ALEXANDRIA, Va. — On the grounds of the former Woodlawn Plantation, Laron Murrell, 36, plucks turnips from the still-damp earth, lightly gripping the leaf stems just above the bright white bulbs. He brushes off the dark, nearly black soil and snaps off any browning leaves, then places the turnip in a black plastic crate.

“You want the biggest ones, the most mature ones. Make sure you just grab the bulb and pull, it pops right out of the ground,” he said with a North Carolina drawl.

This is Murrell’s second month of being a farmer. He is the first person to take part in a new program for veterans that trains current and former members of the military in how to start their own sustainable farms. The Veteran Farmer Program is run by the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, a nonprofit organization based on the Woodlawn estate that aims to improve access to healthy and sustainable food for low-income residents of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

“Everything we do on the farm is sustainable — we’re not certified organic, but we’re beyond organic. We do lots of techniques of cover cropping, lots of composting, drip-type irrigation, water conservation. The way we’re training not just our veterans but anyone who comes through the farm is that sustainable way,” said Anita Adalja, the farm manager at Arcadia. She was one of 12 people recently honored by the White House as a “Champion of Change” for her work in sustainable and climate-smart agriculture.

Since September, Adalja has been training Murrell, an Army veteran, on how to do small-scale farming without heavy machinery or tons of commercial fertilizer. The day before, he had dug rows beside the turnips using a hoe and a rake. Next year, he’ll be able to try his hand at using a tractor when the farm expands.

“That was an all-day process because I like trying to make my lines as straight as possible. For me, I’m neat, so I try to make everything uniform, I can’t help it,” he said with a laugh.

As part of the program, Murrell will work as a full-time, salaried trainee farmer for one year. He will immerse himself not only in learning about how to do sustainable farming, but also how to start and run his own business. Then, in the second year, Murrell can further refine his skills by spending it at a different farm in the D.C. area before beginning to branch out on his own, Adalja said.

“We have a great network here in Northern Virginia of farmers who are all sustainable, naturally grown farmers. They do a lot of skill-sharing, we share equipment, things like that.” she said. “So if Laron is interested in moving on and working on another farm, he trusts us that we will partner him with a farm where he will learn the most that he could learn. And the farmers trust us knowing that they’re going to get one hell of a farm apprentice. It’s a great way to work in your whole farming community.”

Arcadia is one of an expanding number of organizations and universities with beginner farmer training programs geared specifically toward veterans, said Michael O’Gorman. He’s the executive director of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, a national organization based in Davis, Calif., that helps members of the military transition into careers in the agriculture industry.