Six Months in Paradise
by Sarah Steedman
Sitting at the kitchen table, I opened the envelope which said I had been accepted into the agroecology program at UCSC. I’m a suburgan girl and I felt that I needed some kind of formal-yet-hands-on training if I was to ever get the credentials and experience I’d need to get a job in organic agriculture. This program is just the ticket: you live and work on a farm with organic ag pro’s for six months!
I was nervous about the whole thing, but decided to go for it. I sewed an orange tent fly for my new green and yellow Brady Bunch-esque canvas tent. I spent hours packing. Then the time came and Chris and I flew out to California.
We borrowed a friend’s truck and stayed at a state park called Steep Ravine, near Mt. Tamalapais and north of San Francisco–one of the nicest campsites. It’s on a steep, flowered slope which rolls down to a sandy beach and a couple of rocky ones with pools. There are cabins on a bluff for rent through the California Park System, and just a few almost-private campsites. The place is a secret gem.
When we finally pulled into the farm, I was feeling nervous about meeting new people and the prospect of Chris leaving. But it wasn’t too bad. The UCSC farm and gardens are on the campus of Santa Cruz, overlooking Monterey Bay. On a clear day, I would wake up, look out over the bay and see the coastline of the other side and in between hundreds of boats. Within a week of being in Santa Cruz, I had seen a whale, sea-lions, sea otters, starfish, and neon sea anemones.
There were 40 other apprentices, 3 site-specific instructors and 5 second year apprentices who helped with the teaching. It was an intense first 2 weeks getting to know one another, learning about communal living, decision making, and the work we would be doing. We were divided into 3 groups, which took turns in each site. The 3 sites were a 2-acre garden, a one-acre garden and 2.5-acre field of tractor cultivated row crops. There were also fruit orchards, 2 greenhouses and 2 nurseries. We had guest instructors every week. They ranged from soil science professors, to entomologists, to businessmen from vegetable brokerages; we also took field trips. We all lived in our own tents, but shared living and eating spaces. We all shared the cooking and ‘house’work.
When I first thought of this career and program, I let myself be lured by romanticism. The fact is, it’s a trade, and like any other it’s hard. There were sore muscles and days where the weather was shitty-but we had to work. I repeated many of the tasks so often during the 6 months, that it is hard to recollect singular compost pile building or garden bed preparing events, they all blend together. But because the work was hard, it made the good times that much more so.
Being new to the countryside, it was the nature and wildlife which I got the biggest kick out of. What stands out in my mind are the times when nature revealed events to me when I happened to be in the right place at the right time. The 7-a.m. twinkling of thousands of dew covered spider webs which crisscrossed a field of yesterday’s tractor-turned earth. The gopher snake in the flower garden eating the gopher giblets that Karen and I threw in front of its head. Or the black insects, their bodies no bigger than the head of a pin all clustered together in the armpits of my tent.
After living in a tent for 6 months, the one thing that strikes me is how much of a day is dark. We were pawns to the weather. When it was cold hot, wet, damp, loud, light or just perfect, I was too. It was satisfying in a primal way. One night I walked back to my tent and a great horned owl flew 20 feet over my head, its wings rustling. Later that night, I heard a hoot owl and then another in the cypress tree tops above my tent calling back and forth. While gophers and ground squirrels carried on their devious nighttime plant-mangling work, the predators were busy plotting their next meal. It was a rewarding experience being so close to the natural rhythms of the earth.
Eventually, I wondered if I wanted to do nursery work instead of farming. When I got to my propagation rotation, it was late in the season, and there were a lot of mature perennials to watch over. I really enjoyed caring for so many plants, and I didn’t mind being in a warm, covered hoop house all day. I had a feeling that this was the direction I needed to explore when I graduated from the program. And I did. I now have a great job teaching community gardening to kids and adults in an organic greenhouse in Chicago. Yes!
If you are interested in the course I took, here is the contact person’s address:
Ann Lindsey
Agroecology Apprenticeship Program Coordinator
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
