Internships

Every summer sees a new crop of interns at Dripping Springs, many new to market gardening, but all with a keen interest in working with the land and gaining valuable skills. American students come to us via the ATTRA sustainable internship listing, word of mouth, or the University of Arkansas Center for Arkansas Farms and Food . Since 1994, we have been working with the Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture which brings in qualified young people from countries such as Peru, Ecuador, Thailand, Nepal. Most often these students have completed university studies in agriculture or forestry and may already be working with small farmers as organic field advisors.

The interns arrive in early March or April, bringing with them lots of enthusiasm and energy. By working alongside these bright young people day after day, we come to share each other’s dreams of a healthy green planet that produces in abundance. How can we grow marketable crops with earth-friendly methods? What is the best way to get our products to market, and to educate consumers? And how do we remain healthy, balanced, creative, and socially engaged while maintaining a strenuous and sometimes isolated lifestyle? Together we live out our best answers (so far) to these questions as we share the gardener’s life of hoeing, pruning, harvesting, marketing, and eating with the seasons.