July 17, 2026 | Education
Summer Stories: Youth Development Program, Week 3
It was a week full of effort, reflection, and connection—on the farm and beyond.
The Youth Development Program is a paid opportunity for high-school-age students to develop and hone various skills in preparation for life beyond the classroom. The summer session is called the Seed Crew, and is 8 weeks of working, learning, and connecting as a team.
This week, we experienced another wave of extremely hot and humid weather.
On Monday we sheet mulched a plot. This is something we do throughout the year to control weeds and prepare the soil for future planting. It involves laying down cardboard and covering it with a layer of compost. Another crew took on harvesting garlic. This is always a big task on the farm because it needs a place to dry out and cure, and the greenhouse is a perfect location. We felt cleaning and organization of the greenhouse would help us in the process, so that’s where we started. For our workshop we did an annual favorite called “Step Across.” Students are asked a series of questions that get increasingly more challenging. If the question is true to them, they step across a line drawn on the ground. They are asked to remain quiet and make no judgements during this process, but we save plenty of time at the end for discussion and reflection.
Our first field trip was Tuesday. We had a wonderful tour out at the Midwest Rodale Institute. Students got the chance to see organic farming research in action and help move chickens on a silvopasture test plot. The farm manager, Drew, was kind enough to invite us back to assist in a larger project going on later in the summer. After returning to the farm, we discussed the importance of the work being done at Rodale and how it can impact farming. Many were surprised by the future job prospects that could be available tied to work like this project. We ended up having a small chunk of time before we broke for lunch, so we challenged the high schoolers to complete the garlic harvest and get everything into the greenhouse to cure. By no surprise, they completed the task efficiently and secured an early and longer lunch. Our workshop for the day involved a discussion on the best and worse advice they’d ever received. It was insightful and interesting to see their thoughts on what makes good advice and what they’d tell their younger selves.
Wednesday, we started by cleaning up weeds around our tomatoes and peppers and top dressing the soil with compost. We also began the CSA harvest. We harvested root veggies, squash, cucumbers, beans, and peas. They finished the day by working with their groups on their Transamerica presentations. One group started interviewing their coworkers about their experiences, another planting seeds, and a few others worked on their planning for future projects.
Thursday, we harvested herbs and greens for the CSA and helped make bouquets. We also planted carrots. One crew went to Groundswell Cafe to bake. Our Urban Farm intern, Kaden, taught his first workshop titled “Digging Into Soil: The Prairie Legacy.” He had the crews do some hands-on work looking at types of soil and the impact of farming on it. They had a chance to look at how the roots of different types of prairie plants and crops work within our soil.