Apprentices Past and Future

Vegetable farming makes me appreciate winter more.  I don’t relish the dark and cold, but it is very satisfying to have a point in the year where we can say “we did it!” There is a satisfaction in putting away the last of the tools and bins and parking the tractors inside the barn and heading indoors to seed catalogs and survey results and a chance to figure out how to make next year even better. 

Of course, we also sadly say goodbye to our apprentices who we have worked with for many months (sometimes years), giving so much to the PFP and engaging themselves fully in learning how to run a community farm – Dart and Nicole left at the beginning of November, and Angela left this week.  It will be interesting to hear where they end up next year.  Interns from the past are spread across the country, and have been doing all kinds of interesting work such as community food work (Nora); working for an agricultural nonprofit (Hannah, Juliana, Patrick), and farming in Detroit (Sarah),  Tennessee (Megan), more rural Michigan (Rachelle), and in Maine (Kate). 

Meanwhile, we are starting to get applications for next year’s apprentices and interns.  The interest in community food work and farming has exploded over the last few years.  We used to just get a few applications each year for these positions and primarily from young men and women casually looking for an interesting job for a while but in the last few years we have been getting dozens of applications for each position and many of them looking to do community food work for their careers.  Reading all of the amazing applications, it is clear that there are many thoughtful, committed, smart, hard-working people who see this work (whether it be farming, education or outreach) as exciting, meaningful work. 

Our mission at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project is to work towards a just and sustainable food system and it is so heartening to know that so many share this vision and are ready to dedicate their lives to this work.  It means there is a lot of work to be done, not only on their part, but on the part of the communities that they are preparing to work with.  Unfortunately, it is not easy for new farmers to get started these days – although access to information for new farmers is increasing, long term access to land and to credit are huge issues, particularly in the Northeast and in urban and suburban areas where community farms are most effective.  The price of land in urban areas is increasingly out of reach for farmers who plan to make their living farming.  

Here are a couple ways to support new and existing farmers:

1. Get to know the farmers in your area and hear what support they need
2. Get to know the apprentices at the PFP (and other farms in the region) and learn more about their hopes and dreams
3. Buy local – CSAs, farmers markets, winter markets, farm stands, Christmas trees, local apples, local milk, local cheese, local grain, restaurants that support local farms
4. Join local efforts to preserve farmland that not only protects the land from development but ensure that farmers will have secure access to the land into the future
5. Support and advocate for farm policy that gives farmers the assistance they need to get started and support they need to continue

Yours in the field, Wendy