Wyckoff House Museum: Teens Gain Urban Farming Skills and Career Opportunities

Youth Garden Apprentice Program

• 🧑‍🌾 The Wyckoff House Museum in Brooklyn offers a youth garden apprentice program that cultivates more than just crops, focusing on sowing skills and careers for teens.
• 💡 Participants are learning about urban farming, with one teen expressing interest in insects and enjoying being outdoors.
• 🌱 For some teens, like FA Piggas, it's a first-time job opportunity where they learn the satisfaction of seeing their literal fruits of labor come to fruition.

Educational Approach and Community Engagement

• 🍎 Program coordinator Petra Corora Foy highlights that the farm serves as a case study to teach teens about food systems and agriculture.
• 🛍️ The program features a weekly farm stand on Saturdays, from July through October, offering fresh produce to the community.
• 🤝 The farm stand fosters a reciprocal relationship, where community members drop off compost and pick up vegetables, described as a lovely thing.

Historical Context and Social Impact

• 🏛️ The program operates on the grounds of the Wyckoff House, the oldest surviving structure in New York State, dating back to the 1650s.
• ✊ The program acknowledges the historical context of working lands that were likely cultivated by enslaved people, with a commitment to overcoming the shame of the past to empower the community.
• 💰 The program provides stipends to participating high school students over the summer and fall, prioritizing those living or studying in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.