Hi, I’m Swati 👋🏽. Field & Story is a 10-month pop-up newsletter - a dispatch from the dirt - chronicling my experience as a small farm apprentice at the Ecological Agricultural Training (EAT!) Cultural Center & Farm in Norco, California.

This return to the land is years in the making. I grew up in the garden, but building a modern life — going away to college, becoming a professional, “advancing” — distanced me from the land and my upbringing, which was all about growing and preparing nourishing food, gathering, and sharing.

When I almost died in a hospital in 2021, I promised that I would eventually make my way back to tending to the earth, to flourishing like I did as a young girl with her hands in the soil. It’s taken me this long to find the right opportunity and learning community, to respond to an inner sense of urgency and yearning growing louder by the day, and to redesign my working life to make serious space for food and farming again.

At EAT! I'll be reinforcing stuff I know a little about already (soil, germination, crops) and learning stuff I know nothing about and am mildly terrified of (handling feathery and floppy animals). It's bound to be fun(ny). Expect a pig to chase me, a bird to bite me, grubs to gross me out, and me wanting to quit at least a dozen times. Knowing you’re there will keep me committed and going.

This isn’t just about what I’ll be learning. It’s about the people — building new relationships and growing the circle working side by side. When a group of people with a shared interest descend onto a place, magic happens. This is a theme I explored in my last pop-up, A Week at the Beach, and one I’ll keep chasing.

What to expect: The program is ten months long (April 2026 - January 2027) and the goal for this pop-up newsletter is to share once a week. The format is ambitious: a narrative, and a snippet of audio capturing the voices and sounds of the program.

We’ll get started mid-April. If you want in, sign up below, and please share it friends who might be interested! And most of all, thanks for the support! 🩷👩🏻‍🌾