This last week was a chance for everyone to say goodbye and reflect on our summer together, finding hope in what we have experienced. Tuesday and Wednesday were especially fun.

            On Tuesday, we had a dinner for our families. All day, we cooked. We made grilled corn and bok choy, salad and homemade salad dressing, tibs (a traditional Ethiopian beef and vegetable dish), thai stir fry with vegetables and chicken, pesto pasta, cucumber mint water, and currant soda. For dessert we prepared delicious zucchini chocolate chip muffins and shortcake with peaches and whipped cream. Each crew took on a dish or two, and cooked up a storm! Most of the ingredients were fresh from the farm, so the meal was grown, cooked, and eaten at the Youth Farm Project. Food tastes so much better when you have a hand in making it. The barn was decorated with fairy lights and flowers, and everyone went home to wait for dinnertime.

            The time came, and we all came back with our families. First, there was a tour of the farm, during which each crew presented their field and crew members described what we had been doing in them all summer. Our parents finally got to see what we had been up to. Then, once everyone was hungry from the walk around the farm, we went back to the barn to eat. It was satisfying to share the culmination of all our efforts with friends and family.

            On Wednesday, we had a tour of the Good Life Farm and drove down to Taughannock Park for a barbecue. The Good Life Farm is horse powered, and has two cute dogs, turkeys, fruit trees, grass fed beef, and greenhouses full of ginger. When we went on this tour last year, there was a cider house under construction. This year, the cider house is fully fledged and looks beautiful. At the end of the tour, we found doughnut peaches on the windshields of the cars. Yum! At Taughannock Park, Frank, head chef at North Star came down and grilled chicken and vegetables with us.  We also made Panzanella, a dish with bread, tomatoes, basil, vinegar and oil. My favorite part of the day, though, was a barefoot soccer game on the grass.

            Thursday was a regular workday. Friday, we worked in the fields in the morning and after lunch we filled out an evaluation reflecting on the summer. Finally, we ended the day with the tunnel of love. Two lines face each other, and create a tunnel by meeting hands in the middle. Then, people walk through one at a time and everyone says nice things about them.  

            It gives me hope to think of the long term effects of our activities this summer. Maybe some of the other young people will grow up and start local farms, inspired by the farms we visited over the summer. Maybe some of the young people will major in sustainable agriculture, inspired by what we learned about food deserts. Maybe some of the kids will spread the love that they felt in the tunnel of love. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” The work we did this summer pushed that curve towards food justice, and I have hope that we will continue to head in that direction.

-Thea Clarkberg, 2015 Crew Leader

This week marked the beginning of a summer of new experiences for 25 teenagers who set out to find a job. Here at the Youth Farm Project they ended up with something different than they might have expected. From endless beds of weeding, to bagels with cilantro pesto, to running through the Tunnel of Love, a summer at the Youth Farm is an experience you won’t find anywhere else.
This summer was my first time leading a crew, bringing me more challenges and rewards than my summer here last year. In this first week I watched everyone meet the farm and learn about what their next seven weeks would look like. Monday and Tuesday were crew leader training days. The other crew leaders and I refreshed our bean planting and carrot weeding skills, and we discussed the responsibilities and goals involved in leading a crew. I learned a lot of new things about the workings of the farm during these two days that had been mysteries to me last summer. Being a crew leader comes with a lot of responsibility, but it also is a lot of fun; sometimes you get to be in on what game you’re about to play, when it’s a big secret to everyone else.
On Wednesday all the young people arrived for their first day. Wednesday and Thursday were orientation days, we gave a tour of the farm, met the chickens, discussed work expectations, and played a bunch of name games. One of the biggest surprises, in my opinion, of working on the Youth Farm is all the game playing we do. Games are one of my favorite parts of the work day, something I don’t think most people can say about their job. Another surprise of the Youth Farm is how quickly you can get to know your co-workers. For me meeting people on the farm is different from meeting people at school or another job; I think it’s easier to connect with people when you have to work together to untangle the “human knot”, or to pound a field of tomato-trellising stakes into the ground. In addition to games and orientation on the first two days, everyone was also introduced to farm work, we jumped right in to weeding all of the garlic so it would soon be ready for a big harvest.

