Slice of Heaven Farm Apprenticeship in Oregon

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Apprenticeship with housing at Slice of Heaven Farm in Sandy, Oregon.

Be part of the Slice of Heaven Farm Team!

Slice of Heaven Farm Apprenticeship Position dates: March 15 through November 15, 2019

Compensation: A room on our farm with a communal kitchen and bathroom. A monthly stipend of $800.

Perks: Home cooked meals during farm work days. Weekly vegetables from the farm.

Slice of Heaven Farm: We are a husband and wife team here at Slice of Heaven Farm. We are entering our 8^th farming season.  We use sustainable organic farming practices to grow our vegetables and are on a mission to help bring healthy, safe and delicious food to our mountain community. Our ultimate goal is to have the most nutritious and beautiful vegetables around and continuously please and impress our loyal customers. We run a 100-member CSA and do two local farmers markets. Farming is our way of life and while it is a constant challenge and grueling work, it is endlessly rewarding to grow the best vegetables around and feed families in our community!

Slice of Heaven Farm Apprenticeship Job description: Work on the farm 5 days a week (Tuesday through Saturday). Tasks will include seeding, transplanting, harvesting, cultivating and weeding, processing vegetables, packing vegetables and selling at farmers market.

We consider our apprenticeship to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We welcome our apprentices with open arms and they become part of our family. We have a demanding high energy working environment that is also extremely fun, enlightening and rewarding. We work very hard throughout the season but we also punctuate our season with lots of celebrations and fun (birthdays, solstice celebrations, day trips to local areas). You will leave our farm with a great appreciation for the work that farmers do and lifelong memories.

Applicant requirements:

You don’t need previous farming experience for this position but you do need to want to learn and work hard and want to fully experience farm life.

• 21+ years old
• No tobacco use of any kind
• Have a reliable vehicle

– BE A HARD WORKER.

That is number one. If you don’t have stamina, can’t work long or early hours, can’t work in the cold, the rain, the heat or the mud, you won’t be the right fit for our farm.

– HAVE GRIT AND PASSION.

We are looking for someone with a true passion for learning how to grow vegetables and who may one day start their own farm. Someone who is willing to dive in head-first to see what farming is all about.

– BE ADAPTABLE.

Be able to follow directions, willing and open to learning, and once trained, be able to be self-directed.

– BE DYNAMIC AND FRIENDLY.

Have a kind and respectful disposition towards customers. Our customers are the reason we farm. We aim to make a positive lasting impression on all our customers and exceed their expectations.

– BE PHYSICALLY ABLE

The applicant must be able to lift 50 lbs easily and also be able to squat/crouch/bend over for periods of harvesting.

– BE PART OF THE TEAM AND VISION

We are a tight-knit family on our farm and besides working hard together, we enjoy each other’s companionship and sit down together for bountiful meals. We strive towards the common goal of having the BEST vegetables in our area and pleasing our customers.

Slice of Heaven Farm Application process

If interested, please e-mail Marieta at sliceofheavenfarm@gmail.com to request an application or visit our website www.sliceofheavenfarm.com/team-position-available.  Applications are DUE February 1^st 2019. The application will involve answering some questions and including your resume.

In early February, we will call selected applicants for interviews.  

TESTIMONIAL FROM 2018 apprentice

“I really could not have hoped to find a more beautiful place or family to be with while learning about agriculture, myself, and a natural way of life. What a wonderful experience given to me – I feel entirely competent and poised to grab my future. The lessons I have learned and the knowledge gathered over the past ten months – both agricultural and not – are invaluable. Marieta and Brandon can see potential in people and they will do everything they can to help it be realized. They are not at all shy about sharing specialized knowledge gleaned from years of experience in the field; from processes and cycles that take place inside the plant and underneath the surface of the soil to theories and ideas about the history and current state of agriculture. Marieta and Brandon both want you to understand the thought processes and rationale that led to decisions being made throughout the farm’s history and growth; so you not only learn from the current success of Slice of Heaven but the past mistakes as well. Marieta and Brandon are excellent teachers but even better friends. Since Day 1 on the farm, I have felt like a part of their family. With trips to the breathtaking Oregon coast and the not-so-far Multnomah Falls, visits to nearby favorite farms and orchards, many delicious shared meals, and countless shared laughs – it’s hard for me to imagine a better setting for anyone looking to learn what it means and how to become a successful farmer. It was a challenge at times, but so, so, so worth it.”

TESTIMONIAL FROM 2017 apprentice

“Getting into farming is like looking at the world with a new set of Xray glasses. You can finally see the inner workings of all the microbes and cells that work towards growing the food we eat and how it’s cycled back to the soil only to work towards growing food again. My time with the Slice of Heaven Farm showed me this cycle with a bunch of cherries on top. Not only did they teach me how to care for the soil that will in turn take care of us through the nutritious food, they also taught me to love community and give equal importance in prepping the food to be served for breakfast, lunch and dinners. It was always so important for us to sit down and share the meal with a whole lot of love and conversation. I could go on and on about how many life lessons my experience with them has taught me but the sweetest cherry on top of it all is how they taught me that it’s all about the experience and learning to work smarter and better at every try. When things got tough, we still managed to get excited about the first carrots in the greenhouse, the paste tomatoes finally being ready to be cooked and canned, how big the misplaced greenhouse chard got amongst the tomato trellises, the weird shapes of veggies we picked during harvest days, or the big barbecue we were had in celebration of the total eclipse last August 21, 2017.

They’ve taught me how to braid the love for family, food, and farming all together to live one really good life. If you’ve heard of the saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Brandon, Marieta and the rest of the farm family definitely equipped me with the right mindset and tools to continue my farming journey for the rest of my life. It was an invaluable experience being their apprentice for 6 months and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about farming and food.”

 

• Learn more about farming and food jobs and internships, or learn how to post a job, internship, or apprenticeship opportunity on beginningfarmers.org by going to https://www.beginningfarmers.org/internship-and-employment-opportunities/