MEDINA (AP) - A program here is billing itself as the region's first comprehensive course for farmers moving into organic production.

Jay Basquait of Mandan, a 35-year-old landscaper who has been gardening organically for eight years, is one of 18 students attending the 10-session Farm Beginnings Organic Farming 101 course for 4½ hours every other Saturday.

"The first sessions were about management and quality-of-life issues and having a goal in mind," he said. "It's about gaining the courage to do what I do now on a larger scale and making it viable."

Minnesota-based Farm Beginnings is a farmer-led training and support program designed to help people who want to plan their farm enterprise. It is in its 10th year of providing firsthand training in low-cost, sustainable methods of farming.

The program in 2005 was extended to Illinois and Nebraska. The organic farming classes in Medina are the first Farm Beginnings classes to be offered in North Dakota.

"This is an exciting opportunity for transitioning organic farmers and conventional farmers considering organic production," said Britt Jacobson, project coordinator for the Medina-based Foundation for Agricultural and Rural Resources Management and Sustainability.

FARRMS is using grant money to conduct the organic course, which it adapted from the Farm Beginnings program.

"We're emphasizing the transition into organic and how to become certified," Jacobson said. "But we're still maintaining the integrity of the Farm Beginnings course, with the emphasis on marketing."

Instructors include a longtime organic farmer in the region and a retired professor of economics and agriculture.

Basquait said there is more to the classes than just the instruction.

"I'm real happy with the information, but the main thing is the people I'm connecting with, networking with," he said.