It was a very busy week on the "farm," and I can confidently say a lot has been accomplished. Most of the week was spent in Seattle, and while that didn't get a lot of the physical work done, it moved the farm's concept forward in great strides.I have decided that, if a job (teaching life skills to incarcerated men at Clallam Bay Correctional Center) I interviewed for doesn't come through, I will likely enroll in the Culinary Arts Program at Seattle Central Community College if I can get enough funding to pay for it. Seattle Central is one of a few colleges that still has worker retraining money available to the unemployed for certain programs, and one can still draw unemployment while going to school. I attended an orientation for the program on Thursday, and it was quite impressive. One of my original motivations for choosing this program was to gain credibility as a food writer, and in the orientation the presenter said some of their graduates had gone on to do just that. One part of the program includes summer work on a Skagit Valley farm and the curriculum also infuses sustainable food system practices into the coursework.
This is a very attractive Plan B, but if the job is offered to me, I'm going to take it for a variety of reasons and be content that I can continue to learn about culinary arts through self-study. At the prison, there is a large grassy area in the middle of the surrounding buildings. If I work there, my dream is to make it into a garden and teach the guys about sustainable food practices.
