Triform Farm: A New Year on the Farm

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A New Year on the Farm

We are coming back to our blog after a busy summer! It was a rainy summer but we still managed to do a lot of haying. It was hot and sweaty work but we had fun anyways. Sarah and Martin were out working on the tractors. Ethan was our main stacker and Elijah, Magnus, Emily, Ceci, Fabian, Iona, Brendan, Andrew, Melanie, Louisa, Kim, Etienne, Beate, Alex, Sequoya, Kevin and even more were throwing bales down from the wagon and passing them into the loft. We had such a good crew!
Now we are beginning a new year on the farm. We have some new students. We also have some new coworkers and a new work master Our new students names are David, Ben, and Peter. Our new coworkers names are Sebastian and Jesse. Sarah is now our work master. Our apprentices that are still hare on our farm are Elijah, Louisa, and Mandy. Danny is our journeyman.
Elijah will be graduating at the end of this year.
We have an exciting year ahead of us. We have new calves in the barn. Elijah will be working on an apprentice project while also looking into future positions on other farms. The meat shop will be getting a new look and re-opening soon! Martin and David K will be working on restoring our new combine so that we can look forward to harvesting our own grain. Sarah will be looking into building a new equipment barn and Jesse will continue work on the chicken house. So as you can see, we are still busy with lots of projects. We think it will be another great year at Triform Farm. We look forward to seeing many of you at Parents and Friends weekend!
-Mandy, Elijah, David W, Sarah

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Triform Farm

Triform Farm is part of Triform Camphill Community. Triform, founded in 1979, is a residential and therapeutic community for young adults with special needs, located on 125 acres in New York's rural Columbia County. The mission of Triform is to build a vital community life that provides each person the possibility for healing, self-development and fulfillment of potential.

Triform Farm is a USDA Certified Organic and Demeter Certified Bio-dynamic farm. The farm consists of a hand-milked dairy herd, grass-fed beef herd, and heritage breed pigs. On the farm the young adults have an opportunity to gain practical work skills. Students come to the farm to experience working with the animals. They feed the cows, steers and pigs, muck out the barn, clean pens and provide bedding for the animals. They learn to use different tools and how to work as a team with the other members of the farm crew.

Some students go on to become farm apprentices. The apprentices work more full time on the farm and carry many of the daily responsibilities of running a small dairy. They learn how to milk the cows by hand, maintain the machinery, do building projects and repair work to the barn and animal pens, drive the farm golf cart, identify when animals are sick or in heat, and much, much, more. The apprentice program is about four years in length. In that time the young people gain a very broad knowledge of farming. Some go on to work on other farms. Even if they do not, the sense of responsibility, independence and empowerment they gain through land work carries over into other aspects of their lives.

The same can be said of many young co-workers who have come to Triform to volunteer for one year or many. They come with an interest in land work and leave with a very thorough training in biodynamic agriculture. Triform Farm is an exciting place to learn and gain strength and confidence through trying new things. Everyone soon finds that they not only know how to do a new task but have taken on the responsibility of making sure that job is maintained. They can each see that their contribution is vital to the running of the farm. In that way everyone shares in the ownership of Triform Farm.