Apprenticeship Program

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Our Organic Farming Apprenticeship includes six months of classes, field trips and lots of hands-on farming.

Article: Life in the Soil

by Lori Porciello

Before we were blessed by the warmth of the late spring sun, the cool, rainy mornings on the farm were spent in the greenhouses preparing beds for tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and basil. Most of these beds were covered with early spring plantings of lettuce and salad mix. Using digging forks, we would dig up approximately one cubic foot of soil and gently loosen it, allowing the plant material to be buried underneath the topsoil to decompose and enrich the soil by providing food for soil microbes. It was an invigorating way to begin each work day - digging got our blood moving and we were able to familiarize ourselves with the soil we'd be working intimately with all season.

As I sank my fork into a bed one morning, I was amazed at how light and easy it was to work with compared to some of the other beds we'd dug., which were more firmly packed due in part to winter flooding and cool soil with less microbial activity. This bed was truly a pleasure to dig and hardly seemed like work-I could do this all day!

A closer look at the soil revealed a dense earthworm population. Earthworms have been referred to as "natures tillers" and here I was experiencing this phenomenon firsthand, in awe of what they were capable of.

Busily burrowing away, earthworms consume organic matter in the soil and convert it into water soluble nutrients through the excretion of castings. These nutrients are then easily available for uptake through plant roots. Their burrowing also breaks up larger clods of soil which provides the aeration necessary for proper water retention and/or drainage, and makes room for plant root growth. As the digging progressed I was thanking the earthworms for easing our load while simultaneously apologizing to each and every one my fork would inevitably encounter along the way.

In organics, we recognize the soil as a living system and focus on feeding the soil, not the plants. Biologically active soil is healthy soil. The earthworm is one of billions of organisms which makeup the soil community, working with us to improve and sustain soil fertility and provide many bountiful harvests in the months to come!

*Lori was an apprentice here at the farm. She brought her great energy and skills to us from New York City where she volunteered with another CSA and has worked with a salad mix farmer, tending the crops and earthworms there.