September 2010 Corpsmember of the Month

Bonnie Nielsen

Supervisor: Henry Wallace, Farm Crew Supervisor

Crew: Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden

Length of time at CCNB: 14 months

Reason corpsmember was selected: Bonnie has shown great leadership on the farm. She has recruited and manages the farms weekly veggie box accounts with the two daycares at College of Marin. She develops recipes to help sales of in-season produce. She has recruited 3 new corpsmembers to work at the farm. Bonnie is doing excellent work for the local agricultural community interning with Steve Quirt at the UC Cooperative Extension. She has done an excellent job tabling for the farm at CCNB events. Bonnie takes lead on the Farm Stand and Farmers Market harvests and record keeping. She arrives for work on time, is extremely reliable, and always has a good attitude.

Skills training received at CCNB: Irrigation laying and maintenance, cultivation techniques, compost building, propagation styles, marketing strategies and public relations.

Leadership roles at CCNB: Bonnie created and managed the relationship that the farm has with the daycares at both COM campuses. She developed recipes to offer the public ideas for ways to bring the farm's produce to their dinner tables, and took the lead on assiting the Farm Coordinator with harvest and record keeping for farmers markets and farm stands.

Favorite project: Bonnie loves interacting with the public and representing the farm, especially while selling food and educating people about our practices on the farm and the importance of what we do.

Favorite educational component: She appreciates the learning that happens every day on the farm, about new crops or growing techniques or cultivation practices - the education never stops, and she appreciates its ongoing, changing nature and how that mimics real life.

Favorite aspect of working at CCNB: The team aspect - learning with and from dedicated, knowledgeable, passionate people about what I care about and am interested in.

Future plans: She plans to continue working in the field of Sustainable Agriculture in some form.

Prior to CCNB: Bonnie worked in environemtnal education at residential outdoor schools, teaching elementary and middle school students about science and the environment while outdoors, on trail.

Why they joined CCNB: She came to CCNB from her interest in working on the farm.

How CCNB has changed their life: The combination of gaining an appreciation of the bigger picture of sustainable agriculture in Marin through her work with Steve Quirt at UCCE and learning more about the smaller picture day-to-day details of working on a farm through working at the Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden has been invaluable to her and has helped steer the course of her career path.

Life lessons learned: She has gained further appreciation for the potentials of good teamwork, as well as the importance of dedication to a dream, exploring partnership, and clear communication.

Advice for young people: Get started! Come into the office and talk to people if you have questions because the staff is very friendly and will be able to help get you moving in the right direction.

Most important thing learned: Probably the most important learning aspect of the experience has been being on a farm through changing seasons, observing and being a part of the natural cycles and appropriate responses/work to be done at each stage.