The Education Farm started in 2016 with the goal of creating a space to provide in-person education about aspects of growing, harvesting, and distributing sustainable food. The farm site, located on a vacant residential lot owned by Chapman University, began as a compacted dirt lot that over time has been transformed into a thriving collection of raised beds, growing zones, a composting corner, citrus and stonefruit tree collection, a vermicompost station, tool shed, greenhouse, education class space, and a seed-saving depository. All these elements offer a smorgasbord of ideas to the community on how to grow food and tend a garden. 

Besides abundant growing areas, the farm regularly becomes an outdoor classroom offering free seminars to the community. These events can vary from vermicomposting to artisanal soap making to informal chefs' talks.

Relying on our own professional knowledge, support from garden-planning software from Farmers’ Almanac, OC Master Gardeners, local nurseries, Chapman University professionals, and the experience of our many volunteers, we collectively make decisions and set goals to use regenerative farming practices to grow a steady stream of crops year-round that often are donated to the community.

Why do volunteers flock to work at the Orange Home Grown Education Farm? One volunteer captured it well: “To connect. As a society we have come so far from the earth, so I come to the farm to connect to the earth.”