Filter by Popular CategoriesAre you interested in the farm to table movement? Do you want to learn how to grow and raise a variety of vegetables, fruit, flowers and livestock? Oak Knoll Farm near Oakbank, Manitoba is excited to offer a hands-on apprenticeship in 2026.
About the Farm
Oak Knoll Farm is located on Treaty 1 Territory, the traditional gathering place of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene people and the traditional homeland of the Métis people.
Jan and Ralph Regehr purchased Oak Knoll Farm in September of 2016 with the goal of starting a regenerative farm to supply Jan’s restaurant, Pineridge Hollow, with locally grown, spray free vegetables and naturally pasture raised pork. After years of building, planting and learning, along with inspiration from growers like Elliott Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier and chef Dan Barber of the Stone Barns Center, they have achieved their goal and more! This 48 acre farm, complete with a beautiful red barn, is now home to variety of animals including pastured heritage chickens and pastured Berkshire-Hereford pigs! The farm also boasts a permaculture orchard filled with apple, pear, cherry, and apricot trees inter-planted with seabuckthorn and elderberries. They have additionally established 2 acres of haskaps, along with raspberries, rhubarb and strawberries. In their veggie plots and high tunnels they grow a diversity of seasonal vegetables, herbs and garlic. They have even developed a large plot for growing cut flowers! All of these products are used by the restaurant or sold along with other local food and ingredients at The Farmer’s Kitchen grocery store; another enterprise the Regehrs have undertaken.
Oak Knoll Farms uses regenerative and bio-dynamic principles, along with many of the same principles and practices their grandparents used. Scraps from the garden and the restaurant supplement the chicken and pig foods. Manure from the chicken and pigs nourish and feed the gardens and orchards. The methods they learned from past generations contributes to a dynamic, self-renewing system of farming that doesn’t need chemical fertilizers, pesticides or other artificial inputs. Their farming practices embrace a philosophy that supports a holistic approach. Their goal is to consider the impact of their decisions on all aspects of the farm, the environment and their community.
Website: https://www.oakknollfarm.ca/
Facebook: @oakknollfarm
Workplace Culture
There is a lot of room to learn and grow at Oak Knoll Farm. You can work with Ralph and Becky to understand what the priorities are for work and what areas you are really keen to learn. An environment of open and honest communication is valued within the team. Please communicate well ahead of time about scheduling and if you have any plans to take time off during the growing season.
About the Farmers
Jan Regehr was raised on a mixed farm in southern Manitoba. With a strong entrepreneurial spirit, Jan started Pineridge Hollow in a small log house on their 5 acre parcel of land north east of Winnipeg in 1992. With a heart for hospitality Jan started serving tea in the gardens and doing garden tours for the people making the trek out from the city. 7 years later after continued growth, Pineridge Hollow was moved to its current location on now 18 acres on the south edge of Birds Hill Park. Her roots on the farm stayed strong and her desire to provide healthy wholesome food grew and grew to the point of wanting to have a farm. Jan’s strength as a business leader has led to many awards and much recognition and helped her build a customer focused business through empowering her team to use their strengths and flourish.
Ralph Regehr grew up in the city, but always had a connection to agriculture through numerous farms run by his aunts and uncles. After 40 years of working in and running a family manufacturing firm, he retired (ha ha) to farming. Oak Knoll Farm is now his main work and together with Jan and Becky (their garden manager) they now pursue the growth of this regenerative farm to become a beacon of healthy land, food and community.
Becky is Oak Knoll Farm’s garden manager and has many years of gardening and greenhouse experience. She currently owns her own greenhouse at Pineridge Hollow as well as running the garden program at the farm. She has a wealth of knowledge, skills, and work ethic and will be a key leader/mentor to any apprentice working at Oak Knoll Farm.
About the Apprenticeship
This apprenticeship is a unique opportunity to try your hand at growing a diversity of crops, learning a wide variety of farm production techniques and raising animals; along with being able to work directly with a restaurant, chef and market to understand their needs. Work changes seasonally and you will be an integral part of the team and farm production. This year a new building with a cooler will be fully incorporated into the production process, which will help with storage and getting veggies to customers. Weekend work will be expected of the apprentice at the Pineridge Hollow’s Farmers Market and the Farm Store on the farm. The markets are an important part of their selling and marketing strategy.
Duration of employment: Beginning of May to end of September.
The job requirements are:
- A willingness to learn and to try your best are the most important qualities the apprentice needs to have.
- A valid full class 5 driver’s license is essential and access to a vehicle. The apprentice will have to commute to the farm for work.
- Willing and able to work on weekends.
Apprentices are willing to learn these skills:
- Techniques to integrate cropping & livestock
- Feeding & watering
- Animal Health
- Seeding & transplanting
- Harvesting crops
- Getting harvest to market
- Identifying desirable & undesirable plants
- Networking with new people
Compensation
The Wage will be $16-20/hr depending on experience and commitment
About the Community
Oak Knoll Farm is located a short 10 minute drive from the NE corner of Winnipeg. The land has been a working farm for over 120 years. You can find it just south of Birds Hill Park in the beautiful Aspen Parkland Eco-region of Manitoba.
25 minutes to the center of Winnipeg, 10 minutes to the NE outskirts of Winnipeg.
Accommodations: There a not on farm accommodations available. Apprentices will have to commute to and from work.
The people at Oak Knoll Farm look forward to seeing you!
If you want to check out other Host Farms, click here.