The seeds for AYA farmery were sown nine centuries ago, at the Benedictine convent Fahr, on the banks of the river Limmat in Zurich, Switzerland. For hundreds of years, Benedictine monasteries served as agricultural colleges for their regions. In Zurich, the Fahr convent ran a women’s agricultural school with a diverse curriculum including crafts, cooking, health, gardening, agricultural accounting and law, as well as household farm management. In 2013, it closed its doors for economic and staffing reasons.