Long-slanted afternoon light
fills the Barkowski meadow as I walk out to meet Erika Allen last Friday
afternoon. She drives up on the John Deere tractor, its bucket filled with
fence posts. It has been a long week for
us humans, but the cows are excited to move to a new section of pasture, and a
bovine chorus serenades us as we work and talk.
Discovering farming as a
potential career saved Erika from a lifetime of lawyer jokes. I’m sure she
would be a good lawyer: smart, personable, and ready to advocate hard for
environmental good. After graduating from Appalachian State University in her
home state of North Carolina, she worked for several years in the non-profit
sector, doing grassroots campaign work for environmental and social justice
issues. She took the LSAT and was working on applications when her best friend
– who just began a farm apprenticeship in Puget Sound – started sending her
photos. At the same time, Erika visited her grandparents’ farm in Ohio and got
a glimpse into their life, looking at old family photos. The opportunity to
work for the environment without spending all her daylight hours in an office
beckoned, and soon Erika was off to her first apprenticeship on a small,
diversified farm in Milbridge, Maine.
Simple Gifts Farm came highly
recommended when Erika was searching for her next farm apprenticeship. She
appreciates the opportunity to work at a somewhat larger scale and learn how to
operate tractors and their implements. Working with livestock (as she pounds in
fence-posts to anchor the electric fence around the cows’ eagerly anticipated
new paddock) is another skill she is glad to learn. Sometimes the larger scale
does overwhelm; she described how, earlier that day, the crew was weeding the
big field of strawberries and finding it difficult to see the progress.
However, the camaraderie of the crew helps everyone to power through such
Sysiphean tasks, and eventually get the boulder to the top of the mountain
(that is, get the weeds to stay out of the field. . . until they grow back).
Although the apprenticeship year
wraps up at Thanksgiving, we are happy that Erika will be here over the winter
and for next season. She is looking forward to a winter out of the slushy city;
she recalls coming out in the snow to interview here last year and finding the
farm-in-snow ‘majestic’ (I know, the snow last year was challenging, but it was
beautiful!). Next year, she intends to focus on expanding the flower plantings
at the farm. This is something we’ve long had on our list of things we’d like
to do, and we like second-year apprentices to have an independent project that
helps the farm.
Long-term, Erika would like to
own or manage a farm that focuses on flower production. The family land in Ohio
is a possibility, although it is fairly isolated from markets. Alternatively,
Maine has a strong draw, as Erika really likes the ‘salty but kind’ people
there. Wherever it is, there will be masses of fragrant peonies, her favorite
flower. In the meantime, we are glad to have her as part of the work and
community of Simple Gifts Farm.