Week one was a busy start to a busy summer, and I think all of us can say we learned something new.

-Corrine Hill-James, 2015 Crew Leader

This Spring, Carrie Koplinka-Loehr, an environmental journalist, approached the YFP staff with the idea to produce a more-detailed article for the Youth Farm Project. You can read the article in Green Teacher, a publication that promotes sustainability education. Here are some of my favorite excerpts: 

- "Crew leaders gain leadership skills by being responsible for the physical and emotional safety of their crew. As a part of this, they model positive communication. Rayna Joyce and Noa Wesley, both of whom have been involved in YFP since the beginning, say YFP encourages “Straight Talk,” a process developed by The Food Project (a non-profit in Boston that hires teens with the goal of creating personal and social change through sustainable agriculture). Straight Talk is communicating honestly about how you are feeling, making eye contact, listening, and learning how to receive feedback. Crew members frame comments into positives (“When we were trellising tomatoes and I needed extra twine, and you jumped and got it”) and deltas, or attributes that could be changed (“While we were weeding carrots this afternoon, you seemed to lack energy when we really needed you. It would be awesome for our crew if you could...”). Wesley, now a student at Cornell University, says, “We’re never really taught interpersonal communication anywhere in our system. That piece is a large part of what we do...and adds another level of depth.”"

- “My best day of being a teacher,” says Flerlage, “using activities, writings, whatever else I could think of, doesn’t hold a candle to a bunch of folks working with common purpose in a field. You’re totally together, and differences dissipate.”

-"But in the same breath, Flerlage waxes philosophical: “The tendency to underestimate young people is profound. A high percentage of the kids sent to us would have a hard time elsewhere. The Farm is the antithesis of one-size-fits-all. Part of it is the staff and a culture that values things broadly and provides experiences that allow people to shine.”"

This article appeared in the 8/21 Ithaca Journal Paper, titled "Youth Farm Project teaches students to grow." "This summer about 22 Ithaca area high school students worked on the farm, growing onions, kale, collards, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, winter squash, turnips and more".

A summer farming program has high school students planting, picking, eating and earning green.

The Youth Farm Project started five years ago as a collaboration between Three Swallows Farm, the Full Plate Farm Collective CSA, Lehman Alternative Community School and the Southside Community Center. Students are paid through local youth employment agencies to work on a 3.5-acre organic vegetable farm on Nelson Road, and the food they grow and harvest makes its way into Ithaca city school lunch and snack programs.

This summer, about 22 high school students worked on the farm, which sits on land adjacent to the Ithaca Waldorf School. The farm hosts a diverse slate of crops; onions, kale, collards, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, winter squash, turnips and more.

Students work 20 hours a week and in the process they learn farming, cooking and teamwork skills while also developing a deeper awareness of sustainability and food justice issues, according to Joseph Amsili, who is a coordinator of the summer program and co-manages the farm with Ann Piombino.

"Some kids come with a lot of gardening experience from home, but for a lot of kids it's completely new to them. So we teach kids how to learn to work hard and use their bodies. We show them they can be powerful and create something pretty meaningful," Amsili said. "One big part of our program is that we depend on having five or six kids returning from previous years that can be role models and leaders for the people who have just arrived on the farm."

The food the students harvest is used in lunch programs in the Ithaca City School District, New Roots Charter School, the Full Plate Farm Collective CSA's u-pick garden, plus initiatives such as Beverly J. Martin Elementary School's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, GIAC's Market Box and Hot Meals programs, the Congo Square Market at Southside Community Center, and at a number of local food establishments.

The Youth Farm Project, which is supported by funding from the Park Foundation as well as local businesses and individuals, is an offshoot of the not-for-profit Social Ventures, Inc.

This was the second summer that Zoe Larson, 17, of Newfield, worked at the farm. The New Roots student said she was initially drawn to the program because she wanted to find a job that would keep her in shape over the summer.

"I found that. It definitely keeps us in shape," Larson said. "It's a great environment and the people are awesome, and it's work that you can be proud of."

Larson is serving as a crew leader with the program. She's long had an interest in how food is grown and the ways that society has become detached from that process, and she appreciates the boomerang effect of growing the same food that she and her peers consume at school.

