Brian MacWhorter
I grew up on a small farm in beautiful Pennsylvania and most of the days of my youth were spent either in the garden or in the chicken house.
I graduated from an all-boys school in northern New Jersey. The school began as a farm school in the early 1900’s where young men boarded at the school and learned to farm and provide food for their community.
I spent four years in the United States Air Force training and working in the hospital as a Clinical Laboratory Technician. I later pursed studies in pre-med and eventually graduated with a BS degree in Biology and Secondary Education from the University of Oregon.
Farming
I became more interested in agriculture and the idea of working outside every day was very appealing. Once I started farming again, it was like going home.
About forty years ago my wife, Amy and I, moved to Bainbridge Island to start a family. I relocated my farm business, Butler Green Organics, and began leasing older farmland in Kitsap County and started growing food again. On each of the farms, I had the privilege to work alongside the resident farmer, and they all eventually became valuable mentors to me. These life-experiences inspired me to become the farmer that I am.
Butler Green Farm School
As I get older, I realize that I am now in that position. For farming to be sustainable and for farms to even continue to exist in the future, they need to produce the next crop of young farmers. It is now my responsibility in turn, to share my knowledge of farming that the older farmers passed on to me, to the younger generation of farmers.
The “Farm School Model” is not a new idea. Today, there are several very successful Farm Schools in the Washington State, and whose mission remains the same as those early day field classrooms. The campuses teach aspiring students to become the next stewards of our farmlands.