Farm Apprentices and Manager Job in Maine

Tweet

Farm Apprentices and Manager Job in Maine

Wild Folk Farm features a diversified mosaic of natural landscapes (forests, meadows, wetland), agricultural landscapes (perennials, annuals, livestock pasture, rice paddy) and residential landscapes (housing, buildings, spiritual areas, etc.). Of the 45 acres, forest comprises 30 acres and 5 are wild pasture and the rest in agriculture.

The building styles range from standard stick-framing (and more primitive) to some timber framing/natural building techniques, and we hope the latter will become more prevalent. There are about 10 small buildings on the property. Most of the farm is off the grid. There is an electricity hub near the road where we have a freezer, charge batteries, power tools, and connect to the ethers.

The farm is designed and continually strives to be a place for community, subsistence, permaculture, experimentation, demonstration and education. We try to integrate small-scale organic principles into the praxis and philosophy of permaculture in order to maximize potential production without compromising responsible land stewardship. We work under minimal use of mechanization, partly out of principle, but mainly for the sake of conviviality and connection to our surroundings and each other. We rely on human power coupled with hand and wheel tools, and the ecology around us to perform our work.

All annual beds (roughly an acre) are either currently in or transitioning towards a no-till system, which is strongly reliant on cover cropping, rotations, animal integration, mulching, a diverse array of homemade foliar sprays, prompt, observant and critical management, and faith in the biology below us.

2016 PLAN:

This season our first priorities are:

• Cultivate, sell and trade 2-3 acres in annuals and perennial plants as well as mushrooms.
• Grow an acre of paddy rice with different polycultures.
• Develop and expand the Maine Rice Project
• Raise pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks for market
• Build a small rice barn on a berm in our paddy system
• Continue to expand our tree and edible food forest systems and structures.
• Finish our irrigation system and harvesting/processing building

Our secondary priorities include:

• Forestry natural building, aquaculture, homesteading and too many to mention here. Check the website.

JOB OPENINGS:

We are accepting apprentices. Please go to website for more information. 

Harvest, Outreach & Markets Manager

This position will be full time from late spring into November, and hopefully into 2017.

Responsibilities include:

• Create and oversea harvesting and processing of produce.
• Marketing of CSA, Farmers Market, U-pick Strawberries, U-pick Rice, wholesale accounts
• Revitalize farmers market and manage farm stand. We plan to do a hybrid CSA/farm stand model.  This will include a wild edible component, some fun experimentation, and potentially a separate fish CSA.
• We want more education in the area!  This can take the form of on-site farm workshops/work parties or tours and/or a mobile food cart.  Other members of the farm can play a substantial role in this happening.  This can either be funded through grants or the farm.
• Possibly develop or initiate other ventures on site or with community. Much is still to be imagined and created on our farm and the neighboring community.
• Working in collaboration with the farm manager, Ben, who manages the finances, the Maine Rice Project, personal, and the whole farm operation.
• Helping with other farm tasks.

Specifics for numbers 3-5 will depend much on the personal we hire for the season, other community project in the works and any grants funding we get. Happy to discuss these details by phone.

EXPECTATIONS:

Applicants should have multiple years of farm work and priority will be given to those with experience related to the duties listed above. This is our first season producing at a commercial scale, so much of this position and the systems created have yet to be created and implemented.  The motivation to work well alone, create new systems, manage farm workers, as well as communicate and collaborate with our farm team are important. We do not use much machinery and will be implementing complex systems and practices in a diversity of evolving ways.  Thus, physical labor in conjunction with critical thought and attentiveness are important. Personal characteristics including honesty, reflection, adaptation, motivation, curiosity, and love are paramount.

COMPENSATION: Compensation is dependent upon experience and includes an hourly wage, farm food and housing. Hopefully there will be a bonus, depending on how much food we sell.

MORE INFO:Please check out much more information on our website and at our Indiegogo campaign:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/maine-rice-project#/

HOW TO APPLY: Online at https://www.wildfolkfarm.com/application/

Please follow the link above to apply.

DEADLINE: January 31, 2016.  We will start looking at applications ASAP and might accept someone before the deadline.