"My school gets some of the food and I can always tell," she said. "The potatoes are extra sweet, the lettuce is extra crispy. It's really cool."

In addition to the summer program, the youth farm project also employs a handful of students during the school year. Larson hopes she can continue to work for the program several days a week, most likely storing food as well as prepping and canning jam, if her schedule allows it. Either way, she plans on returning to the farm for next summer before she ages out of the program, which hires teens between 14 and 18 years old.

"Every single person that's come to the farm so far, even if they've been really skeptical about it, the people that I've seen have all absolutely loved it," Larson said. "They can be from totally different backgrounds...The group of people all work together so well in the environment. It's awesome."

The seven-week summer program officially ended last week but there are still about about eight youths working on the farm, Amsili said.

"Growing food is such a powerful teaching tool so far as empowering young people to see (the process) from a seed to a big plant to something that you're harvesting to something you're maybe selling at a farmers market or maybe seeing in your school lunch," Amsili said. "I think there's a lot of power in being able to see that we're all able to make that happen."

Thanks to David Nutt and Simon Wheeler for a great article.
Link to digital article:
http://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/local/2014/08/21/ithaca-youth-farm-project/14407819/

            This was an eventful week as we prepared for our annual community dinner! On Monday all crews were assigned to organize, harvest, weed, and make other various decisions involving their respective fields in order to present these fields and to show families all the hard work that went into their cultivation. Both Monday and Tuesday my crew (the Thunderberrys) worked strenuously, planting row after row of kale in Field Four. Despite the blaring sun and heavy humidity, we persevered through this task, listening to music, talking, laughing, and having an overall surprisingly good time. It’s in moments like these that I remind myself how meaningful this work is. I’m sure that come fall, I will see the kale that we planted on my plate as a part of my school lunch and that the broccoli and cabbage also growing in field four, will be distributed throughout the community ending up at places like the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program at BJM. I am grateful to know that the work I am doing on the farm is helping so many people.

     On Wednesday, we met at LACS and began the morning with an educational game led by Jeff Beem-Miller, who is a staff member in a lab at Cornell that focuses on the effects of climate change on agriculture. In the game, Cropopoly, each crew was assigned to a hypothetical farm in the future where extreme weather events have become more common and the government is both incentivizing and taxing agricultural activities that either mitigate man-made climate change or promote it. The crews had to make numerous decisions involving what to plant, how many fields to cultivate, how many kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer to add to crops, and how to invest money on the farm. The goal of the game was to make the most amount of money in a given amount of time. It was obviously evident that the crews planting only the typical industrial crops of corn and soybeans, made the most amount of money for the theoretical five years of farming. The crews that attempted to abide by more sustainable practices and plant more environmentally friendly crops ended up making a significantly less amount money. The point of this activity was to get us thinking about the various economic, ecological, and cultural trade-offs that farmers make and thinking how a climate change lens may influence these choices. In the short term, it is easier for farmers to profit more from solely corn and soybeans. While in the long term, a farmer who plants the same two crops over and over again will deplete soils of their organic matter, rely on external inputs: fertilizer, pesticides, seeds, which are costly, contribute to climate change, and overall create an agricultural system that is not resilient to climate change. In the long run, sustainable agriculture is more beneficial not only economically, but also environmentally, because soils will remain healthy year after year as a result of not being subjected to monoculture, intensive disturbance, pesticides/herbicides and the farmer will gradually gain a greater profit because they have reduced their need on off-farm inputs. After the fun
           
     On Thursday, all crews worked hard to prepare specific meals for that night’s dinner. My crew made pesto, a lot of pesto, using 6 pounds of freshly harvested basil from the farm. We ended up making a delicious pasta dish that seemed to be a big hit among the pesto lovers. Thursday’s dinner was an enjoyable success.  It was fantastic seeing how well all the crews presented their fields and the meal was delicious. It is wonderful to see how food can foster connection, not only between people, but also between people and the environment. I am so grateful to be apart of the Youth Farm community. 

Written by Adrienne Wooster, 2014 Crew Leader
Photo above: Adrienne presents field #4 with her crew members at the family dinner.

