Heavenly Roots Farm on Salt Spring Island, BC is seeking an apprentice for the 2022 season!
ABOUT Heavenly Roots Farm
We are a small-scale fruit, vegetable and seed farm growing organically and using ecological practices on Salt Spring Island, BC.
We grow our field crops on a 4 acre site in the Fulford Valley. This is leased land, part of the Burgoyne Valley Community Farm which is owned by the Salt Spring Farmland Trust Society.
We live about 10 minutes away. Here, we live, wash & store our produce, propagate plants, and harvest from blueberries, raspberries, tayberries and the fruit orchard which has apples, pears, and plums.
We attend two weekly markets, operate a small CSA program and wholesale to local stores and restaurants. Our seeds are sold through the BC EcoSeed Co-operative, a small scale co-operative seed company which markets only seeds grown in British Columbia.
We use no-till practices, employing straw and wood chip mulches and a shallow compost bed system. Our farm is not certified organic, though we are required to follow the Canadian Organic Standards by our leasers. We like using tools appropriate to small-scale agriculture like a drill operated shallow tiller, salad harvester, and paper pot transplanter.
We believe in our mission to provide the healthiest food for our community and the earth. We are called deeply to grow as many of our own seeds as possible, improve the varieties that we steward and share the gift of seed growing with others through education!
DESIRED QUALITIES
On our farm we love to work alongside passionate and dedicated farmers who care about the local food movement. Our preference is to hire people who know they want to continue working in the fields beyond their apprenticeship, either at other farms or starting their own ventures.
Qualities we look for are:
- Motivated
- Energetic
- Positive
- Inquisitive
- Strong work ethic
- Past experience doing physical work (ie. treeplanting, gardening, construction, athletics)
- Can-do attitude
- Personable
- Community-minded
APPRENTICESHIP TASKS
Apprentices are integrated into all aspects of the market farm:
- Seeding
- Caring for Seedlings
- Transplanting
- Making beds
- Using wheelbarrows, hoes, and other hand-tools
- Using paperpot transplanter, salad harvester, jang & earthway seeders
- Operating the irrigation system
- Spreading ammendments and compost
- Keeping daily records
- Harvesting and wash & pack
- Setting up and taking down market displays
- Attending markets and CSA pick-up days
INSTRUCTION & EDUCATION
Apprentices work alongside the farmers every day. Tasks will be explained and demonstrated before the apprentices are supervised to complete them. As confidence grows, there will be more independence and responsibility to challenge the apprentices. We like to explore the “whys” of any given task, sharing the reasoning behind our choices. Whenever possible we’ll share different techniques that can be used in different circumstances.
Each month we’ll share short workshops on certain topics, and can focus on areas the apprentices are most interested in for these deeper looks into farm topics. Example topics include: Crop planning, Growing a seed garden, Propagation for a winter harvest etc.
We may offer a workshop series to members of the public on our farm this season, and apprentices will be able to attend these as part of their education.
ADDITIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES
We have a great library full of books appropriate to our scale and modes of production.
Our community is full of other growers that usually are open to sharing their perspectives. We enjoy making connections and organizing tours of other farms for our apprentices.
ROOM & BOARD
Apprentices will be living in their own private rooms in a big 4 bedroom house, sharing the kitchen and two bathrooms. Also living in the house are farmers Ben and Kaleigh, and their two roommates and two dogs. Access to heat, hydro, internet, laundry and bathrooms is included in the room and board.
This is a communal living situation, which is fun and offers many opportunities for friendship and company. Living together harmoniously involves cleaning up after oneself and participating in daily/weekly/monthly chores to maintain the space together. We don’t have any formal arrangement for chores, but it’s great to see folks taking part.
The farm team tends to eat breakfast and dinner separately, and we rotate the task of cooking lunch for the group and eat this meal together. We can accommodate any dietary restrictions, though we are omnivorous ourselves.
APPRENTICESHIP DETAILS
Term: This position begins May 1st, 2022 and ends on October 31st, 2022
Hours per week: Monday-Friday from 8-4pm
We take lunch for 1 hr each day
35 hrs / week
Wage: $16 / hr
As part of the apprenticeship we offer a room, board, and the educational component for a fee.
TO APPLY
Write us a cover letter outlining a bit about yourself, why you think you would be a good addition to our farm, your history, and your reasons for pursuing a position in agriculture.
Please include your resume and two references to kaleigh.barton@gmail.com
Deadline to apply: April 1st, 2022
When applying, please mention you saw this posting at youngagrarians.org
LEARN MORE ABOUT Heavenly Roots Farm
Website: www.heavenlyrootsfarm.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/heavenlyrootsfarm