Let the farm adventures begin!

The newest chapter in the adventures of Green Gal has officially begun! Yesterday, I moved into a tent cabin at the UC Santa Cruz Farm, where I'll live, work, and learn for the next six months. I'm participating in the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, a program hosted by the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems that is celebrating its 50th year. Back in December when I received my acceptance letter, I shared a post about why I applied to this program. I can't believe it all starts tomorrow and that I will be waking up this unbelievable from my tent cabin door view every morning from now until October! If you can't tell in this photo, you can see Monterey Bay glimmering in the sun.

I've met a few other apprentices so far, and I look forward to meeting the rest of the folks tonight for our welcome dinner and tomorrow for our first day! There are 39 of us this year, and we come from all different backgrounds and places around the state, country, and world. We'll be cooking and enjoying meals, learning, growing food, making compost piles, selling produce & flowers, and creating community together. I'm so excited for what's ahead!

This afternoon after my family and Green Guy said goodbye for now, I decided to test out the solar-heated outdoor shower, which is connected to a solar panel. It was the most wonderful shower experience I've ever had, and the water actually got pretty hot!

Huge thanks to my family and Green Guy for helping me move in and make sure I have all that I need to start my apprenticeship off right! Thanks also to Green Guy and my mom for taking some awesome photos of my move-in weekend.

I hope to write at least weekly on the blog so that you all can follow along with my journey. I'll also be posting photos often to Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/greenbeangal/.

Thanks for reading!
Green Gal