ASLF APPRENTICE
STORYTELLING HIGHLIGHTS 2023
Stories have a way of moving culture. Anne Saxelby was an incredible storyteller, and by amplifying the work of American cheesemakers and dairy farmers, she opened up space in the landscape of a culinary world where European cheeses had reigned as standard.
The Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund Apprenticeship aims to give aspiring farmers and changemakers the opportunity to live and learn on working farms, similar to the experiences that inspired Anne as a young person.
We invite each season of ASLF Apprentices to share about their work on the farms through photos, videos, art, and written word. ASLF’S 2023 Storytelling Zine traverses urban farms, educational community gardens, collectives, indigenous food sovereignty projects, and some of the most prominent dairy, livestock, and vegetable farms in the nation, celebrating the people, plants, and animals who nourish us.
HADASYA PRAMESTI [deep
TESSA DEROSE [snug harbor cultural center and botanical staten island,
ALYSSA THIBODEAU [jasper
JASPER HILL
A TASTE OF PLACE
A POEM TO THE ONE AND ONLY BAYLEY
BAYLEY, MY FEELINGS FOR YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOUR AROMAS, I HAVE NEVER MET ANOTHER ONE LIKE YOU, YOUR CREAMY ELEGANCE, SALTY FINISH, INSIDES SHINING TRUE OF BLUE, YOU LEAVE MY MOUTH WATERING. I WANT YOU ON MY SALADS, MY BURGERS, STUFFED IN OLIVES, OR JUST BY THE SPOONFUL. BLUE, WANT BURGERS, OR SPOONFUL.
PENICILLIUM, GEOTRICHUM, RHODOTORULA
JASPER HILL BARN
KATE SANDREUTER [love
My month at Love is Love flew by so quickly – it has felt like such a sudden transition to be back home, spending time with my family and preparing to leave for college. Now back in Raleigh, I’ve had some more time to reflect on my experience and am writing to express my gratitude for all the people involved in facilitating my apprenticeship.
Joe and Judith, I am so appreciative of how you immediately welcomed me into your home, introduced me to your friends, took me to see Atlanta, etc. I felt warmly and enthusiastically welcomed from my first day, and so enjoyed your conversation and company over the weeks. I really appreciated the community feel of work on the farm and loved getting to know the other worker-owners and part time employees. Everyone was friendly, genuine, and motivated, and the stories of how and why each person at Love is Love became involved in agriculture were unique and inspiring. In terms of my own work, it was meaningful and satisfying to fall into the routines of the CSA and the wash-pack process, and exciting to witness the changes that took place on the farm during the month, such as certain crops being staged in or out of harvest, new plants being seeded, and the development of the Sewell property. While I had prior experience harvesting produce, it was eye-opening to be introduced to the many post-harvest processes involved in packing, storing, and selling vegetables. Judith, you did such a great job at scheduling my weeks out so that I could experience several facets of production and distribution at Love is Love. My favorite experiences include crafting flower bouquets with Claire and Monica, doing deliveries across Atlanta with Holly, and helping with the CSA each weekend! I learned so much during my apprenticeship – about planting methods, the model and structure of the co-op, local agriculture and community activism, Atlanta, plant taxonomy, and more.
MAYA NETZER [big
townshend,
I was so excited when Lucas and Louisa came up with the idea of creating a map to share with guests and visitors. I worked with an aerial photo of the land, but most of the map was painted from life - after morning chores when I would scoop up the bottle babies, feed the dogs, barn cats, yearlings and goat mamas. It felt so special to have that time walk ing through the woods, picking out certain trees or bends of slope to draw, or finding a rock to sit on by one of the buildings to just look and listen to all the tiny worlds unfolding within such a big one.
LILJA WALTER [red hook farms]
brooklyn, new york
By Lilja Walter
For the last decade, my career has revolved around food systems in New York City. Most of that time has been spent on the line in restaurants, with some early dabbling in urban farming. Through the years I’ve seen just how far apart these sister industries have become under modern American capitalism. 3rd party food distributors with next day delivery are the lifeblood of restaurants, while the unpredictability of weather and crops make it hard for local & urban farms to supply those businesses. But both farms & restaurants deal with an extremely perishable product, razor-thin margins, intensely physical work with low wages & long hours, and an inherent devaluation of their work. These issues prevent the reunion of food industries by keeping workers and small business owners in a cycle of staying barely afloat.
