Earth Apple Organic Farm in Abbotsford, BC is seeking a Lead Farm Hand!
ABOUT Earth Apple Organic Farm
Earth Apple Organic Farm is a small 5-acre, mixed, organic vegetable farm business that operates at the Glen Valley Organic Farm Cooperative in North-West Abbotsford, BC. We grow over 30 different crops to supply our CSA members, restaurants, farmer’s market collective, and some wholesale. We also have a heavy focus and specialize in our New Mountain Organic Garlic venture, to supply seed garlic for our own online store and to other seed companies. We are seeking a dynamic individual serious in pursuing a career in this field to help us steward the land, manage crews, and generally assist in the smooth operations of our regular day-to-day farm operations.
DESIRED QUALITIES
- Motivated and driven by values for healthy, organic food and sustainable agriculture
- Previous experience in the field of agriculture (minimum of 1-2 years)
- Flexible and capable of flowing with the changes; perseveres in problem solving
- Strong organizational skills, detail-oriented, can stay on task, and great at time management
- Proficient in multitasking and/or delegating and/or asking for assistance when necessary
- Familiarity and/or experience or interest in using motorized equipment: tractors, BCS, rototiller, brushcutter, chainsaw, field truck, etc.
- Some knowledge of organic vegetable production: pest management, fertility, harvesting, handling, storage, etc.
- Experience leading and motivating small crews/teams; great at contributing to an inspiring work environment with diverse groups of people
- High endurance for repetitive work, from seeding hundreds of trays to weeding and transplanting into 500’ beds, and collectively bagging salad greens for hundreds of CSA members, etc
- Physically fit (good core strength, good knees and back) and capable of carefully lifting upwards of 40 lbs
- Adept or keen to learn farm planning software (we use Tend) for record-keeping and scheduling purposes
- Great communication skills, aware of non-violent communication styles and can constructively work through conflict resolution
- Keen awareness and interest in following and enforcing safety protocols and ensuring a safe work environment for all
- Committed, dedicated and seeking to contribute to and participate in a small, healthy and fun farming community
- First aid certification an asset, otherwise we pay for occupational first-aid training
- Knowledge of food safe handling practices, but again training is provided
JOB TASKS
- Work both independently and with one other person or often a crew of people on a range of tasks relating to:
- Infrastructure maintenance (cold frames, trellising, building repairs/ maintenance)
- Bed preparation (fertilizing, laying drip tape, mulch, tilling, stale-bedding, subsoiling, bed-shaping, etc)
- Seeding, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, sorting, sizing, washing and packing vegetables and some fruit
- Food handling, washing, sorting, counting and packing
- Helping supervise labour crews on large fields tasks such as potato, carrot, onion, squash and annual garlic harvests and/or large-scale weeding or transplanting projects
- Assisting with tracking planting, harvest, pest management activities, etc into our software account with Tend
- Off-field duties or harvest shed duties, including preparing produce for sales: CSA boxes, farmers markets, wholesale deliveries– Ie. washing, bunching, bagging, boxing and following pick/prep lists for the week whilst ensuring quality control and inventory
- Field clean-up and winter preparation (removing plant material from cold frames, lifting reusable poly tarps and neatly folding/ labeling for next season, spreading cover crop seed, preparing irrigation lines for freezing, etc.
- Participate in regular check-ins, meetings and track your labour hours to share with payroll
JOB DETAILS
Term: Start: as soon as possible. End: November 2023
Hours per week: 40-50 hours/week
Wage: $19-20/hour (experience dependent) plus vacation paid semi-monthly and a medical spending account.
Perks include access to a grand cornucopia of organic produce and access to a beautiful farm property to enjoy on your breaks and time off.
Affordable housing on-site.
TO APPLY
Please send a resume listing previous work experience (related and unrelated), as well as a cover letter that tells us why you are interested in the position, what you’re looking for out of the experience, expectations/requirements (eg. housing) and what you have to offer!
Please pdf your document if you can, and email to earthapplefarm@gmail.com
When applying, please mention you saw this posting at youngagrarians.org
LEARN MORE ABOUT Earth Apple Organic Farm
Website: https://earthapplefarm.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthappleorganicfarm/