A historic farm in Brooklyn is cultivating more than just crops. It's sowing skills and careers for local teens in East Flatbush.

The Wyckoff House Museum's summer garden apprentice program is giving students their first taste of employment and community impact.

Wyckoff House Museum offers hands-on training, workshops with urban farmers

In a corner of Brooklyn better known for its busy streets and brick buildings, chickens roam, vegetables sprout and a new generation of urban farmers is taking root.

Among rows of seasonal produce, participants in the Youth Garden Apprentice Program at the Wyckoff House Museum are not just growing food — but opportunities for the future. The initiative combines hands-on training and workshops with professional urban farmers. 

"I've always been interested in insects. I love being out here with the insects and being able to interact with their plant-to-animal relationships," said Fae Pegus, a seasonal farm coordinator and graduate of the program.

For Pegus, who dreams of operating her own community garden, it was more than a learning experience, it was her first job. After completing the program, she returned as a paid farmhand.

"I learned how incredible it really can be to see the fruits, the literal fruits of your labor come to fruition, and being able to pick that and eat that, and share that, and break bread with your community," Pegus said.

Program Coordinator Petrichora Foy knows firsthand how transformative the program can be. Her own journey into urban agriculture started with hands-on work in Brooklyn.

"We use the farm as a case study for them to understand food systems, what it means to be in agriculture, and what it means to be a more positive contributor to your local food community," Foy said.

Weekly farmstand offers opportunity to interact with community

The program also operates a weekly farmstand for the community from July through October, offering low-cost produce grown on-site and at partnering urban farms across the city.

For senior garden apprentice Kiefer Duncan, those farmstand Saturdays, when community members bring compost and take home veggies, symbolize a deeper exchange.

"They take stuff from us, we take stuff from them. So it's just a lovely thing. And then you get to meet new people all the time," Duncan said.

The Wyckoff House Museum, where the farm is located, is the oldest surviving structure in New York State, dating back to the 1650s. But the land's history isn't only quaint, it's complicated.

"We do have to grapple with the fact that we're also working lands that were also probably worked by enslaved people," Foy said. "I refuse to let the shame of the transatlantic slave trade, the sins of somebody else that was done unto my people, take away my power from being able to not only just subsist myself, but my community."

The program pays participating high school students through the summer and fall, giving priority to those who live or study in the East Flatbush community.

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