Exponential Amounts of Newness

Blog post and photos by Avi Katzman, Farm Educator Apprentice

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As a “still-feeling-semi-new” Farm Educator Apprentice here at Eden Village, I feel I’ve been learning exponential amounts of new.

Post first week and a half orientation daze, I now feel I have a bit of a handle on how things operate here. The farm is really looking great! We have a lot planted in the fields such as baby lettuce, carrots, peas, hakurei turnips, beans, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, flowers and more. The whole site is starting to take shape for summer’s full swing, day by day, with one more bucket of compost and one more weed pulled.

I’ve been learning things like how to drive a tractor, how to make a bed in your garden using food scraps, hay, and leaves directly in the ground (called a lasagna bed), how to space rows of kale in the ground or thin out salad greens in the field, and even how to play guitar (slowly but surely!).

The biggest thing I couldn’t have prepared for though is living in this wonderful community. The force this place and people here have is something I could not have imagined on April 13th. Everyone is warm, kind, open, and truly chooses to see the light in the beauty of the every day. With each new morning here I feel a little more supported and a more full sense of self.

I’ve heard one interpretation of the word Shavuot, that it refers to Atzeret which means to “refrain” or “hold back”. As we leave Shavuot and enter Shabbat, I bless that every person finds a way to not refrain from stepping into something new, from opening yourself up a little bit more to a new friend, or even to not hold back when something is truly funny and you want to bust a gut!

Shabbat Shalom, With love,

Avi

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