Soil Association Organic Apprenticeship Scheme - Will Johnson of Coleshill Organics, Swindon

Will Johnson is currently in his second year as an apprentice at Coleshill Organics. Before starting his apprenticeship Will spent 3 months working on an organic farm in Sweden through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and 6 months as a residential volunteer at Edinburgh Cyrenian Farm.

• Can you give a short history of how you got into growing – and what made you want to be organic?
  I went to volunteer at Edinburgh Cyrenian Farm - a social enterprise that combines a hostel for young homeless people with an organic smallholding - as a social worker and was inspired to take up organic horticulture instead.

• Can you describe a typical day in your life as an apprentice on an organic farm?
  It really depends on the season and the weather. We usually start at 8am, talk for five minutes about the plan for the day, stop talking and start doing. We finish at about 5pm. Today (14 Oct) we harvested parsnips and leeks in the morning before the rain started to pour, the afternoon we spent planting 4-week old brassicas in one of the tunnels; we'll harvest the leaves all winter to make salad bags.

• Have you had any previous jobs? And how does your current situation compare?
  There's no job like it for fresh air and exercise. Plus, I actually think it's a job worth doing.

• Organic principles – why do they matter?
  We need to respect our home; we depend on the Earth's diversity.

• What does the Soil Association mean to you?
  They endorse products that have been produced to a certain ethical and environmental standard.

• What is your greatest achievement?
  I beat my dad at scrabble last Christmas.

• How do you plan to progress in the future? What is your vision?
  To make it an ethical obligation, the norm, to maximise human power in food production.

• If you were starting all over again, what would you do differently?
  'I love my fate to the core and rind.' Henry David Thoreau.

• What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
  Reward costs effort.

• Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
  The sky.

• What do you love most about what you do?
  I look forward to Monday mornings.

• What single thing would most improve your life?
  A wheel hoe of my very own.

• What do you find most frustrating about what you do?
  Customers that complain that our vegetables are expensive.

• How do you think more young people could be encouraged into farming?
  Every person I know is in a different position to me before I got into horticulture: they actually know some one who works on the land (me). Perhaps WWOOFing could be better advertised for potential 'gap year' people.

• What do you think of the Soil Association Organic Apprenticeship Scheme and how has it helped you?
  The work placements and the seminars are separate components of the scheme. The seminars have been excellent and working with Pete has been a great and educating experience. I would certainly recommend an apprenticeship at Coleshill Organics. I think the scheme is a positive step towards trying to get more young people back to the land.

• Can you describe your relationship with your mentor?
  I have a very good relationship with Pete, I learn from him on a day to day basis.

• How important is energy efficiency to you?
  Very; it is fast becoming a synonym of economy.

• What's the main benefit of being organic for you?
  It makes for an idyllic working environment.

• What other organic ventures do you admire and why?
  The Earth Cafe, Manchester. An example of somewhere that insists on ethical inputs but does not aim its product at only the wealthy.

• What's the best thing about organic farms?
  The wildlife.

• What's the best thing about organic food?
  It respects its producers, its consumers and the wider world.

• What is your favourite meal?
  Something with bread straight out of the oven.

• The world would be a better place if...
  Beds were banned and so everybody slept on the floor.

• When were you happiest?
  Now.

• What would be your 'Desert Island' luxury?
  My guitar.

To find out more about Coleshill Organics, visit www.coleshillorganics.co.uk.
To find out more about the Soil Association Organic Apprenticeship Scheme, visit www.soilassociation.org/apprentice.