Abundant Acres Farm is hiring four interns for the 2015 season

Application Deadline: January 16, 2015

Apply by email to: Jen Greenberg,  jenredfox@gmail.com.  Please send a letter of intent, resume, and three references.

The internship positions begin in early April and continue until the end of November, 2015.  We provide room and board, workman’s comp insurance, a week of vacation in mid-summer and a salary of $400 a month plus 10% of the farm’s profits. The farm’s budget, earnings, and expenses will be shared with the interns throughout the season.

We work long hours, five days a week, with weekends off except when its your turn for animal chores or farmer’s market.

The main focus on the farm is growing vegetables for a 200 family CSA program plus selling at the Seaport Market in Halifax and several wholesale accounts. We also rotationally graze about ten cattle and care for 200 laying hens, tend young fruit trees and table grapes, cut firewood and engage in other homestead arts throughout the season.  Feel free to browse through our blog to get an idea of farm activities from 2014.

About us

David and Jen have many years experience with farming and farmer training.  In addition to farming at Abundant Acres, they direct the Bethany Gardens apprenticeship program at the Sisters of St Martha’s convent in Antigonish NS.  They are active members of a church in Halifax.  People from the church often come to help with farm work and we bring produce to church every Sunday throughout the harvest season.

Jen is in charge of animal care, fruit tree, grapes, berries, and business administration

David is in charge of vegetable production and fixing things.

Benjamin Lee will be returning for another year on the farm team.  He will be responsible for wholesale orders in the Summer and Fall and will take a leadership position in spring and early summer field work.  Benjamin brings many skills and interests to the farm.  He is a gifted cook, a classics scholar, and has nine years of tree planting experience.

What we are looking for:

People who can meet the challenges of farming: physical, mental, and social.  We are outside in all weather for long hours, moving at a fast pace, doing hard work.   It  takes clear thinking, attention to detail and a lot of endurance to make it here. Since the interns live, work, and eat together, this position requires good social skills as well.

Experience with farming is a plus but not required.   We will hire based on a work history that requires good hand-eye coordination and stamina, the ability to demonstrate an interest in farming, and excellent references.

A primary goal of this program is training  aspiring farmers. Transplanting, weeding and harvesting take up the majority of the labour on our farm, so we usually do these jobs all together as a crew.  Since there is so much more to learn about farming than these “bulk labour” jobs,  we will rotate each crew member through several areas of responsibility on the farm. We plan to group these tasks into a rotation that one intern will be in charge of for a few weeks at a time in addition to the main field work. For example:

Week 1-3  Greenhouse  irrigation and ventilation,  Lunch cook

Week 4-6  Field irrigation, cattle chores

Week 7-9  Chicken chores, mowing, trellising, and row cover

Week 10-12  Machinery maintenance and operation, direct seeding

Two interns will do CSA packing and delivery every Tuesday and the other two will do it on Thursdays

The amount of training time will be directly related to our ability to get the farm work done on schedule.

The internship will begin with an orientation week in the beginning of April.  This is a chance to learn where things are, how we do things, and why.