I’ll admit that I’m a little behind schedule with this week’s post, but now that I’m finally doing it I’m dropping a bomb.  You see, my friends, I’m moving.  After eight years in Greensboro I’m uprooting myself and leaving.

I’ve been looking around for a while now for ways to continue my local food education.  I love going to the farmers’ markets here in Greensboro and talking our local farmers, but I’ve been feeling that after a year of cooking and eating locally that it was time to take it to another level.  I had a few ideas on what to do next.  First I applied to Tufts University‘s Food, Agriculture, and Environment master’s program and I’m still waiting to hear back from them.  Next, I decided that whether I got into Tufts or not I still wanted to change things up.  That’s when I decided to look into WWOOF.

WWOOF (which, incidentally, might be the worst acronym ever) stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms.  The concept is this: you send a small amount of money into a branch of the WWOOF organization and in return they send you a list of all the organic farms that are looking for interns in a specific area.  Once you have the list you simply apply to whichever of the farms interests you and see if any of them work out.

Because Tufts is in Medford Massachusetts, I sent in for the New England WWOOF list.  I was excited about the idea of one of the farms in particular because in the 2007 year they had asked for someone who would cook for the farm as well as write recipes to go out with the weekly CSA.  How me does that sound?  It would be my dream job.  However, when I got the 2008 NEWOOF list the cook/recipe writer listing was gone.  I guess whoever they hired last year worked out either really well or so badly that they decided not to repeat the experience.

After looking over the new list there weren’t any farms I was head over heels about in New England and I decided to look at farms in my own area.  I considered purchasing the Southern US WWOOF list but instead decided to see what I could find out about local farms for myself.   I worked with the resources I suggest to everyone who reads my website and went to Local Harvest to searched for farms in the Greensboro and Chapel Hill areas.  After I had my list I then went through the descriptions and looked for the most diverse farms, the farms that grow the greatest number of species.  I want to work on a farm that grows everything.  Once I had my list narrowed down I began searching the remaining farms’ websites to find out if any of them had internships programs.  After a dozen websites I found the farm the I knew I wanted to work on.

Coon Rock Farm, well, I’ll let Coon Rock Farm speak for itself:

“Coon Rock Farm is a sustainable family farm providing organically grown garden crops and pasture raised antibiotic and hormone free chicken, eggs, pigs, lamb and goat on 55 acres nestled along a bend in the Eno River just outside of Hillsborough, NC.   We concentrate on sustainably and bio-dynamically taking care of the land while letting it take care of us.  Our vegetables are mostly heirloom varieties and raised without chemicals of any kind.  Our animals are pastured raised and grass feed and never given antibiotics or hormones.  Our chickens are heritage breeds that provide both meat and eggs and are completely free range.“

I found out that the farm accepts four interns each year to work through the summer and I immediately applied for the internship.  Two days later I received a reply to my emailed application, “Amy…I’d love to have you work with us on the farm.”  I’m in.  I start at the beginning of April and I just can’t wait.

Guys!  I’m going to be a farmer!  But don’t worry, my move and change of occupation does not mean the end of this blog.  I’ll be cooking and eating on this farm, which means that I’ll be coming up with new recipes.  I’ll be reading new books and I’m sure that at least a few of them I’ll want to review.  So fear not my friends, as long as I have an internet connection and an electrical outlet I’ll be keeping up this blog and telling you all about every delicious moment of my life on the farm.