Learning from the ground up
With the local food movement growing like sumac on a sunny hillside, it seems that unexpectedly 40 years after Woodstock, the country is closer than we realize to getting back to the land. But you have to know how to do it. More than ever it seems people are learning about farming by doing.
Keith Stewart has been growing organic vegetables on his 88 acre in Greeneville in Orange County for 23 years, producing a broad variety of vegetables and herbs and specializing in garlic that he sells at New York City’s Union Square farmer’s market twice weekly. He runs the farm and the stand at the farmer’s market with the help of paid interns who live on the farm and learn the techniques of raising organic vegetables on a commercial scale. The effort is part of a national and even international program quietly training organic farmers through live-and-work programs.
Stewart has worked with interns for 20 years and these days is attracting older interns investigating whether farming is the business for them. His seven interns this summer ranged in age from 24 to 37. He himself started his farm at age 42.
“The whole movement is humming,” said Stewart of the trends toward eating local and organic food. “So there are young people and not so young people saying, ‘Maybe I’d like to try farming, I’ve been sitting behind this cubicle for so long and I’m not loving it.’”
By going to work in the fields, “The idea is they will find out if it is something they really relate to and enjoy,” said Stewart adding that he is selective in choosing interns, requiring an interview at the farm and a resume and some answers on why they want to do it. They get lodging and food grown on the farm and modest pay and he is never short of help.
“I screen people out pretty heavily these days; I don’t want them too starry eyed on some romantic vision of idyllic pastoral life,” said Stewart. “I want them to want to roll up their sleeves and get to work. It’s more than sitting down to tea and talking about sustainable agriculture. We have to grow vegetables. It all hinges on our being productive. It’s definitely a working farm.
“The ones that are really serious will go work on a few different farms and see how other farmers do it,” said Stewart. “Mostly they learn whether they are cut out for it. Then they are going to learn working in a greenhouse, different methods of weeding and harvesting and irrigation and keeping harvesting records so we can track how much we take to market and how much we sell.
“There is just an endless amount to learn if they are open to it. And then of course, they learn how to use their bodies and how to pace themselves. It’s a full experience.”
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