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This summer, I was given the incredible opportunity to return to littleGrasse Foodworks in Canton, NY, as Farm Manager. I built off of what I learned from my experience last year, focusing more on the organizational and functional part of the CSA: daily task coordination, learning the seasonal flow of a homestead, crop planning and rotation, and guiding another intern through the basics of small-scale, sustainable organic farming.
The most transformative part of this summer for me was training a new intern. It was my first time stepping into such a large and hands-on mentorship role, and it gave me the chance to reflect (and refresh) on everything I had learned the year before. Showing her how to transplant, weed, and harvest taught me a lot about communication and leadership, and we grew closer as we learned to listen and talk together in ways that served ourselves and our shared goals for the farm. I learned how to explain things clearly, adjust the way I taught depending on the task or person, and lead by showing and doing tasks with patience and persistence. It was challenging at times, but also so rewarding, and it helped me grow in ways I didn’t expect from myself.
I kept building on what I’d learned about seasonal cooking and food preservation as well—trying out drying herbs for tea for the first time, spending lots of time on fermentation projects, and getting more comfortable with things like water bath canning, blanching, and freezing. Doing these tasks day to day became a way to slow down and really pay attention to matters outside of the garden. It felt good to preserve what we’d put so much energy into growing and know it would still be there in the middle of winter to provide for us when the crops cannot.
I left the summer feeling more capable, more grounded, and more connected to the work I completed with my fellow intern. I showed up every day, made confident decisions, solved problems as they came, taught what I knew, and kept learning as I went. I cared about the work and the people I was doing it with and grew stronger with each rising sun. I feel so proud of my contribution to the littleGrasse community and will miss this little farm with all my heart.