Shea describes his internship with Seeds of Scotland in 2025:
Shea harvesting marigold seeds with a vacuum cleaner
I have spent 6 months working with Seeds of Scotland on their beautiful farm in the Highlands. I feel incredibly fortunate on many levels to have had access to this paid internship, from the timing of the application through to the support I have received from Haley and Finaly and the extended Seeds of Scotland crew throughout the work.
I came into this internship caring about food sovereignty, community empowerment, traditions and culture and deep care for land and the environment, but hardly any experience. This opportunity gave me the hands-on chance to observe, learn and experience these in
to seeds and the small-scale agriculture company model. It has been fascinating to learn and see the full cycle of vegetables, from planting seed to cleaning, testing and packaging the new seed crop!
During this experience, we visited other examples of agroecological farms and projects across Scotland. This was a really interesting and useful process to see how other places work, and the differences in seed production. It was also helpful to use the Land Workers Alliance
Shea flail mowing
Internship curriculum, which provided a structure and meant I could conduct independent research alongside the work.
It is hard to choose a favourite part, but I would highlight the joy of getting to be creative and playful with different ways of trying to thresh, extract and clean seeds. Also, I felt inspired by the community engagement that Seeds of Scotland receives, partly because of their interest in heritage grain and respecting the stories and traditions behind seeds.
I plan to continue to contribute to localised independent food systems and find work within agroecological farms. I hope this opportunity can be offered to someone else in the future who can benefit from the knowledge of Haley and Finaly, and I expect that if they are not already interested, they will definitely leave being inspired and passionate about food and seed sovereignty!
Commenting on the internship Haley and Finlay said:
Shea harvesting celery
“Shea fitted into our small team very easily and was quick to learn new skills. He joined the internship with a strong interest in food sovereignty but very limited practical experience. One of the key highlights of the project was seeing his confidence grow over time. By the end of the placement, he was able to carry out a range of core horticultural and seed-processing tasks independently.”
“The internship has increased our confidence as an employer and we will be employing our first member of staff in January as a result. By hosting an Intern we have developed a good framework for on farm training that combines self-study, farm visits with practical learning in the field and this is something we hope to use in the future to support more new entrants into horticulture.”