Internship and WWOOF opportunities at Earthkeeper Farm in Michigan

THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

At Earthkeeper Farm, we enjoy sharing our knowledge, and always love to have enthusiastic and curious volunteers and visitors. We welcome customers and CSA members to visit the farm, and we host farm tours for student groups. 

We are open to volunteers help for any length of time. Some volunteers come for 1 hour, some come for 3 months. Please call or email to arrange volunteer times.

Full Season Farm Intern
It turns out that the person we had lined up for the internship is no longer able to work with us this summer. Therefore, we are still accepting applications for the 2010 growing season internship.

Employment Dates: Mid May through mid October; 5 months/22 weeks (We can be somewhat flexible with dates if needed.); Meals: We provide staple foods and cooking facilities. We have communal meals with volunteers, woofers, and intern a few times each week; Housing: We have a rustic, two bedroom cabin that is shared between our intern and “wwoofers”. The intern has their own room. Composting toilet, hot shower, and kitchen facilities on site; Stipend: $100/week

THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

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Skills Desired: An ideal candidate would be hard working, trust worthy, and have a passion for learning about organic farming. The work can be physically demanding and requires working in all types of weather. Having a positive attitude is essential. The intern will be expected to lead and oversee volunteer workers, so leadership and social skills are valuable, as well as an attention to detail. Since housing is shared with an ever-changing group of “wwoofers,” applicants should enjoy meeting new people. No previous farm experience is required.

Internship Details: This position includes all aspect of small-scale organic farming. The intern will be involved in everything from greenhouse work, transplanting, cultivation, composting, tractor work, harvest, market, and general farm projects. We expect 40 + hours per week, with Sundays off. As stated, the intern will be asked to manage volunteer workers at times, and be expected to work independently on occasion. As with any good internship, the time that you spend here is intended to be a learning experience. We will do everything we can to give you the knowledge that you are seeking.

Please email with a little bit about yourself and what you are hoping to gain from your time here.

Work Exchange Program
We are a host farm for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF); meaning that we welcome workers from all over the world for work exchange visits on the farm. The “WWOOFers” work about 25 hours per week in exchange for knowledge, basic housing and food, including many fresh veggies. Below is our listing for the 2010 season. For more information see www.wwoofusa.com or contact us.

We are located in west Michigan, about 30 min North of Grand Rapids and 30 min East of Lake Michigan, with its sand beaches, in an orchard region know as the Fruit Ridge. We have 20 acres and grow about 3.5 acres of mostly vegetables with some fruits and flowers, selling through a small CSA and two local farmer’s markets. Our farm goals include self sufficiency, environmental sustainability, creating a full circle farm system, efficiency, making our small farm profitable enough to pay the bills, and enjoying life. We value a peaceful, balanced and harmonious environment, and welcome those who also want to live a peaceful, conflict-free existence. On the farm there are chickens, sheep, bees, a dog, and pigs during the summer months. The majority of the work will be tending to the vegetable crops, including seeding, planting, cultivating, irrigation, harvesting, and all other aspects of small scale veggie production. Other possible types of work include canning and preserving, building, fence and structure maintenance, or pruning fruit trees depending on your interests. We have found from our own WWOOFing experiences that three to four weeks is a nice length of time to stay, but we are open to anything from a weekend to a couple of months. If you are interested in a long-term stay with more work hours, responsibilities, and stipend pay, p lease consider applying for the full season intern position. We can pick you up in Grand Rapids or Muskegon as long as you are staying more then one week. For shorter stays, please arrange your own transportation. A small town with shops and restaurants is about 4 miles away, and there are bikes you can use. Our work expectations are about 25 hours per week. For housing, we have a rustic, two-bedroom cabin. There is a communal living area, one bedroom for our full season intern, and the other is shared between woofers and can sleep up to four. You will have use of composting toilet, hot shower, and kitchen facilities. We can provide a tent and bedding if you would prefer. We enjoy family meals and like to all eat together at least a few times a week. But, at the same time we do not want to promise that we will cook a big meal everyday when we know that in the busy part of the year that may not be possible. So, we will provide you with staple foods, seasonal vegetables, and cooking facilities, but we do striving to cook and eat communal when possible. The majority of our diet is farm produce, beans, grains, and farm produced meat and eggs. Vegetarians diets easily accommodated, vegans welcome, but may need to prepare separate meals. We speak English and conversational Spanish. Please, no felons, drugs, excessive drinking, or smoking indoors. Help is most welcome from April through November. We seek honest people who are respectful of our planet and each other that have an easy-going and fun-loving spirit that are ready to learn and teach. We look forward to hearing from you.

THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE