Day 2 - The day before formal training

Today we didn't have to be at the greenhouses very early. It was a day to relax before the real work begins (8:00am tomorrow.) Jon and I spent the morning reading, writing and making the intern house feel like home. The house is extremely warm (in terms of temperature and cozyness)... here are some pictures of our corridors:

The outside of our house, called "The Intern House." There are 3 houses on site: House 1) the director, Karen, lives at. House 2) Our house (for interns and long-stay volunteers). House 3) Being made into another intern house.

The upstairs bedroom that Jon and I share.

Our kitchen.

The living room from which I'm typing in now.

The office / other living room / dining room (multifunction room!)

Today's entry won't be as eventful as future ones. We are still getting settled, after only being here one day and most of the staff is on vacation until Monday. I'll devote the rest of this blog entry to answering some of the questions I've received thus far.

Some of you have inquired why the hell I'm in Milwaukee in the dead of winter working on a farm. Seems kind of counterintuitive, right? Well, that's exactly it... if people are able to grow leafy green vegetables in below-zero weather, that's right where I want to be. I am here to learn, plain and simple. Yeah, I might freeze my ass off every single day but man, it's worth it. I've already had plenty of experiences that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

Another question I got is what am I planning on doing with the things that I learn here. I can't exactly answer that because I'm not sure what sort of long-term impact these three weeks will have on me. In the short-term, I'm going to be helping building a greenhouse in Shutesbury, MA at Sirius Community. We are in the planning and designing phase so coming here will provide me with some great ideas to take back home and perhaps implement. Will Allen is doing a workshop here next weekend and one of the sessions he'll be teaching is on greenhouse construction. I will definitely sit-in on that.

The most important aspect of this internship (that I can anticipate) is how I can bring this model of Will Allen's to other places that need it. His operation is absolutely stunning. It's unbelievable that a farm exists in the middle of a city... and in a cold-temperate climate like this. The temperature is -2 with wind chill... and there's green everywhere! If growing food can be done here, in these troublesome conditions, then it can be done anywhere. And this brings me to my passion, which I share with many others back home and around the world: Grow Food Everywhere and Think Globally, Act Locally. The implications of this are immense...

I'm going to talk about how Growing Power relates to / incorporates permaculture (or does it?) in a later entry. And also, there's such a huge social action piece of Growing Power that I haven't even touched upon yet. That is one of the main reasons I came here: to learn first hand how environmental issues relate to problems of social inequity - they are absolutely connected and thus Will Allen solves many problems at a time. But for now I'll leave you with a few pictures of the greenhouse: