Interviews from the Field: New Leaf’s Assistant Farm Manager, Emily
We’re thrilled to introduce our newest team member at New Leaf Agriculture, Emily Ling! We caught up with Emily to learn more about her new role as New Leaf’s Assistant Farm Manager and to get glimpse of what’s happening at the farm currently.
Hi Emily! Tell us a little about your background. What brought you to farming?
E: Professionally my background has mostly been in criminal justice reform and a variety of nonprofit work that dealt with issues of social justice. For a long time, farming was something I did on the side as a volunteer, as a way of being a part of something beautiful & life-giving when my day job often meant close proximity to lots of sorrow and injustice. In recent years, I was spending more and more time at organic farms and I was also exploring how regenerative agriculture was actually deeply connected to many of the justice issues I've always been passionate about —and so I finally made the leap this year into farming full-time.
Can you tell me about some of the people you’ve met so far while working at MRC?
E: Our team of refugee staff is amazing. Because farming is such demanding work physically and because most of the farmers I know are in their twenties and thirties, I had assumed that the refugee farming crew would be mostly younger folks. But much of our team is in their 40s, 50s, and 60s—and it's inspiring to see how they've learned to harvest, plant, and do all the hard work with wisdom, efficiency, and diligence. I'm really excited to be learning from their perspective on how to do farming well.
“The way that New Leaf does farming, it’s not just about growing healthy food. It’s about healing the land in order to mitigate climate change. It’s about creating employment opportunities that benefit the ecosystem, the workers, and the community. And it’s about strengthening local economies and advocating for just systems.”
What’s a typical day at the farm look like?
E: Well, it's cliche but true that every day is different and our routine changes a lot by the season. So there isn't really a "typical" day, but we do have sort of a 3-day rhythm that often looks like Day 1: harvest for the CSA and market, Day 2: prepare CSA shares and do planting/weeding/field upkeep, Day 3: make CSA deliveries around Austin and/or go sell at the Farmers Market. Then repeat.
So that makes for a wonderful variety of tasks that spans everything from contemplative silence or humming while weeding a bed with the refugee team, to working with groups of volunteers who come help us plant new crops, to the hustle & bustle of being at the market and talking to new customers about recipes for cooking beets. I love that all of those activities are part of my role at New Leaf.
What are you most looking forward to about working at New Leaf?
E: The way that New Leaf does farming, it's not just about growing healthy food. It's about healing the land in order to mitigate climate change. It's about creating employment opportunities that benefit the ecosystem, the workers, and the community. And it's about strengthening local economies and advocating for just systems.
So I'm looking forward to exploring more about all the ways that growing vegetables isn't only about delicious tomatoes and arugula, but also how what we're doing in the field is embodying an ethical and beautiful paradigm shift that our modern society needs to see demonstrated. I'm also particularly excited about the growing ways that New Leaf and Open Arms Studio will be getting to partner on some farm-to-fabric ideas, as we strive to encourage not only a healthy foodshed and watershed, but a healthy fibershed too.
Anything else you’d like to share?
E: What a delight this first month has been! I'm excited to both learn and share more about the crops we've got growing that are inspired by our refugee team and their home countries. It's going to be a fun exploration of vegetables that native Texans may not be familiar with, but that I trust are going to be delicious!