For those who are able to enter these industries by choice, they do so because they understand that the work of providing nourishment is a necessary and healing practice. That belief is powerful. The more people who come to understand it as truth, and put forth a willinging to support that, the closer we can get to healing our food systems. Part of that is coming to understand that menus and prices can’t always stay the same, it’s frankly in opposition to nature. Allowing restaurants the leeway to actually use seasonal ingredients, building direct relationships with local farms, would be revolutionary.
Moments from Winona’s Hemp and Heritage
ASLF Storytelling Project
Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm is a collection of farms within the White Earth Nation, near Ponsford Minnesota. This institution is owned and directed by environmental activist, writer, and farmer, Winona LaDuke. The farms are community-run and deeply connected to generational Anishinaabe agricultural knowledge. While their primary focus is in producing hemp and heritage corn, the Anishinaabe Agricultural Institute focuses on widespread community nutrition, so they grow all kinds of vegetables for anyone who needs it. A central effort of the institute is advocating for food justice and this goal acts as the central pillar of all actions within the institute. Growing hemp as a value-added resource means growing a stronger economy of self-sufficiency within the reservation.
My first weekend in Minnesota was spent canoeing and camping with the Shell River Alliance on the anniversary of their 2021 campout protest. They held these grounds under treaty during the summer of 2021 to combat the Line 3 Pipeline. This was an amazing introduction to the beauty of Minnesotan biodiversity. As well, I got to learn from the many environmental activists present. They taught us all about the region’s ecology and the significance of the protest that had taken place a couple years before.
Back at homebase, there was no shortage of companionship! We were welcomed to stay at Winona’s personal cabin on the lake, home to many friendly animals and passerbys. Part of our home duties included feeding the pets and taking extra special care of the 5 puppies. Additionally, we helped out around the house, tended to Winona’s home garden, and welcomed any other guests that may have been popping through. When we weren’t working, we were swimming or canoeing off her dock! That all being said, most of our time was spent working between the other farms.
Our farming tasks were divided between 3 farms within the area. We worked primarily as a team of the 3 ASLF interns. We planted, weeded, watered, harvested, and cooked with the foods we helped grow! While vegetables were our primary focus, we helped out with the hemp too, which is the coolest part of Winona’s farm work! We were taught about the production of hemp and it’s many many uses. We watched the construction of a home addition made of HempCrete walls, and we screen-printed onto t-shirts made of hemp.
I’m very grateful for my time at Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm. I made so many wonderful memories and learned more than I could’ve imagined. Thank You ASLF!!
Storytelling by Mars Williams
As briefly aforementioned, we screens to print designs created Sarah LittleRedfeather and Winona We printed onto shirts made of taught other community members could continue the practice after shirts went to Winona’s online bags for her events. (Pictured ASLF Jordan and Mars)
used silkcreated primarily by Winona LaDuke. of hemp fabric and members how, so they after we left! These store and gift
ASLF interns:
In addition to our vegetable and hemp farming, we spent lots of time with the friendly farm animals! We tended to the horses, milked the goats, and fed the pigs. I learned so much about how to care for farm animals and all the effort and love that goes into keeping them alive and happy. Much thanks to the helpful farm hand, Noka, my favorite goat milk-loving farm dog (pictured above, waiting for her fresh milk).
