Are you a young, aspiring farmer curious to learn how to grow lots of vegetables for donation to local organizations in the Central Okanagan?
Helen’s Acres Community Farm may be the apprenticeship for you.
About the Farm
Helen’s Acres is part of the Trinity Legacy Foundation, a registered charity that grows vegetables on a 24 acre farm, exclusively for donation to local agencies to help fight food insecurity across the central Okanagan.
Our crops are selected based on the needs of the community, and generally fall into two main categories:
- Easily recognized produce with a longer shelf life (ie. potatoes, carrots, onions)
- Produce that is cost-prohibitive to buy (ie. asaparagus, raspberries, strawberries)
We serve as an educational site for Agriculture in the Classroom and rely in part on volunteer support as part of our community engagement initiative.
About the Apprenticeship
The apprenticeship season runs from April to September. Tasks follow a seasonal cycle with the spring being focused on crop planning, seeding, planting, building compost piles and farm infrastructure.
Summers include tending to the vegetable rows – weeding, planting, bed succession, harvesting, and packaging for distribution. As soil health is crucial to growing veggies regeneratively, sampling and analysis happens throughout the seasons. Fall is the time for wrapping up the season, harvesting crops, cover cropping, farm season reviews, cleaning up the fields and general maintenance.
Apprentices are expected to use their labor for the daily work of the farm as a major part of their learning experience. Apprentices work in all aspects of farm production from soil preparation to harvest, seeding to cultivation, tractors to hand hoes, and farm planning to harvesting.
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
As an apprentice you’ll be working alongside a variety of folks, including our main mentor Kevin McCallum. He oversees every aspect of our production, from crop planning to seeding, to the schedules for watering and harvesting. Kevin grew up in an agricultural community, has university degrees in plant science, later became an agrologist and most recently worked for an international seed production/development company.
Kevin delegates appropriate manual tasks to the staff and engages in the bulk of the commercial farming operation himself.
The apprentice would also be in communication with our Community Manager, who oversees all our distribution, volunteer coordination and educational activities.
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.
| Multi-variety vegetable production | basic operation of tractor & truck |
|---|---|
| irrigation set-up/use | Team work & Organizational skills |
| assessing soil health | Harvesting for bulk sales |
| Cover cropping & Crop storage | Plant & pest identification |
| Community food security strategies | compost making/processing |
| greenhouse management | Plant & pest identification |
Skills Required of the Apprentice
The motivation to learn about sustainable vegetable production, adapt to changing conditions, a desire to do well are key to 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 80 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. A driver’s license is also required for this apprenticeship.
Housing, Stipend and Duration
We currently do not have housing, but would be willing to assist you in finding suitable accommodations.
We do not provide meals at the farm, but all staff have access to our offices and kitchen. We will often do regular staff lunches as timing permits.
Apprentices will be paid an hourly wage $20.00-$24.00/hour, FTE (40 hrs/week) + vacation pay. Two days off/week.
Vacation requests are assessed on a case by case basis. Generally, we ask that summer staff take no more than 1 week off at a time and no more than 2 weeks off during their contract. However, pending the approval of the Mentor, exceptions can be made if needed. Vacation time is considered “unpaid” as employees will receive vacation pay with each pay period.
The ideal length of apprenticeship is April 1 – September 30, 2024
About the Community
Our farm is nestled on ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan people. Located in the centre of Kelowna, BC, we back onto Mission Creek Greenway, which has a walking/biking path connecting a large portion of the city. We are also only a 7 minute walk from Orchard Park Shopping Centre, which provides central access to amenities and local transportation.
Kelowna offers a lot of opportunities for recreation! When our staff are not at the farm, they can often be found down at one of the beaches on the lake, hiking or biking on nearby trails, enjoying coffee shops or even out wine tasting.
Be sure to check out Helen’s Acres Community Farm on their website & their socials
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.