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"Being a crop care specialist is not a desk job"

Emily Ames, Crop Care Specialist at Backyard Farms, currently attends Kennebec Valley Community College where she is studying Early Childhood Education. Learning about child growth and development while taking care of ten rows of tomato plants has given Emily a unique perspective during her three and a half years at Backyard Farms. “Working with people AND plants I’ve learned a lot about that growth and development requires a lot of nurturing and attention to detail,” she says. “It’s been a great experience all around!"

Emily usually starts her day at 6am and spends her days performing a number of different tasks. The plants in the greenhouse typically grow a foot per week which requires Emily to do a lot of clipping and pruning. “All of our plants are on strings,” she explains, “Each week, I have to release more string from the coil and slide the plant along the wire that the string hangs from so the plants can continue growing.” Some of her other tasks are deleafing the plants and picking up “floor fruit” – tomatoes that fall off the vine and have to be sent away for composting. She chuckles, “that is my least favorite job, by far.” Emily’s workday typically ends at 2:30pm and her schedule is Monday through Friday.

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