Stooping over the rows of garlic shoots,

Elizabeth Ulmer sighed and brushed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes.

A strong breeze blew across the flat farm field adjacent to Penn Cove where Ulmer worked.

Weeding, the 25-year-old Ulmer decided with a rueful smile, is the worst part of interning on an organic farm; it’s never-ending, she conceded.

But really, it’s a small irritation that doesn’t compare to the rush of watching the fruits of your labor grow, Ulmer said. She enjoys farming so much that she and friend Kevin Bodle say they hope to start their own farm someday.

Ulmer and Bodle are two of a growing number of people choosing to travel, sometimes hundreds of miles, to exchange their labor for a stipend, room and board and, more importantly, education and hands-on experience on a working farm.

Over the past few years, the number of people wanting to intern on organic farms has exploded, say those who often try to match up farmers with interns.

So has the number of organic farms cropping up across the nation.

According to the Organic Farming Research Foundation, there were about 13,000 certified organic producers in the U.S. in 2007, with a growth rate of about 20 percent per year for the past decade.

An estimated 614 of those were in Washington state. The number of acres devoted to organic farming in Washington increased by 91 percent between 2005 and 2007.

Some of the renewed interest in farming can be traced to a “back-to-the-Earth” cultural shift and booming environmental awareness.

“I think there is an increased interest in interning on farms as people’s awareness of where food comes from and the growing organic/sustainable agriculture movement gains momentum,” said Sarah Potenza, a founder and board member for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms USA (WWOOF), an organization that links volunteers with farmers and promotes education about sustainable farming.

Its Web site (http://www.wwoofusa.org) lists more than 1,000 farms in the United States that host volunteers in exchange for meals and accommodations, and receives views from thousands of potential volunteers. While other organizations offer more seasonal intern positions, WWOOF offers both seasonal opportunities and shorter (weeklong, monthlong) stints.

Give and take

Ulmer and Bodle are interning at Georgie Smith’s Willowood Farm in Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve near Coupeville. Smith, a fourth-generation farmer, works about eight acres of the homestead founded by her great-grandparents in the late 1890s.

She’s hosted interns at her farm for six years. She made contact with Ulmer, Bodle and a third intern, Willow Rudiger, through ATTRA.org, a Web site that helps match interns with farmers.

For farmers — especially those operating small, organic farms — interns provide much-needed labor in an industry running on an already thin margin, Smith said. In addition, those farmers hope to pass down the benefits of farming to others.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that only 2 percent of the nation’s population is engaged in significant farming.

For interns, a few months on a farm can offer invaluable hands-on experience with everything from operating farm equipment, repairs and planting, to learning about irrigation, pest control and even marketing and selling products.

To many, the arrangement couldn’t be better. And for the most part, interns and farmers agree that it’s mutually beneficial.

But some farmers have been reluctant to talk too publicly about their intern positions, fearing that they may not be operating according to federal labor laws that require employees be paid at least minimum wage and included “on the books.” Those farmers argue that federal labor laws don’t adequately address their arrangements with interns, or take into account the amount of knowledge and time they spend training inexperienced interns.

State labor officials say the laws are clear when it comes to hiring employees and interns for a variety of industries.

“Generally, for-profit businesses can’t have volunteers, and internship programs are tied to enrolled formal education,” said Elaine Fischer, spokeswoman with the state Department of Labor and Industries.

Federal labor laws include exemptions for interns and trainees. But some farmers argue that those exemptions aren’t clear, especially when it comes to determining whether someone can be classified as an “intern” or “employee,” based on a set of criteria.

Finding the interns

So far, the intern program has been a benefit for Smith, who has been farming for about 11 years.

A former journalist who moved back to her parents’ homestead at Ebey’s Landing from Idaho, she decided one day on a whim to plant a small vegetable garden on a 100-by-50-foot patch of land.

Gradually, she began planting more vegetables. Now her farm yields a wide variety of crops, everything from radishes, lettuce and kale to broccoli, garlic, onions, beans and more.

She sells her produce locally to several restaurants and at farmers markets. She sends about 300 pounds of her garlic seed to a company in Ohio.

Hers is an organic farm, so the labor is intensive. After a few years of toughing it out with just her family, Smith decided she could use some help.

She heard about farm interns from other local organic farmers, and decided to list her farm on ATTRA’s Web site.

Smith began getting responses from interested interns. Most tend to fall into two categories: those who are eco-conscious and want to learn about where food comes from, and those who are looking for a cheap place to stay for a few weeks or a month while traveling in exchange for some hard work.

Smith and Anne Schwartz, owner of Blue Heron Farm and Nursery in Rockport, say they prefer the interns who can stay through the growing season, between April and November.

Schwartz, a board member of Tilth Producers of Washington, said she’s been hosting interns, or volunteers, for nearly 30 years to help work her almost 10 acres of vegetables and berries. Some of those interns have stayed for years at a time. About half have gone on to start their own farms, she said.

“I would say that most of them are in college and most of them have been exposed to different ideas about environmentalism,” Schwartz said while taking a break during a recent day of work.

Many times they’re the kind of people who can’t see fitting into a 9-to-5 job, she added.

That was true for Bodle, who is interning at Smith’s Willowood Farm.

Seeds of farming

Bodle went to school at the University of Washington’s Bothell branch and earned a business degree.

At the same time, he took a few classes in environmental science and began to wonder whether business was the right career for him. Instead of shuffling through papers and numbers in an office, Bodle was drawn to the freedom of the outdoors.

“Once I started going through the business thing, I was just doing it to do it,” he said, while crouching down to help Ulmer and Rudiger space onion starts in a row.

After graduating with his business degree, Bodle decided to complete a few stints with AmeriCorps and EarthCorps, national service organizations that provided plenty of outdoor opportunities, including restoring some parks in Seattle and planting native trees and shrubs.

Along the way, Bodle met Ulmer, and the two began talking about starting their own farm. Then friends told them to check out the ATTRA and WWOOF Web sites, and find a farm where they could find out what it takes to run a small farm.

“We didn’t really have a clear vision of where we were going, but we wanted to do it for the experience and finding out whether we wanted to follow this route,” Ulmer said.

Rudiger grew up in Arlington with a mother who she said instilled in her a love of growing food and taking care of the environment. “She always had small tomato or strawberry plants around,” Rudiger said.

Rudiger attended Western Washington University and studied environmental journalism. After college, she realized she wanted to work outdoors, and not be stuck in an office.

She, too, spent time with AmeriCorps and then decided to check out the WWOOF Web site. She spent time on a farm in Hawaii, and then came to work on Smith’s farm.

The volunteer Web sites tend to leave most of the matching up to the farmers and prospective interns. The farmers are on their own to screen prospective interns and check references. The same goes for the interns.

Rudiger said she and her mother have talked about finding a piece of land and starting their own farm when her mother retires.

So far, the interns say their experience has been good. Smith is a patient teacher and open to new ideas.

For Smith’s part, working with the interns has also been a learning experience for her.

“I tend to consider them part of my team,” Smith said. “Kevin helped me put a Web site together (for her farm, willowoodfarm.net), and Elizabeth and Willow helped me put together a PowerPoint to show at a local sustainability fair.”

Smith also enjoys knowing she’s inspiring others to consider farming as a long-term career.

“It’s just really sad that more people don’t take an interest in their food,” she said.

Beverly Crichfield can be reached at 360-416-2135 or .