Zach never imagined he’d find himself behind the wheel of a tractor or harvesting vegetables under the sun. His background was as far removed from farming as one could imagine: nearly two decades as a professional illustrator and graphic designer. He came to that career by an unconventional path.
Through CAFF, Maeve discovered she loves more than just the farming itself—she loves the business side too. Growing up around restaurants had given her some perspective, but seeing farming through the lens of entrepreneurship opened her mind.
When Ashley was 14, her family moved from a large city in Missouri to a rural town in Vermont. Ashley had no previous experience with farms or agriculture, but at the end of the school year in Vermont, she felt the land calling to her. She contacted farms listed in the yellow pages until she found a dairy farm that invited her to intern for the summer. She fell in love with farm life, and from then on, she knew some day she would own land and be a farmer.
Jonah volunteered as a counselor at a summer camp while in high school. The grounds featured a quarter-acre garden, where they met a farmer named Doug. Jonah’s experience there was inspirational and life-changing. It lit up a new path: the love of nature, growing food, and cooking. Although that path would twist in several directions, the core passions remained. Eventually, it brought Jonah to the CAFF Farm School, where they hope to unite all three in a vision for the future.
The decision to apply for CAFF Farm School was a slow realization that she’d like to learn farming. Living in apartments as an adult, she never had the space for a garden. But she had acquired plenty of experience with the local food system by working as a server at restaurants like The Farmer’s Table and at Ozark Natural Foods. While there, the employees toured local farms. She visited the beautiful Dripping Springs Garden, and the lifestyle was very appealing. It’s a bucolic farm growing flowers, herbs, vegetables, and fruit. Nicole says, “It made me seriously consider farming as a career. And farmers are the nicest people I’ve ever met.“ She decided to pursue it, but wasn’t sure where to start. A co-worker was applying to the CAFF Farm School and invited her to the Farmers For Tomorrow fundraiser. There she learned more about the program and the need for farmers. She decided
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