Farmer-in-Training

Hey all! I'm in Burlington! Farm school has been in full swing since Tuesday, and lots has been going on. First things first though, I absolutely, sincerely, love it here, and am amazed that a week has flown by as fast as it has... cool people, and awesome adventures. Can't ask for much more, right?

I have unfortunately not taken any pictures of our site or any of the host farms yet, but I can give a quick run down of the things I was working on this week (I promise I will do better with the picture taking in future!).

The program at the moment is in "orientation" mode, which means we do most everything as a large group, and receive more basic instruction so everyone is on the same page after these first two weeks. Eventually, we'll shift over to our "rotations," where we'll have certain days we're working with a particular farm and other days we're working out at our own farm, plus one extra day for field trips and classroom instruction.

Our own farm site is located at the Hort Farm - or Horticultural Research Farm, where there's lots of other things going on. Currently, we have about 3/4 of an acre in a back field, and will be expanding on to a full acre soon. We'll also be bringing a second acre into cultivation over in the adjacent field. We've done lots of work here, both learning about basic techniques and vocabulary, as well as getting some actual work done. We've got lots of things growing in there, including a ton of brassicas, winter squash, cucumber, basil, flowers, beets, braising mix, radishes, spinach, beans, corn, potatoes... and more to come!

We've also spent a good deal of time at the Intervale Center, which manages a huge chunk of land that's rented out at affordable prices to farmers. Two of these farms, ICF and Half Pint, were common visits over the past week, and we'll be doing regular rotations here as the season progresses. The Intervale has several programs going on (ours included!) and a few more in the works; it's a very interesting place.

Other sights included Bread and Butter Farm, which is a bread and dairy farm (cows!); City Market, which is a food co-op/grocery in downtown where we'll be doing work in our marketing rotation; and the Food Shelf, which is the local food pantry where we'll be donating our extra produce. There's some fabulous restaurants in the area too, which I'm excited to visit - I'll put it simply: Burlington is awesome.

There's really so much to this program it's hard to get down just what an amazing opportunity this really is. At the end of the day, you'd think I'd be tired from walking 5 miles, bent over in the field during a 90 degree day, or sloshing through the floodwaters that have yet to subside. But honestly? I'm psyched at the end of the day, and I'm excited to think about all the things I'm going to learn (and have been learning). Bring it!