     Boy time flies. Today while we were putting the plastic on the new hoop house, we reminisced about planting it during the first week of July and how it seemed like ages ago. On Monday, half the crew met downtown to help out at Loaves and Fishes (see Raffi’s section), while the other half went to Kestral Perch to glean currants. We gleaned and froze over 20 gallons of currants from Kestral Perch that we will access during the winter months to make our raspberry-currant-jalapeno jam. This is the fourth year that Katie Creeger has hosted us to glean berries at her beautiful berry farm. Thanks Katie. 

Raffi recounts his experience at Loaves and Fishes that Friday (the half of the group, went to Loaves and Fishes on Friday):

     Volunteering at Loaves and Fishes this year was a great experience.  After the two crews moseyed into Loaves, we started work. The crew of volunteers that were in charge of running Loaves, were like a well oiled machine. We started out by bagging up bread for people to take home and setting all the tables. After a little break for breakfast, Simon dropped off two cases of kale and told us that the plan for the day was to make some sort of messaged kale salad for the lunch. Since this was my first year as a crew leader and most of the crew wasn’t exactly sure what a messaged kale salad was, I was taken a little off guard to say the least. Luckily my co-crew leader, Zofia, was a connoisseur of kale salads, so she led us to meet the challenge. Surprisingly in the end, without any help from adults, we were able to come together with a nice kale salad. Then Loaves opened its doors for lunch and although I spent the majority of time in the kitchen washing dishes, I enjoyed watching Youth Farmers eating and mingling with folks eating lunch. It was cool to come down to Loaves and Fishes as a crew and bring vegetables that we had helped grow. I would recommend volunteering at Loaves and Fishes for anybody that enjoys sharing a good meal with community.

     In addition, to visiting two awesome community partners, we spent time with Emma Frisch at the farm, who helped a group of youth make some delicious snacks for us all to enjoy after we were hard at work in the fields. Check out a beautiful blog post full of pictures and recipes that Emma Frisch wrote after her visit. http://www.emmafrisch.com/2014/08/summer-squash-pasta-with-chard-mint-pesto.html. To top it all off, we learned about cover crops together. Using cover crop fact sheets, youth were able to predict what cover crops would be useful for various realistic on-farm scenarios that Rafa and I detailed. Afterwards, we explored the cover crops of the farm: a tall field of cereal rye, mowed pathways of annual rye grass, and a dense field of red clover, half of which was plowed under to fertilize field #4 filled with fall brassicas. Finally, we all took turns hand broadcasting annual rye grass in the pathways of field #4 and buckwheat around the potatoes.

     This week we accomplished a lot on the farm: We seeded beets, radishes, transplanted fall crops, trellised hoop house tomatoes, put plastic on our new hoop house, and mowed and weeded. And most importantly we enjoyed each others company while doing it!



By the Amsili Bros: Raffi and Joseph
PS: Loved sharing my time at the Youth Farm this summer with my bro!

It’s been a busy week on the farm. We have been hard at work picking rocks, weeding, trellising tomatoes, mowing pathways, transplanting fall crops, harvesting and putting plastic on our newest hoop house. On Tuesday we were joined by the GIAC Skate Campers who worked hard in the fields with us for the morning and then helped our wonderful guests, Damon and Jackie, from Fruits and Roots Juice. Together we juiced kale, cucumbers, carrots, beets, apples and a touch of ginger to make a delicious drink to nourish ourselves for the afternoon. In addition to lots of work on our farm, we also spent time on two other farms this week. On Monday we visited Kestrel Perch and gleaned gooseberries. On Thursday we spent the day at Rocky Acres Farm, where our farmer friend Rafael Aponte is raising goats and chickens.

