A farm of Apprentices:

And it is that time of year that we search for a apprentice. We post various intern positions that we have available on our farm for the season on web sites that a fledgling farmer might look. Then we gather up the interns applications that have been sent in and the process begins of finding the right match. There desires and our farm as it is, as challenging as this seems I assure it is even more so, I think over the years I have a pretty good system of filtering the apprentices that would enjoy and benefit our farm, but still I think a bit of luck is at play.

It was early March and Gil and I were away in Alaska, when I first received contact from a possible intern Zach a 1st year student at Bowdoin college who hails from upstate New York. His rather poetic way of writing intrigued me and so I agreed to talk and well that initial conversation was well longer than an hour I left feeling that this young fellow should most certainly  spend the summer on our farm. Now it was not his experience on a farm, because there was not much there, but it was his overall kindness his generosity of his time and healthiness of mind and body and character and I followed my gut feeling.

So now we will flash forward to September 2018: The growing season has pretty much passed and it is the Common Ground fair and I am set up in my tent and Sage is at the YEZ tent selling her shaved ice and Gil is at the ox show ring giving a helping hand. and well then who is at the farm I tell you it is Zach who is missing his one and only opportunity to visit the fair for the first time if for only a few hours and is watching the farmstore, caring for the animals and pulling plants from the nearby flower garden and keeping the cookstove going and just loving up the dogs. On his only and only weekend off from the 2nd year of his time at Bowdoin College. and if that were not enough it was his birthday. That pretty much sums up the generosity and loyalty that this young man possess and that is a small glimpse as to how our summer went.

Zach set a tone of caring beyond the scope of the normal person, every intern that arrived on the farm immediately was whisked away into this state of mind and therefore we had the best growing year, the best housemates of apprentices and just the happiest and kindness growing season ever.

As I sit here contemplating this coming growing season I wonder how it will go and how I can reassure myself that it will all be okay! well I am trusting that the right people will come our way, the ones that are suppose to be here at that time and then I will follow my gut.

Not every year can be like 2018 and not everyone of us can be like Zach.

Here is to another growing season!