“They were caramelized,” she explained, lowering her eyes. Even with experience, she said, she still makes mistakes. Last year, she left a batch of sweet potatoes outside overnight, and they froze.

她目光低垂，解释说，“洋葱都晒焦了”。 施密特说，即使有了工作经验，她依然还会犯错。去年，她把一批红薯放在外面一整夜，结果都冻坏了。

Still, she is experienced enough now to command a small group of farmers at Hearty Roots. It took some time, though, for her parents to come to terms with her profession.

不过，她依然有足够的务农经验来指导哈特鲁茨农场的这群工人。尽管她的父母花了好些时间才接受她的职业。

“They’re like: ‘Can you make it like that? Can you make it and have kids?’ ” she said. But they have slowly come around, and now, Ms. Schmidt said, her mother is an organic food activist among her friends. (Her brother wants to be a writer.)

施密特说，“他们是这么说的，‘你能在这种地方谋生吗？你能在农场工作的同时养孩子吗？’”但是他们慢慢地接受了现实。她的母亲开始在朋友中间积极推广有机食品。（她的哥哥则想成为一名作家。）

Hiring college students for the farm can have drawbacks.

农场雇用大学生也有不利的方面。

“Most of the people here who work for me are here for one season and then move on to other farms, and so that’s actually the biggest challenge,” said Ben Shute, who owns Hearty Roots with his wife, Lindsey. “Every year it’s like training new people.”

本·舒特(Ben Shute)和妻子林赛(Lindsey)是哈特鲁茨农场的主人，舒特说，“大部分工人只为我们工作一个季节，然后转到其他农场，这是我们最难解决的问题。我们每年都要培训新员工。”

But he said it was worth having such a staff.

但是他说雇用这些员工是值得的。

“A lot of these people are like ambitious young people who want to farm for themselves,” Mr. Shute said, so they are motivated to learn quickly.

“很多工人都是怀有志向的年轻人，他们为了自己的目标来到农场，”舒特说，所以他们充满动力，学东西很快。

On the East End of Long Island, Sean Frazier, 23, and four others, all recent college graduates in their mid-20s, work on Quail Hill farm in Amagansett and have become close friends. Mr. Frazier, a Princeton graduate who until his senior year wanted to get a Ph.D. in physics, said his father wished that he was doing “something more intellectual, or something that’s harder.”

在长岛东端，23岁的肖恩·弗雷泽(Sean Frazier)和四个同伴在阿曼甘塞特的鹌鹑山农场工作，他们都是20多岁的应届大学毕业生，彼此都是好朋友。弗雷泽毕业于普林斯顿大学，他在大学四年级的时候打算攻读物理学博士学位，他的父亲希望他能够“从事更有技术含量，或者难度更高的工作。”

“He thinks I should be using my math skills,” Mr. Frazier said.

弗雷泽说，“他认为我应该运用自己的数学才能。”

Like the workers in the Hudson Valley, the ones in Amagansett have had their share of misadventures. Mr. Frazier recalled that the first time he tried to collect eggs from under a chicken, he was pecked on his hands, surprisingly hard, and promptly switched (though briefly) to a feet-first technique.

像哈德逊谷的工人一样，阿曼甘塞特的工人也有他们自己的倒霉事。弗雷泽回忆说，他第一次收鸡蛋的时候，被鸡啄破了手，这项工作难得出人意料，他很快养成了把脚先伸进去的习惯（虽然是暂时的）。

Asked if he felt he was missing out on the city lifestyle, Mr. Frazier reflected for a moment. “I much more feel the opposite,” he said. “It would just really bother me to feel like I was inside all day and I was just missing out on everything that happened.”

当问到他是否错过了城市的生活方式时，弗雷泽思考了片刻说，“我觉得恰好相反。整天生活在城市里，错过了身边的所有变化，只会让我感到心烦意乱，”

The federal Agriculture Department said it did not have statistics on the number of college graduates who have become farmers in recent years, but Kathleen A. Merrigan, the deputy agriculture secretary, said in an interview that she believed the profession was becoming more attractive.

美国联邦农业部(Agriculture Department)称，没有统计数据显示近年来大学毕业生投身农业的人数，但是农业部副部长凯瑟琳·A·梅里根(Kathleen A. Merrigan)在采访中说，她相信这个行业会变得越来越有吸引力。

“I always joke that in the old days I used to go to a party and people would say, ‘What do you do for work,’ and I would say, ‘I work in agriculture,’ and I’d be left in the corner somewhere with my gin and tonic,” Ms. Merrigan said. “Now I say I work in agriculture and I’m the belle of the ball.”

梅里根说，“我经常开玩笑说，过去参加派对的时候，人们会问，‘你做什么工作’，我回答道，‘我从事农业’，然后就会被丢到墙角，独自喝着金汤力鸡尾酒。现在如果我说自己从事农业，会成为最耀眼的明星。”

In interviews at the two farms, the workers said that for them, farming was not a fad.

在两家农场的采访中，这些工人都表示，他们选择农业并不是心血来潮。

“I definitely want to end up living on my own farm — that’s definitely my life goal,” said Calvin Kyrkostas, Mr. Frazier’s co-worker, who graduated with a history degree from Oberlin College in Ohio.

弗雷泽的同事卡尔文·基尔克斯塔斯(Calvin Kyrkostas)是俄亥俄州奥伯林学院(Oberlin College)的历史系毕业生，他表示，“我非常希望在自己的农场生活——这就是我的人生目标。”

Mr. Kyrkostas, 25, said he got into agriculture after working on a Missouri farm one summer in college. He said he became addicted to the feeling of accomplishment that came with seeing — and eating — the fruits of his labor after 15-hour workdays.

25岁的基尔克斯塔斯表示，他在大学暑假期间到密苏里州的农场工作，于是决定投身农业。他说自己陶醉于这种成就感——每天工作15个小时后，能够亲眼看到——并且亲自品尝——自己的劳动果实。

And then there was the tractor.

而且农田里还有拖拉机。

“I’m from Long Island, you know, I’m not a country boy, so it was cool to be able to hop on a John Deere,” he said. “It’s like every little boy’s dream to drive a tractor.”

他说，“我来自纽约长岛，你瞧，我不是乡下小子，所以能够驾驶约翰迪尔(John Deere)拖拉机感觉很酷。就像每个小男孩都梦想自己开着一辆拖拉机。”

“You don’t get into farming for the money,” he said. “You do it for the love of the game.”

基尔克斯塔斯说，“你不是为了钱投身农业，而是出于对这个行业的热爱。”