What stands out most to me about this week was our development session on
Wednesday. I began the morning a bit early, and spent time harvesting chanterelles in the forest
with Dan and Amelia, before heading to LACS. As we hunted and harvested we talked about the
excitement and satisfaction of foraging for food and being able to have an image of exactly
where your food came from. Our development session was focused on learning about many of
the health issues related to the way most Americans eat. This is my third summer working at the
farm, and each year we have discussed these issues, mostly focusing on Obesity and Type II
Diabetes. Even though the information was not new to me, it still shocked me to learn how many
people are, or will be suffering from these problems. It angers me to understand the injustice in
these numbers, and the way that socio-economic status plays a role in determining who is likely
to experience these health problems. To balance out our discussion we shifted the conversation
towards a brainstorm of ways that we, at the Youth Farm Project, can do to combat this
inequality, and positively change the opportunities and health of those in our community. We
hope to expand our work in the coming years, in order to educate more people (especially young
people) about these issues, and reach out to folks who may not have access to local, healthy
produce. Among many ideas, we discussed the possibility of becoming part of or starting more
farmers markets in areas of town that have less access to supermarkets and farmers markets, as
well as donating more of our produce to food pantries in the area, especially in Danby, where our
closest neighbors reside.

As part of the session we were asked to think about a meal that left us feeling completely
satisfied. Each person wrote a brief summary of what they ate, who they ate with, where they ate
and how they felt afterwards. Several of us shared with the group. Each person who shared
talked about the process of preparing the meal with friends and/or family and then eating with
those same people. So often in our culture it seems that we forget the importance of creating and
sharing food with a community, and the meaning this holds for all of us. The meal that we
prepared on Wednesday couldn’t have better embodied this idea of delicious food and
community. Our guest chef Rachel Ostlund helped us prepare Fritattas with swiss chard, onions,
garlic and chanterelles, Kale and Toasted Bread Salad, Beet and Bean Salad, Zuchini Muffins
with Lemon Glaze and our very own “YFP Soda” with cucumbers, mint and lemon basil! Before
we ate our meal we folded fancy paper towel napkins, set a long table and sat down together. I
felt appreciative as I ate the meal, enjoying the beautiful fact that as a community we had grown,
prepared and eaten this food together.

After reading this I hope you will take the time to prepare and share a meal with some of
the wonderful humans in your life!

Written by Rayna, 2nd year crew leader

Week 3: 7/14-7/18

Hi, it’s Vicky. This is my second summer at the Youth Farm and my first year as a crew leader. The summer here seems to be flying by and we’re already three weeks in! People are becoming closer and building stronger bonds; it’s great. And there is so much smiling. Everyone has blessed me with hilarious conversations and so much laughter.

This week was a particularly great week at the farm; good weather (not too hot or cold), in-depth conversations and lots of laughing. Everyone on the farm did a lot of hard, fulfilling work this week and through it, we were smiling and getting very dirty. Just my crew alone seeded over twenty flats of basil, zucchini, and lettuce in one morning. Then as a whole group, we discussed the meaning of sustainable farming.

Wednesday was our weekly development session at LACS. We had two local leaders in the community, Kirby Edmonds and Jemila Sequira, come to speak to us. Kirby Edmonds, Dorothy Cotton Institute Fellow and Coordinator of Training for Change, led an informative discussion about structural poverty in Tompkins County. Kirby shared that the local employment/education/prison system gives children in poverty very few options for escaping poverty. Simply put, youth in poverty can end up with two options for employment: 2-3 minimum wage jobs or illegal activity such as selling drugs. Also, the public education system doesn't prepare youth to break out of this poverty cycle. This, on top of the fact that poverty can restrict access to capital to pursue higher education or to start a business. Kirby didn’t stop his talk at the hard to break cycle of poverty, but showed that public education, workforce training, and other types of social justice organizations have so much untapped potential to help us all attain ownership in the way we provide for ourselves, family, and community through living wage jobs, access to capital. Next, Jemila, Whole Community Project coordinator, shared how she became a leader in the local food justice movement and shared projects from the community.

The chef for this week was Shimels Damtew, owner of Shimel's Ethiopian Cuisine, a pop-up food stand, came and cooked some delicious beef tips, bean/carrot saute, and greens with us. I wish I knew how to describe this with more detail, but I do know that the food was amazing!

Thursday and Friday, we planted potatoes for four hours. It was a lot of potato planting but my crew had a lot of help from other crews so we got three rows done and after that, we stood and marveled at how quickly and efficiently something can get done if you have ten kids all setting their minds to it.

Written by Vicky, Summer 2014 Crew Leader, and Joseph.