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Shomrei Adamah on the Gann Farm
Do you want to spend two weeks of your summer working the land and cooking fresh food in Jewish community? Join us at Shomrei Adamah on the Gann Farm!
Shomrei Adamah is a 2 week, hands-on, paid summer experience for young people entering 9th through 12th grade. We will build a vibrant Jewish community through physical work, cooking farm-fresh meals, singing, and learning about the relationships between Judaism, justice, and agriculture.
Shomrei Adamah will run Monday August 7th, 2023 - Friday August 18th, 2023
Hours are Monday to Thursday from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm and Friday 8:30 am - 1:00 pm
Hours are Monday to Thursday from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm and Friday 8:30 am - 1:00 pm
Once an application has been filled out, we will be in touch to schedule an on-farm working interview. During the interview, participants will have a chance to ask questions about the program as well as to try working on the farm. Following the interview, staff will review the application and interview, and be in touch as to whether the applicant has been accepted. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the cohort is full.
Please feel free to reach out to Gann Farmer Noah Weinberg, nweinberg@gannacademy.org, with any questions.
Stipend
This is a paid, educational internship. Participants will earn a stipend of $20/day ($200 for the two weeks).
You may also be able to earn “community service hours” for some of our time working at local organizations.
Required Qualifications
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Entering 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
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Can commit to the entirety of the two week program.
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This is a “get your hands dirty” internship! We will be doing hard work outdoors on hot summer days. Farm work is physically challenging (and rewarding)! Interns should arrive each day with motivation and energy - ready to jump into each day’s work.
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Self-identify as Jewish and interested in participating in a pluralistic Jewish community.
Core Components of Shomrei Adamah
Farm-to-Table Skills
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Grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers: Seeding, planting, weeding, harvesting, seed saving, composting, and chicken care!
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Learn to cook with proper knife skills and prepare salads, pickles, and basic cooked vegetable dishes for communal snacks and lunches!
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Work hard outside in all kinds of weather: hot, rainy, buggy, and cold!
Community Building and Service-Learning
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Explore personal social identities and our place within our communities.
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Connect with new people and build a strong group dynamic.
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Volunteer at local hunger relief organizations, and learn how to get involved in work for food justice in your community.
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Practice gratitude and expand your toolbox of Jewish practices that feel relevant.
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Ask questions about Jewish agricultural texts and how we can make them come alive as Jewish farmers today.
Inspirations and Partners
This program is inspired by Abundance Farm’s Shefa program, as well as the Food Project’s Seed Crew program, and we are grateful for their generosity in sharing wisdom, language, and educational resources.
**Land Acknowledgement**
The Gann Farm acknowledges the sacred land where we farm, teach, learn, and build community, which has been a site of human activity for many thousands of years, long before we started applying our own stories and traditions to this land. This land is the sacred home of the Massachusett and their neighbors the Wampanoag, Pawtucket, and Nipmuc Peoples, who stewarded this land for hundreds of generations. Today, the Boston area is home to thousands of Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to live and work the land here.
For more than five hundred years, Indigenous communities across the Americas have demonstrated resilience and resistance in the face of violent efforts by invaders to separate them from their land, culture, and community. Too often their history is erased. As Jews we have experienced exile and persecution, and as part of the larger process of decolonization and reconciliation, we extend our respect to citizens of these Nations who live here today, and their ancestors who have lived here for over five hundred generations, and to all Indigenous people. We also affirm that this acknowledgement is insufficient. It does not undo the harm that has been done and continues to be perpetrated now against Indigenous people, their culture, land, and water.
We have begun to build a relationship with the Native Land Conservancy, a local “Native-run land conservation group with a mission to preserve healthy landscapes for all living things and help restore land back to its original state wherever possible.” Inspired by the practice of Maaser (tithing) we have begun to give a land tax of 5% of our sales to NLC, to support their work of land access and restoration for local native communities.
(Inspired by the land acknowledgments of the Adamah/Isabella Freedman, Kavod, and the Upstander project.)
