Felicia Paradiso, Apprentice 2022

I began working at the CSG in May, a week after I graduated from college. The end of August marked the midpoint of my apprenticeship. When that time came, it was difficult to imagine that I was only half-way done. The previous three months had rewarded me with juicy tomatoes, sweet melons, and beautiful okra, but I did not enjoy those fruits for free. The summer had deeply challenged me; my feet ached most days, and I missed my urban comforts and my Saturday morning freedom.

Luckily, farming brings you closer to a natural rhythm, and nature understands cycles of work and rest well. When I started to slow down, the crops and the weeds did, too. My harvest baskets grew lighter. The sun beat on me more gently, and the breeze rose to my support.

The fall came, and with it, a sense of closure as the purpose of our long summer days became more clear. We couldn’t have made seven barrels of sauerkraut without a hot day behind the transplanter placing cabbage seedlings in the dry ground. We couldn’t have celebrated the carrot and beet harvest around a campfire with our community without endless weeding of those long rows. And we couldn’t have enjoyed our morning book club and coffee without so many mornings getting straight to work.

We worked hard in the summer to get to the fall. Arriving there, we did what we could to prepare for the winter, and then the spring, when the gardeners and the next apprentices would pick up the pace, again, for the next summer.

I left the CSG at the end of the season having learned a lesson on hard work and its rewards that I’m not sure you can learn at any place but a farm. I wouldn’t have wanted to learn it on any farm but the CSG. I hope that you’ll consider an apprenticeship there and experience the rewards of fall on the farm for yourself.

The year after my apprenticeship, I moved to California and started law school. My life looks very different now than it did while I was at the CSG. Still, I think about it every day: I make all big decisions by asking myself which path will bring me closer to feeling the fulfillment and connection that I felt every day at the farm. Working at the CSG was the greatest gift I’ve ever given myself. I trust that the same will be true for any young person who decides to complete an apprenticeship there, whether they hope to continue farming or not.