Are you a young, aspiring farmer interested in weaving together your passion for growing food, playing music and building community on Vancouver Island?
Lila’s Music Farm may be the apprenticeship for you.
About the Farm
Lila Music Farm is a permaculture farm, music school, Nature Connection school, and hub for community. The 3 acre lot is filled with lots of fruit trees, herbs, veggies and medicinal plants. There are chickens for eggs and meat that are integrated into the orchard systems. There are a variety of folks living on the farm, including children and furry friends.
This place is a unique opportunity for someone who is interested in music, reconciliation, living sustainably, herbalism and growing vegetables.
About the Apprenticeship
The apprenticeship season runs from April to October. The spring tasks consist of building soil through composting, mulching, and nourishing the garden beds. The orchard needs tending through pruning, subdividing root stock, taking clippings and expanding food bearing trees – elderberries, blueberries, and raspberries. There is also a willow bed being tended for basket making that will need tending and a greenhouse that will need some maintenance.
Summer activities include moving the chickens through the orchard and building coop infrastructure. There is lots of work in tending to the vegetable beds – weeding, succession planting, irrigation, making soil blocks, bed transition, harvesting salad greens and packaging for sales.
Opportunity exists to adapt skills and interest towards making medicinal tinctures, salves and herbal packages.
Fall activities will include harvesting and curing garlic, harvesting of storage crops, cover cropping, farm season review, building compost piles, cleaning up the fields and breaking down farm infrastructure.
During the season, you will meet with other apprentices across the province who are part of the Young Agrarians Apprenticeship program. Field days, learning opportunities and potlucks will be planned with this group at each host’s farm.
About the Farm Mentor
The apprentices will be working alongside a variety of folks, including Cari Burdett who will be your main mentor. Cari has been mentoring young people in music and farming for nearly twenty years. She is eager to teach those who want to learn about herbalism, sustainable farming practices, music, ceremony and connection to the land.
Cari and her community members host workshops year round on marketing, reconciliation, singing, and music. In Cari’s own words “our farm is to foster community connection through music and connection to the land.”
Skills this farm has to teach
The following skills are being offered by this farm. While you’ll get exposure to many of these areas, apprentices will work to identify the skills they want to develop through a learning plan with the host farm.
| biodiversity of flora and fauna | basic operation of hand tools |
|---|---|
| irrigation set-up/use | living sustainably |
| assessing soil health | pasture poultry systems |
| herbalism | community capacity building |
| orchard livestock integration | compost making/processing |
| Seed saving | Organic and biodynamic farm practices |
| no till vegetable production | Farmers Market sales |
Skills Required of the Apprentice
An interest in being part of a community hub of farming and music, along with significant interest in learning about living sustainability and connected the land, are key skills for a successful apprenticeship.
The ability to do physical labour on a day-to-day basis is essential, so being physically fit and able to lift weight in the range of 30 to 50 pounds is essential.
Being able to comfortably make decisions, execute tasks, and train others in a diverse and dynamic working environment. After training and onboarding, the ability to work quickly, efficiently and calmly in physically challenging contexts for long hours in variable weather is essential to enjoying work on the farm.
Housing, Stipend and Duration
There is a cabin or room in the main house available for this farming season. There is also an option to bring a van or small RV, but there are no direct hookups. Access to laundry, internet, a bathroom and shower facilities.
Apprentices will be paid an hourly wage and will need to pay for housing and food separately. Pay will be 18.50/hour, FTE (40 hrs/week) Work schedules to be negotiated. There is an opportunity for entrepreneurial enterprises on the side.
The ideal length of apprenticeship is April to October.
About the Community
The Indigenous People of this land are the Coast Salish peoples of the Quwut’sun, Cowichan Tribes and speak the language Hul’q’umi’num. There are 4,900+ members and they are the largest single First Nation Band in British Columbia.
Duncan is located pretty much smack in the middle of the island and there’s a little something for everyone, like vineyard tours, hikes, historical walks, and year-round farmer’s markets. The weather in this region is also a major plus as you can enjoy year-round activities in a mild, warm climate.
Be sure to check out Lila Music Farm on their website
More Details about this Apprenticeship and How to Apply
Deadline to apply: January 31, 2024
Interested in an Apprenticeship but this isn’t quite the right one? Check out other Young Agrarians Apprenticeships being offered in 2024 here.