Hi! We’re Arturo and Aaron! We live in Rhode Island and are considering making a career change to farming, with a greater interest in crops than livestock. We’ve been reading and watching a lot online about farming and have enjoyed building an indoor growing chamber in our apartment to grow our first very small harvest of greens. But we would really like to get a better sense of what a full-time job in farming is like before deciding if it’s a good next career step for us.
We know that one option would be for us to get seasonal summer jobs. But we are fortunate to still be working full-time at our current jobs and would have trouble getting rehired in our current positions if we decided after the season that farming isn’t a suitable career option for us. We were also excited to find the Young Farmer Network site but it seems there are not any YFN programs currently running.
So we’re wondering, would any farms on the NE Ag Exchange be interested in either of the following?
(1) We would volunteer our labor on your farm on a Saturday or Sunday in exchange for the experience of what a day-to-day career in farming is like.
(2) If (1) isn’t possible, we would love a tour of your farm and some time to ask questions. We are happy to compensate farmers for their time and effort.
We understand it’s mid winter so we’d be particularly interested in farms that are currently growing produce in greenhouses. We’re happy to travel to CT or MA. We are also happy to follow any covid precautions the farmer would like (e.g. masked, meeting outdoors only at a distance). One of us gets tested twice a week for work. If anyone can help us out, feel free to reply here or send a direct message on this site.
Thank you!
