In October 2026, Care Farming Network (CFN) presented at the American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) Conference and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) Conference. Both gatherings were a wonderful opportunity to inform folks in adjacent fields about care farming and CFN—as well as a few aspiring and established care farmers who hadn’t yet plugged into the Care Farming Network.
American Horticultural Therapy Association Conference
Sarah Sorci, CFN’s Program Associate, gathered with established and aspiring Horticultural Therapists (HTs) and individuals working in related fields from October 15-18 in San Francisco. Through shared expertise, meaningful dialogue, and innovative practices, the conference highlights the power of activity-based engagement with plants and nature to support healing, resilience, and overall wellbeing.
Sarah’s poster presentation exposed dozens of practitioners to care farming and CFN. Discussion explored how care farming and HT overlap and differ, and how HTs and care farmers can collaborate.
During AHTA’s member meeting, AHTA leadership shared that reported unemployment has increased among HTs—from 21% in 2020 to 29% in 2025. A recurring theme in Sarah’s conference conversations was the potential for HTs to find employment or contracting opportunities at care farms.
Sarah learned from experts in the HT field during conference breakout sessions. She was particularly excited to attend “Growing Resilience Behind the Gate”, a session led by Gunjan Koul and Paul Mallory of Seed & Bloom (New Mexico), a member CFN farm. They shared a taste of their programming with people in incarceration, guiding us through the creation of a mandala using flowers, leaves, and stems. They asked questions that helped us be present and reflect (“How does it feel to break the flowers off the stems?”). Gunjan and Paul generously shared templates of facilitator and student reflection sheets, which are filled out after each session.
In 2026, AHTA is launching a new credential: HT-BC (board certified). This certification exam adds standardization to the HT field, which may help more programs to be billable medical services and open up other opportunities in the field.
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Conference
CFN Co-Director Andrea Barnhart attended and presented at CFSA’s Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Winston-Salem, NC from October 30-November 1. The conference is a unique, authentic professional development event bringing together small-scale farmers, backyard gardeners and homesteaders, locavores, food systems changemakers, educators, and advocates from across the Southeast to learn, network, and build momentum and community focused on local, sustainable, and organic agriculture.
Andrea presented alongside Rebecca Sorensen of Blawesome in “Growing Together: Care Farming’s Model for Health, Well-Being, and Belonging”. This session highlighted the benefits of care farming, the regional landscape, and how care farms serve as unique agricultural business models. Andrea and Rebecca shared research on employing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and offered insights from Red Wiggler Care Farm (Maryland) and Blawesome (North Carolina) on neurodiverse-inclusive models.
Learn More
Learn more about the American Horticultural Therapy Association on their website.
Visit the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association website to learn more about their work.