> I'm thinking of applying for a month-or-so long internship there this
> summer, for the organic farming and animal husbandry knowledge.
Oh? How much money do they want?
My shot from the hip is this; Find a farmer in your area
who's willing to teach you for labor, or maybe even pay you for your
assistance. Or get a book and do your own gardening.
my friend Adam wrote:
[ "Everyone seems fairly young other than the two founders, and
[ Fritz[the brother] observed that the majority of the people on the
[ farm had encountered a great deal of trouble and the farm was sort of
[ the last place to turn."
Compare this with the Zendiks' own remarks;
[ The group is constantly being infused with new blood,
[ mostly youth from the ages of 15-25, who are fed up with the way the
[ world is being ripped off and ruined.
[ Zendik farm offers short and long term apprenticeships to people who are
[ looking for a responsible, funky alternative to the drudgery of life in
[ the DeathKultur.
[ For all intents and purposes, Zendik Farm is a classic counterculture
[ commune.
My interpretation? Two old geezers who've arrived at a way
to parasitize the middle class through its disaffected children.
Remember when I claimed there is a difference between
"environmentally benign" and "sustainable?" Maybe their farming
practices are benign, but they have no sustainable way of life.
They're strictly dependent on the worst kind of off-farm input;
fools. They "offer apprenticeships"? on a *sliding scale?* People I
know who work in the trades get *paid* as apprentices.
They say they "practice and demonstrate ecolibrium"; but if
you consider the personnel throughput then you can see that's flatly
false. I would be surprised if the farm itself so much as breaks
even. If the Zendik post seemed shot through with symbolism, it's
probably because symbolism is their chief stock in trade.
They say they have the largest-circulating "underground magazine" in
the world, but I've only met one person who's ever seen it. I've
never even seen it *reviewed*.
Travelers through Texas sometimes report that Zendik Farm has
a cultish atmosphere, that the "apprentices" have kind of a fawning
and reverent attitude towards the Zendiks themselves. What would you expect.
The only contact that I myself almost had with them was when I
sent a resume in response to a classified ad they placed in Small
Farmer's Journal once. I had just finished working on an organic veggie
farm over the summer, getting paid for it and learning how to do it
at the same time. They must have decided that someone who even knew
how to write a resume was probably too fast for the likes of them, because I
got no reply.
Until someone asked, I was blowing off posting this followup
because I didn't think it was necessary. Most people I know can spot
such servile hacks at a thousand yards, and I thought the first post
said it all. O well. that's ok.
The tradition of apprenticeship is that one trades labor for
training. One does not pay to work, which is what the Zendiks seem
to want. If you want to learn carpentry Ann, get apprenticed to a real
carpenter. If you want to learn to farm (and do carpentry, and weld,
and a bzillion other things) get apprenticed to a real farmer. I've
recently completed a search for an apprenticeship myself, and I think
I'll send my written story of the search to you over private mail. If
you'll bounce me your address. I lost it already.