Market Farming

[road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>]

On Apr 22, 2005, at 10:21 PM, Robin Follette wrote:

> Schools in Aroostook county (northern Maine) start in early August so 
> that the kids can be out of school for three weeks to harvest 
> potatoes.

Wow. I didn't know there was anywhere in this country that still had 
sense enough to do something like that. Around here they used to close 
the high schools in grape harvest season and teachers and kids alike 
would pick grapes; but they haven't done that for probably forty years 
or more, and most people would probably now think it a shocking idea. I 
suspect the kids learned more from it than most of them usually do 
spending that three weeks in a classroom.

The legal age to start farm work is a state-by-state issue. In New York 
State, unless they've changed the regulations when I wasn't looking 
(which is possible), the minimum age for farm work (except on your own 
family's farm) is 12, and 12 and 13 year olds are only allowed to hand 
harvest, not anything else. (I can legally have a 12 year old harvest, 
say, winter squash; but not stand there and hold a watering hose. Go 
figure.) 14 and 15 year olds can do most work, but there are 
restrictions on power equipment and some other work for anybody under 
18 (though those who have taken a special course can run tractors 
sooner) and also restrictions on time of day and on hours worked per 
day and per week, depending on the age.

What we seem to have is a setup in which most kids aren't allowed to 
work until they've got it firmly in their heads that they don't want 
to; and then are supposed to be suddenly grown up at a magic age and 
know how to work, when they've been carefully prevented from learning 
how. (I include myself in this, and it took me probably about ten years 
to figure it out.)

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale