Well, here I go!
I accepted a job at Laughing Crow Farms on Bainbridge Island just outside of Seattle, WA! I am so excited to finally move on to the next part of my life. Over the past couple of months I have been looking for jobs on some type of farm. I looked into the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program, which seemed like a great idea... until I checked my bank account. I then decided to look at some programs that not only provided housing but paid as well. So I plugged in "Organic Farm Opportunities" into the trusty google search engine and found a website that listed internship and apprenticeship programs all across the U.S. and Canada (here). I updated my resume, and started to email farms like crazy. I heard back from several, but was really excited about a couple in particular. See, not only do I want to learn how to grow food, but I want to be able to take that experience and share it with others.
Let me do a bit of a back story:
A couple of summers ago, I was working for the RRTTC (Recycling & Reuse Technology Transfer Center) and had the opportunity to work with Price Labratory School on developing their school garden program. I met one of the most amazing people- Julie Fisher. She was a retired German teacher, and loved Price Lab School (her daughter taught there). Over my first few weeks working with her, I quickly realized I had no knowledge about what it took to even run a small scale garden like the one we were dealing with. But, not to worry- she had years and years of knowledge. Every day that I would go meet her at the garden, she would always teach me something new. I learned that to keep those bugs who love broccoli off of the leaves, you had to stroke them everyday with your hands to ward them off. I learned how easy it was to grow potatoes, how to best use a limited amount of space by organizing your plants by height. I had to work so hard to even keep up with her as she was always moving and doing something. Me, a 22 year old college student matched with an almost 80 year old small woman! It was amazing. I was so motivated every day to work and help out because every day in the garden there was something new. New things growing, vegetables popping up on the vines, flowers blooming. I would go to pick weeds around the tomatoes and be stopped to learn that you can actually make a great salad out of most of the things I was tossing into the compost!
The most rewarding thing I found, however, was I was not the only one excited. Every day kids from the school would come outside during their recess and instead of going to play kickball with their friends, they would show up at the garden and ask for a job. They would harvest the tomatoes with giggles as they filled their baskets. They were so excited when they saw little sprouts popping up out of the soil from the seeds they had just planted days ago. These kids would follow Julie around all day, and ask her question after question about why this plant looked different from the others, how long would it take for the beans to show up, how did a huge zucchini grow from that tiny little flower? And question after question Julie would answer with enthusiasm. I think I learned more in those short months than I did in my high school biology course! It clicked one day for me, why is there not more of this going on? Inside those school walls teachers were using books, pictures and the internet to show the growing process of plants when it was going on all around outside! It made so much more sense to bring those kids outside- to have them plant seeds and see the process happen in front of their eyes! Now I do have to say, that the teachers at Price Lab were some of the greatest I have ever met. They did bring their kids outside and provide hands on learning more than any school I have ever seen. But to me it seemed like common sense to bring all kids outside- think of all the learning that could happen with all subjects. Bring the art class outside to draw, paint or create. The english class to be inspired to write stories about what they thought of the garden. The possibilities were endless.
So, after all of that I wanted to pursue a job that involved working with kids outside. I had no idea in what capacity or if there even were any jobs out there. The program at Price Lab was funded through a grant at the University. Could there be more programs out there that were funded by the school itself, or maybe other non-profits in the area. Was this a growing field where I could possibly one day find a full time position with benefits? I thought, why not? I have seen changes over the past several years with people realizing the importance of healthy food. Food without GMO's, chemicals, pesticides, and processed stuff that leads to disease and poor health. If people were actually starting to pay attention there has to be some interest in teaching our kids. I could go on about the importance of local/organic/raw foods all day if you let me, but I trust that if you know me you understand- or at least have read or watched the numerous materials I have told you about :)
So, here I am. About to embark on my adventure to Bainbridge Island. This island, I just learned, has a long history with Japanese and Japanese-Americans (http://www.bainbridgememorial.org/). This island is where they exiled the Japanese from the West Coast 70 years ago during the War. I am actually going to be living the historic Suyematsu Farm House. I will go into more detail about this once I learn more.
My internship I have been told will be split almost 50/50 with half my time spent learning about organic farming on the island, and the other half spent working with teachers to develop curriculum for those wanting to incorporate farming education into their classroom learning. This is a pilot program run through an organization called Global Source Education (Click here for more info). I am very excited to work for Betsey and Brian who are both so passionate about expanding their farms to not only provide healthy produce for the area, but to teach and educate others.
