Completed and continuing.

• Presentation
• Resources document
• Press release
• Promotional flyer
• Original timeline

Accomplishments/Milestones

We have completed our first batch of workshops, which effectively was the hardest part. While our community does come together for various events, during specific times of year, involvement of large groups for the purpose of navigating a course forward happens less regularly than it once did. Firehouse breakfasts are often sparsely attended, local government tends to not draw folks unless there is a hugely controversial issue, and many families work outside the community than ever before. Connections between neighbors are tenuous, at best. So getting folks out, providing space to talk about what kinds of projects we need, was both a great milestone, as well as deemed valuable by the participants.

Moreover, we gathered lots of interesting feedback, both in person, as well as in the survey responses.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Several themes have coalesced through the course of our workshops:

Farming = Homesteading. We began this project with a focus on rural small businesses, specifically farmers. We have since expanded it to include homesteaders, who have come to occupy many of our former farms. They have come to meetings and filled out surveys. And they have convinced us that they play a vital role in our economy, providing many of the same services and products that traditional farmers do, and with an ethic that supports the vitality of community and the land. A MakerSpace, participants report, would support both groups.

Incidentally, encouraging the growth of homesteaders, who are, after all, also farmers, helps for another reason. As a four town region, we are losing population. Our villages and small town centers are far less populous than they once were – we would benefit to have more people, especially those who are interested in working our land and contributing to the well-being of our landscape.

A 21st Century Grange. Farmers – and homesteaders, and maybe lots of others – could flourish if we had a grange. This isn’t exactly a Makerspace, although ideally it would be integrated into one, but a physical (and perhaps virtual) place that can link farmers and neighbors, provide a place for discussion, collaboration, networking, and do all that regularly. (Someone called it a “grangerspace”.)

This also relates directly with the suggestion that we investigate what it would take to develop a food hub. How can we deal with our seasonal abundances? How do we keep prices reasonable for our locals? Can this solve the ever present problem of needing more farmers, but not having the wealthy population seemingly necessary to support the products coming from our farmers? (We want more farmers, one farmer insisted, but we don’t have the markets to support them.)

Food and Fuel.Every workshop eventually evolved into a conversation about climate change, it’s effect on our land and people, and how we can prepare our rural communities. How do we provide energy? How will we feed our communities? These questions are repeated often, with passion, and, more often than not, with lots of suggestions about how we meet the challenges of the next 5, 10 and 50 years.

Circuit Riders. Farmers, and rural businesspeople of all flavors, DO NOT have the TIME to engage in the kinds of activities that would make them more prosperous, we are told. So while they would like to, for example, apply to more farmer grants through SARE, they simply do not have the resources to face the task of preparing proposals. Having help with this piece – someone to help write grants, someone to negotiate the political process involved in garnering local government support for projects, someone to organize and promote regular grange meetings – would be a huge asset to our farmers.

Collaborators: