Shadows cast by a wide-brimmed hat shielded her eyes form late morning sun as Symba Nuruddin, from Berkley, Calif., pulled at weeds crowding a row of beets at Shortt’s Farm & Garden Center Wednesday, August 26. An art history major in her senior year at Yale University, she and five other students this week participated in Harvest, a Yale preorientation program pairing the young men and women with family-owned farms.

Brushing long grass away from beet plants at the edge of a row she was clearing, Ms Nuruddin remembers why she had first joined the program in her freshman year. She wanted to “meet” a cow and livestock. Harvest was “so different from academics,” she said, and a great way to spend the last week before school starts. Ms Nuruddin was also “surprised by how much I enjoy farmwork.” Shaking more weeds loose, she noted that Wednesday’s work was “taking so long, but to know someone will benefit and eat and enjoy the beets” makes the work worthwhile.

Ms Nuruddin and another senior, Margaret Shultz, an English major from Iowa City, Iowa, were group leaders this week. Ms Shultz, accompanied by Jacob Middlekauff from Princeton, N.J., and Harry Seavey from New York City, worked a row of tall, purple-green Swiss chard, plucking out damaged leaves.

Agriculture is a “good counterpoint to books and the mind; it’s good to be out and get our hands dirty,” Ms Shultz said. Sustainable, organic farms are “good for the world,” she said.

Mr Middlekauff said he grew up “in a town surrounded by farms,” but he never had the chance to get to them. Tending to the rows at Shortt’s was his first farming experience, he said.

Coming from “the middle of Manhattan,” and glancing around to gather a view of vegetable fields, a distant row of annual flowers, mulch pile, greenhouse, chicken coop, and one of the Shortts’ young sons racing the farm’s perimeter on a three-wheeled golf cart, Mr Seavey noted that farm life was “a change of pace, relaxing, a good experience.” He said the time spent this week gardening “was a different type of hard work.”

As the students traded turns pushing a wheelbarrow of collected debris across fresh-turned soil, Mr Middlekauff said it was “very, very cool to see the food and where it comes from.”

A row away with Ms Nuruddin were Kate Cray, who comes from the Boston area, and Austin Wang, a freshman from Atlanta. Ms Cray joined Harvest to “try something new,” she said, and to meet new people before starting school. She had never farmed before. The small group, which arrived Sunday, will leave for Yale on Friday. During that time, they camped in a gray tent at the farm. Ms Cray pointed to the domed canvas set in a shady spot beneath a tree. She had slept well all week, she said, and enjoys the physical work. She also liked being outside. Ms Nuruddin sat across from her and the two freed nearly a full row of beets.

“I realize we’re so removed from food production and freshness,” she said. “A tomato here is so much better that at the store.”

Mr Wang said the Harvest work is harder than he imagined, full of sweat and bug bites. He enjoyed being in “the wild,” outdoors. “I feel healthier out here,” he said. Glancing at the beet row congested with weeds, he said he sees “how much wisdom comes from a task.” The weeds are so “entangled with the beets.” He said the scenario was “like if you leave the bad with the good, it’s harder to extricate it later.” He also saw this week “how much simpler” the days could be, and “how much society clutters life.”

Following his thoughts, Ms Cray’s mind drifted toward dinnertime. “I appreciate the work that goes into ingredients to produce a meal, and food tastes so much better when you’re hungry.”

Farm owners Jim and Sue Shortt both appreciate the extra hands to help them with their work, “especially this time of year,” Ms Shortt said. Hosting the Harvest group for the third year, she said, “We’re happy to have them.” While the Shortts worked to fill produce containers for sale in their market located there, Ms Shortt said her sons, James, 7, and Jeffrey, 6, “adore it.” They are happy to have the students visit, she said.

Learn more about the Harvest program at harvest.yalecollege.yale.edu. The site explains that groups of incoming freshmen spend five days in August on family-owned farms in Connecticut, before the start of on-campus orientation. “There, freshmen experience all aspects of farm life, from picking vegetables to baking bread to feeding chickens.”

Harvest trips “provide a unique opportunity for freshmen to enjoy the outdoors, learn about sustainable agriculture in Connecticut, and make friends.” The program is run by the Yale Sustainable Food Program. To see photos from last summer’s trips, visit its Facebook page.