I hope this provides a little bit of background and introduction to what I will be writing about over the next 8 months. I am excited and nervous all at the same time! I will try to write as much as I can. Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for reading :)
I accepted a job at Laughing Crow Farms on Bainbridge Island just outside of Seattle, WA! I am so excited to finally move on to the next part of my life. Over the past couple of months I have been looking for jobs on some type of farm. I looked into the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program, which seemed like a great idea... until I checked my bank account. I then decided to look at some programs that not only provided housing but paid as well. So I plugged in "Organic Farm Opportunities" into the trusty google search engine and found a website that listed internship and apprenticeship programs all across the U.S. and Canada (here). I updated my resume, and started to email farms like crazy. I heard back from several, but was really excited about a couple in particular. See, not only do I want to learn how to grow food, but I want to be able to take that experience and share it with others.
Let me do a bit of a back story:
A couple of summers ago, I was working for the RRTTC (Recycling & Reuse Technology Transfer Center) and had the opportunity to work with Price Labratory School on developing their school garden program. I met one of the most amazing people- Julie Fisher. She was a retired German teacher, and loved Price Lab School (her daughter taught there). Over my first few weeks working with her, I quickly realized I had no knowledge about what it took to even run a small scale garden like the one we were dealing with. But, not to worry- she had years and years of knowledge. Every day that I would go meet her at the garden, she would always teach me something new. I learned that to keep those bugs who love broccoli off of the leaves, you had to stroke them everyday with your hands to ward them off. I learned how easy it was to grow potatoes, how to best use a limited amount of space by organizing your plants by height. I had to work so hard to even keep up with her as she was always moving and doing something. Me, a 22 year old college student matched with an almost 80 year old small woman! It was amazing. I was so motivated every day to work and help out because every day in the garden there was something new. New things growing, vegetables popping up on the vines, flowers blooming. I would go to pick weeds around the tomatoes and be stopped to learn that you can actually make a great salad out of most of the things I was tossing into the compost!
The most rewarding thing I found, however, was I was not the only one excited. Every day kids from the school would come outside during their recess and instead of going to play kickball with their friends, they would show up at the garden and ask for a job. They would harvest the tomatoes with giggles as they filled their baskets. They were so excited when they saw little sprouts popping up out of the soil from the seeds they had just planted days ago. These kids would follow Julie around all day, and ask her question after question about why this plant looked different from the others, how long would it take for the beans to show up, how did a huge zucchini grow from that tiny little flower? And question after question Julie would answer with enthusiasm. I think I learned more in those short months than I did in my high school biology course! It clicked one day for me, why is there not more of this going on? Inside those school walls teachers were using books, pictures and the internet to show the growing process of plants when it was going on all around outside! It made so much more sense to bring those kids outside- to have them plant seeds and see the process happen in front of their eyes! Now I do have to say, that the teachers at Price Lab were some of the greatest I have ever met. They did bring their kids outside and provide hands on learning more than any school I have ever seen. But to me it seemed like common sense to bring all kids outside- think of all the learning that could happen with all subjects. Bring the art class outside to draw, paint or create. The english class to be inspired to write stories about what they thought of the garden. The possibilities were endless.
So, after all of that I wanted to pursue a job that involved working with kids outside. I had no idea in what capacity or if there even were any jobs out there. The program at Price Lab was funded through a grant at the University. Could there be more programs out there that were funded by the school itself, or maybe other non-profits in the area. Was this a growing field where I could possibly one day find a full time position with benefits? I thought, why not? I have seen changes over the past several years with people realizing the importance of healthy food. Food without GMO's, chemicals, pesticides, and processed stuff that leads to disease and poor health. If people were actually starting to pay attention there has to be some interest in teaching our kids. I could go on about the importance of local/organic/raw foods all day if you let me, but I trust that if you know me you understand- or at least have read or watched the numerous materials I have told you about :)
So, here I am. About to embark on my adventure to Bainbridge Island. This island, I just learned, has a long history with Japanese and Japanese-Americans (http://www.bainbridgememorial.org/). This island is where they exiled the Japanese from the West Coast 70 years ago during the War. I am actually going to be living the historic Suyematsu Farm House. I will go into more detail about this once I learn more.
My internship I have been told will be split almost 50/50 with half my time spent learning about organic farming on the island, and the other half spent working with teachers to develop curriculum for those wanting to incorporate farming education into their classroom learning. This is a pilot program run through an organization called Global Source Education (Click here for more info). I am very excited to work for Betsey and Brian who are both so passionate about expanding their farms to not only provide healthy produce for the area, but to teach and educate others.
I hope this provides a little bit of background and introduction to what I will be writing about over the next 8 months. I am excited and nervous all at the same time! I will try to write as much as I can. Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for reading :)
Couldn't agree with you more, get the kids outside! There is so much to learn from in nature. I love how you described the kids excitement at Price Lab. Hopefully you will create a similar environment out west. Best of luck, Britney! Miss you :)
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