Location: Salt Spring Island, British Columbia
Golden Tree Certified Organic Farm
Is looking to hire 3 Community farm workers.
This is essentially a paid apprenticeship position lasting 2-3 years. 10 months
on and two months off, each year. 4 days a week of work.
One day to either share in growing a community kitchen garden, or a day for you
to work on your own personal arts. (If you choose not to work on the community
garden you will have to provide your own means of produce, or work your own
allotment.)
Yr 1: $1000 /month + private accommodation
The pay rate will increase a percentage each year (yr 2, 1200/month / yr 3,
1500/ month)
WHO WE ARE:
We are Adam & Rebecca Gold and our two young sons Moe and Elijah. We
acquired our farmland in 2009, and have been working our butts off ever since.
This is the second farm we have started, and are still involved in stewarding
our original project.
Rebecca has a degree in environmental agriculture, is a master gardener, and
has 14 years experience working in the “fields” of organic agriculture,
permaculture and rural homesteading. Every year she works hard at growing and
preserving huge amounts of scrumptious food to share with her family and close
friends. She adores growing flowers and wild-crafting nettles. She makes herbal
medicine and practices kundalini yoga. She loves taking long walks and
listening to the bird sing. Lately her main passion is raising her sons.
Adam has a degree in business and creatively weaved his education and his
passion’s for rural homesteading and orcharding into a successful and
meaningful career. He also has a passion for Fungi, and seven years ago this
passion inspired him to create Salt Spring Exotic Mushrooms, which grows and
distills the highest quality medicinal mushrooms. Besides riding on his
tractor, his passions include drinking gourds of yerba mate, brewing hard
cider, jamming on guitar and dancing around the living room to Ska music with
his son’s.
Moe and Eli were both born on the farm, and have spent most everyday living and
breathing the good energy we cultivate here. Moe is three years old. His main
passions include cuddling his parents and baby brother, trucks & trains of
all colors and sizes, the sand box, riding on the tractor with Papa and playing
his drum. He is also a true strawberry connoisseur.
Eli is almost two. He loves to eat, and nurse and eat some more. He also really
loves to watch his parents cook meals… there may be a theme developing here,
the next in a line of food aficionados’. As well, he loves riding on his moms
back in the sling, watching the farm and the colors & sounds of the
seasons.
We also share parcels of our land with other motivated people who are
agriculturally and spiritually oriented. You will have the opportunity to work
with and learn from them as well. There will be days when most members of our
small farm community work together on shared tasks.
You will also have the privilege of studying and working with Brandon Bauer,
who is one of our community members and is on of BC’s premier permaculture
teachers.
Brandon Bauer is a permaculture superhero. He teaches courses all over
Vancouver island, and the gulf islands. As well he designs and installs
permaculture / edible landscapes for private homes, small farms, and green
developments. He just got back from a 5 week tour of east Africa where he
helped install permaculture landscapes for NGOs and schools. He planted
something like 7500 trees!! Right now he is busy building his own,
off-the-grid-natural-building home/teaching facility on our farm. He loves to
eat home grown meat, drink hoppy beer and lay low with his son Nico and dog
Rue.
WHAT WE DO:
We steward a 30-acre Organic Family Farm located on St. Mary’s Lake, on Salt
Spring Island B.C. Over the past few years we have installed an 8-acre orchard
including European Pears, Asian Pears, Heritage and Current Apples, Prune
Plums, Japanese Plums, Figs, Cherries and Persimmons. We have installed two
acres of Blueberries.
We also grow medicinal mushrooms for distillation, including Reishi, Maitake
and Shiitake. We have pigs, chickens, goats and kitty cats.
Commercially we grow garlic, blueberries, raspberries, rhubarb, loganberries
and strawberries as well as speciality vegetables for our farm stand and
wholesale contracts.
We grow a large sustenance garden for ourselves, where we produce and preserve
much of our own food and seeds. We steward this special property with its
estuaries, forest patches and spiritual spaces.
We also share space on our farm with a commercial permaculture nursery
(Entelechi/Brandon Bauer http://www.permaculturebc.com)
WHO YOU ARE:
One of three people who have a variety of skills, whom can be a part of our
farm team for a minimum of 2 years.
Workdays are Monday, Tuesday, Weds and Friday 8- 10 hr days (depending on
season). During high season we may rotate working Saturdays.
People who have some basic “hard” skills under their belt (such as agriculture,
carpentry, landscaping, mechanics, etc…) and are keen to learn more.
