New York Times: Chelsea's TantrÃ© Farm and interns share symbiotic relationship

By Jessica Webster Community Content Coordinator

Posted on Thu, Sep 9, 2010 : 2 p.m.

The New York Times has a story about Chelsea's TantrÃ© Farm's internship program. Farming internships have become popular with recent college graduates, cooks and people in the midst of career changes. Often living on the farms, sometimes in tents, the interns are fully immersed in the culture of farming.

Recent Michigan State University graduate Evan Dayringer started working on the farm when his graduate school loan was withdrawn, with the hopes that he would learn not just the agricultural side of farming, but also the business side of it.

According to the article, "Dayringer found TantrÃ© through a friend in the Michigan Young Farmer Coalition. When he began in March, starting seeds in the greenhouse and preparing oak logs to grow shiitake mushrooms, he was struck by the elemental pleasure of the tasks. “It felt good to have some work that was real,” he says. The kale seeds that he sowed in March and transplanted in April were dinner come June."

TantrÃ© Farm benefits too, of course. The Times reports that the farm would not have been able to show the growth it has without the help of interns, since small farms do not received the kinds of federal subsidies that larger farms do.

You can read the full story here.