By Natalie Barton & Kelsey Nguyen
When applying for this internship with Greentown Los Altos, I’ll admit I was not entirely sure what to expect. I was about to finish up my junior year of high school and was becoming desperate for something to keep me busy during the summer. Now, just six weeks later, I leave with a better understanding of the history of Los Altos, general orchard care, interviewing skills, and local connections.
As I grew up walking distance from downtown Los Altos, I would pass the Los Altos Heritage Orchard often. That being said, I did not know much about the orchard aside from the information that I remembered from my fourth grade Almond field trip. This internship gave me the opportunity to step back and look into the history that is just walking distance from my house. I learned that the 15 acres that the Los Altos Heritage Orchard once was (now reduced to only 2 acres), used to cover the land that my house is on currently. Moreover, the internship allowed me to work hands-on with the trees. With the help of one of our lovely mentors, Dr. Jane Packard, I learned how to do proper ‘Tree TLC’. ‘Tree TLC’ included creating fungal free zones around the trunk of the trees, weeding, and checking irrigation equipment, as well as picking and sorting cots during the harvest. The hands-on experience certainly helped me gain a greater appreciation for where my food comes from. Additionally, over the course of the internship my partner, Kelsey Nguyen, and I conducted several interviews, allowing us to practice interviewing skills and learn from some very interesting people. The focus of the interviews generally included ideas of inclusivity in local orchards, and how we can bring that into Los Altos as we want to see the Los Altos Heritage Orchard become a more communal space in the future. Towards the end of the internship, Kelsey and I conducted individual ‘pilot activities’ that served as trial runs for getting the community involved in Tree TLC. I was able to invite my mom, my grandmother, and my friend, Tallulah Heath, president of class of 2025 National Charity League, to learn about Tree TLC. The activity was enjoyed by everyone in the group. Being able to pass my knowledge onto people who I am close to felt very rewarding. I am very grateful for my time spent learning, applying, and then teaching with Greentown Los Altos.
Coming into this internship with GreenTown Los Altos, I had no idea of what to expect. I surely didn’t know that, six weeks later, I would leave with a greater wealth of knowledge about the city’s history, a network of connections with local public figures, and a greater appreciation for where my food comes from.
As the Los Altos High School Green Team co-president, I was extremely familiar with GreenTown Los Altos and even volunteered to help Gary Hedden plant trees around the city. When I saw that one of the internships was titled “Farm to Table” and worked with the Heritage Orchard, I immediately applied. I grew up helping my father plant and care for fruit trees in our yard, from abundant Meyer lemon trees to failing pluot trees. When I was accepted, I was beyond eager to get my hands dirty and start working with the community. Working with fellow intern, Natalie Barton, our goal was to understand how to make the orchard a more inclusive and equitable space for the community in order to further educate the public on the importance of sustainable eating. My first “Tree TLC” session was my introduction to the Heritage Orchard, a local landmark I had only ever observed through the windows of the library. One of my mentors, Dr. Jane Packard, showed me every part of how the orchard operates, from the health indicators of the trees to the numerous squirrel burrows in practically every row. Beyond these restoration sessions to help us better understand the orchard, Natalie and I also conducted interviews with multiple public figures, including city council members and orchardists in other cities. It was personally fascinating to see how differently each person interpreted “inclusivity within the orchard.” The next stage of our internship was running pilot activities where Natalie and I brought small groups into the orchard. I invited members of the Mountain View High School Green Team to a Tree TLC session where I taught them how to properly pick and sort the apricots while the mentors showed them how to weed and create “fungal-free zones” for the trees. I certainly gained a greater appreciation for my mentors as I quickly realized the difficulty of teaching a subject to people with little experience. Fortunately, deciphering between compost, jam, and harvest apricots is more straightforward than everything my mentors taught me in six weeks. Besides all the connections I forged with members of GreenTown Los Altos, local figures, and even community members walking through the orchard, one of the most special moments of the internships occurred when I was helping out at the Apricot STEM Fair. I went to collect jam and compost apricots from the orchard when a fresh apricot fell off the branch right in front of me. It was incredible to see our hard work come to fruition before my eyes. Jane let me eat it and it was easily the sweetest apricot I’ve ever had.
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