[ice house farm] goshen, vermont
SOFIE KANAYAMA
NICHOLAS PHELPS [brooklyn grange] brooklyn, new york
Soil piling up under my nails, thick August humidity looming around me, and the sun mercilessly beating down upon my neck. The first image that would come to mind is not one of a rooftop in sunset park Brooklyn Many times, when I find myself sweeping through the brush of the eye-level cucumber leaves, that seem to delineate the space between the city skyline and the sky above, I almost forget that I am in fact in a city, and not in a rural farm anywhere else The second I step off the gray pavement streets and ride up through the elevator to the roof, I am transported to another world, although the elevator itself was a kind of portal Immediately upon arrival, the cityscape blurs and becomes a forgetful backdrop to the green Eden that lies before me The wailing sirens of the city and speeding cars sputtering exhaust fade out, as birds and the heat of the sun come into focus, only ever so often reintroducing themselves as a reminder that you still find yourself in New York. What is left before you is better than any neighborhood supermarket. Instead, your eyes are bombarded by different shades of green and the delightful thought of being able to consume the vegetables you laboriously grew during your lunch break or at dinner. The purpose of these photos is to immerse the viewer in this world, both separating this beautiful space from the city to offer a glimpse of the farmwork that is undertaken here and also at other times to juxtapose the clashing images of farm and cityscape. Two words, and ideas that seem to oppose each other, but yet have managed to find a graceful harmony here, in this very special place
REED HARTZOG [newman farm] myrtle, missouri
The fattest pig of dozens, weighing three hundred and seventy-eight pounds, most of it muscle, is making a break for it in the direction of you, r and a gate that leads back to the large white hoop where she has spent most of her eight month life. Life and death are on her mind, and she will not give a second thought to the comparably frail and leaf-like body that stands between her and her home
Crushing your foot under her lumbering thighs will not give her a second thought, it may just be the advantage she's lookin
So, with a big, fat pi of her piggy friends, comfort behind, what d three hundred and muscle shrieks loudly, preparing for a charge and a crush of foot, you stand your ground armed with a light ten pound plastic shield. The shield is meant to trick this pig into believing that you are not, in fact, a frail little boy that is almost one-third her weight and less than one-twentiet her muscle, but that you are somehow impassable an unmoving barrier. A quick dance ensues; when she jerks one way looking for escape, you jerk your body, armed with a shield of illusion. Thi dance that lasts only seconds until either she wins and the big fat pig outruns you and escapes past your plastic shield, hopefully leaving your foot intact, or you win and she crawls onto a scale and then a trailer which she will not leave until after she arrives at the slaughterhouse.
This moment gives you a glimpse into the lifelong dance that running Newman pork farm, or any animal farm, requires. This dance is a balancing act between human, animal, and environment The farmer must manage all the moving parts in such a way that the animals are happy, the product is good, the customer is satisfied, the family is content, and the farm is afloat This list is exhausting in itself, so imagine the work put in by the farmer to strike a balance that maintains all those parts For if one of them gets thrown off then the whole operation could fail.
But the dance at Newman farms is smooth, a testament to the people running it. The pigs are happy and healthy; the females who raise young, called sows, roam pastures their whole lives free to participate in all their natural behaviors. They can root around for tubers and other plants and cool themselves down by getting as dirty as possible in one of the many ponds around the pastures The babies of these sows will be weaned from their mothers and moved to the hoops to live out the rest of their lives in large groups They will dig, play, eat, and poop until one day they will be brought to dance with the farmer, and driven off to the meat packing plant to become “Pork Tenderloin,” or “Pork Osso Bucco,” or “Pork Volcano Shanks ”
SOPHIA ROBERTS
XOCHITL
THANK YOU
Anne once wrote, “I hope I can continue to do this job until I am old, wellaged, and hopefully more complex! Like a good wheel of cheese.” But she left us unexpectedly in the second act of the play. She was taking on obstacles of an ambitious plot with grace and dignity — growing a business, raising a family, making art, deepening a vast web of personal connections. The resolution of her story will never be a proper one, but she lived her life in such a way that many actors are filling in to write it.
In 2022, 33 Apprentices traveled the country to 18 farms, following in her footsteps. In 2023, 60 apprentices traveled to 40 farms, and many more will embark in the years to come.
Thank you to everyone who has given to the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund, and supported the first two seasons of ASLF Apprenticeships in Anne’s name. To help make future seasons possible, please visit: www.annesaxelbylegacyfund.org/make-a-donation.