Old Dog, New Tricks: Brooks ’26 at Seva Farms in Dexter, MI
Jun 21, 2023My first experience with biodynamic farming took place the summer after my freshman year of high school. Four years later, I am now back home, still driving 20 minutes to the West of town every morning, still arriving bright and early to the fresh morning air on a farm. I’m in the town where I grew up, but I’m experiencing it in a totally different way – as an adult, as a student, as a full-time worker, as one of the relatively few people that stuck around here after high school.
My workplace, Seva Farms in Dexter, Michigan is regenerating soil and growing vegetables using biodynamic techniques. They run a small weekly vegetable CSA project as well as a weekly tulip share. As it is still early in the farming season, much of my work is focused on preparing for the summer to arrive. We spend most of our time amending beds, planting starts and seeds, and creating paths and beds. Once a week, on Thursday, the whole team focuses on harvesting and preparing veggies & flowers for that day’s pickup.
Every few weeks, I join my supervisor or his partner at the Ann Arbor farmer’s market. It’s a unique opportunity to meet customers and community members, to enjoy beautiful weekend mornings outdoors, to shop, to practice my retail/customer service skills, and to people-watch. We’re constantly moving about – there are vegetables to be arranged or replaced from the cooler, customers to help, questions to answer, fellow vendors to chat with and help out when they need a break from their booth
While I am constantly meeting new characters on the farm (friends of my supervisor, CSA members, neighbors coming by to help out), my closest bonds are being formed with the other interns on the farm. We are all around the same age, all in the process of seeking higher education, and we all enjoy being around each other and passing the day chatting about our lives, stories, happenings on the farm.