Working On A Farm - Evan Braun, YLA

My name is Evan Braun and I’m going to be a sophomore in high school, and I learned about this YLA program when my sister came home from her interview here. She was talking about it and I thought it sounded pretty cool. From what I heard it was an outside job, on an organic farm, where I’d be in the sun all day, and it didn’t affect my daily routine. So I was like, I’m going to go see if they have a position available for me to join and they did. As a result of that I have made some great memories here, learned a lot about this type of farming, and got to share some of my knowledge with other people.

This hasn’t only been what I thought it was going to be when I heard about it. It’s been much more. It’s not just an outside job working on an organic farm in the sun all day. It’s a job where I help to maintain our crops so that when it’s time to harvest we have enough healthy produce to use, sell, and donate to the people that need it around us. For example, going to help with farmers’ markets or mobile markets selling to people that expect us there and are awaiting to buy their fresh produce when we show up. Consequently, it’s a lot more than just farming it’s helping the community that we are a part of.

The ways that we help control the farm have many different forms, and I have learned a lot of different things from just going through our daily tasks here. A couple of things that we do is weeding, laying straw, controlling pests, putting down wood chips, planting, and harvesting. Another thing I learned on the farm is to treat others how we want to be treated, it sounds basic but if you put it into a farm aspect it makes more sense. Such as making sure not to use any chemicals which then could contaminate the water system and hurt other people downstream. For the same reason that we wouldn’t want people upstream contaminating the water that we use/drink. In consequence, I’ve learned a lot of things that don’t even have that much to do with farming and are just things I may use in everyday life.

So in conclusion I have learned a lot from what I just thought was going to be my outside summer job. It ranges from farming tactics to morals and respect for things. So I feel that this fun, little job has been well worth it and has given me lots of great connections in the farming world and just in life in general. I have a different view of farming, food, and the idea of organic than I did when I first started and I think that those new views are very influential to maybe looking into a future in some type of agriculture. Then with all the connections I’ve made I’d say I’m pretty set ‘cause of the great people I met. So I want to thank YLA for a great experience.