We will be putting a team together of diverse people, so we can skill share and
support one another.
You must be hard working and willing to do repetitive tasks for hours a day,
months at a time.
You must be physically strong.
You must be self-motivated, open minded and kind.
We will only apprentice with people who have previous experience in
agriculture/ horticulture or carpentry!!!. Working on a farm can be hard and
not often glamourous, but it is deeply meaningful and with the right attitude,
can be lots of fun!
WHAT YOU WILL DO:
Three people will be working with Adam throughout the week. They will be
apprenticing under a motivated and successful small-farm- farmer and gain the
skills they need to continue in the field of agriculture or landscaping. Tasks
will include berry field care and harvesting, animal husbandry, orchard care,
compost tea brewing and application, small carpentry/ construction, planting,
harvesting and weeding, tractor maintenance, irrigation, mushroom culture,
landscape care, road care, weed-whacking, cover cropping and more. You will be
spending most of your days outside in the field. Some days will be spent
repairing and maintaining equipment and farm infrastructure.
All community farm workers will live in their own small, private beautiful
cabin on our land, in the woods. You will be responsible for caring for your
own space i.e. cleaning, cooking, etc. You will also be responsible to supply
your own wood and propane.
If you choose to work on the volunteer community food-garden day, you will gain
enough skills to comfortably and creatively maintain our collective kitchen
garden and supply yourselves with ample continual harvests. We grow abundant
greens, scrumptious solanaceas, and potatoes of all functions, delicious
squashes and so much more!!
You will receive a stipend each month as well as access to eggs and some
allotment berries. You will be responsible for purchasing the rest of your
food. There will be minimal electricity, a propane stove/oven a wood- burning
stove for heat and hot showers. We will have monthly community potlucks with
all members of our small farm team, as well as monthly circles held a mediated
by a member of our community who is studying “the way of counsel.”
Spring:
• Seed Starting/ Transplanting
• Potato Planting
• Strawberry Planting
• Fence building for animal rotation (Birds)
• Orchard Care
• Weeding, Mulching, Cover crop
• Animal Care (Meat Birds and Laying Hens)
• Compost Tea
• Landscape Care
• Perimeter Fence mending
• Vegetable garden
Summer:
• Strawberry Harvest
• Blueberry Harvest
• Garlic Harvest
• Wedding, Mulching, Cover crop
• Orchard Care
• Animal Care
• Compost Tea
• Landscape Care
• Fire-wood Harvesting
Fall:
• Potato Harvest
• Garlic Planting
• Seed Saving
• Fence moving for animal rotation (pigs)
• Orchard Harvesting
• Cider Making
• Firewood harvesting
• Animal Harvesting (cow)
• Farm (field and building) Clean-up
• Weeding, Mulching, Cover crop
• Landscape Care
Winter:
• Orchard care/ pruning
• Building maintenance
• Compost and mulching
• Seed sorting
• Planning and visioning for the spring
ARE YOU INTERESTED?
If you think this apprenticeship would enrich your life, please contact us by
filling out and emailing the application below
Email your answers to:
rebeccasunshine5@gmail.com
Please be honest! We are forming a team and need a diversity of passionate
people.
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
Would you be available for a one week working interview sometime in September?
Why are you interested in an apprenticeship with us?
Who are you interested in apprenticing under? (Adam or Rebecca)
Have you ever been involved in an internship or apprenticeship in the past? If
so what?
What are your goals for the seasons? (please be specific)
What specific skills can you offer to our team?
Are you better at working alone, one on one, or in a group?
What is your background knowledge or experience in agriculture, horticulture
and/or permaculture?
What experience do you have that will help prepare you for living on an island,
in a close-knit community, where everyone is working and living in close
quarters in a rustic, outdoor setting?
How do you best communicate?
How are you best communicated with?
Can you easily and realistically commit for 2 years? 3 Years?
Do you perceive any challenges that will come up for you? If so what?
What is the most fun thing you’ve done in the last year?
Tell us about the most exciting thing you learned in the past year and how you
learned it.
State three interesting and unique things about yourself.
What is your favorite kind of music? / Is there any music you cannot stand?
What is your favorite thing to cook?
What is your astrological sign?
Are you on any medication?
Do you have any physical limitations?
Will you be leaving anyone significant behind to join our program?
Please list 2 work related references and 1 character references, with both
phone and email contacts.
(Note, if you are offered a placement we will ask for a general police
background check)