Are you a young, aspiring farmer interested in learning about producing over 40 varieties of vegetables, herbs, berries, and cut flowers for Community Support Agriculture?
City’s Edge Farm may be the apprenticeship for you.
About the Farm
City’s Edge Farm is a mixed-vegetable farm, producing over 40 varieties of vegetables, herbs, berries, and cut flowers, primarily for CSA. We are dedicated to continually learning how best to nurture the land, capture carbon as we build up the soil, and create a healthy agro-ecosystem that can be resilient in the face of so many challenges to come.
The farm has been operating on an acre of leased land in Saanich. This year we are expanding onto a new 3 acre piece of land, with the goal of tripling production while building the soil primarily through cover cropping.
About the Apprenticeship
The apprenticeship season runs from March to October. Spring time brings a variety of tasks including crop planning, preparing the fields, planting, seeding, building farm infrastructure
Summer will include tending to vegetable beds, weeding, succession planting, soil building and monitoring, harvesting and packaging for sales.
Fall is for harvesting of storage crops, cover cropping, farm season review, building compost piles, cleaning up the fields & planning for next year.
By keeping our harvesting and distribution effective throughout the week, we are able to take weekends for family and other off farm activities.
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, irrigation systems to hand hoes, and farm planning to marketing.
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
You will be working closely with Sol Kinnis. Her journey to farming started in the city, with a passion (or an obsession?) for turning monoculture lawns into thriving food gardens. Sol dabbled in agriculture through collective self-sufficiency growing and working in agriculture in Cuba. She made farming a career when she co-founded an urban farming co-op, growing in other people’s backyards for restaurants, CSA and farmer’s markets. In 2015, Sol started farming for restaurants and later CSA on an acre of land.
“What I love most about growing food is that it is an endless opportunity for learning and experimentation, not only about how to grow healthy food, but how to restore and nurture healthy soil.” Sol, in her own words.
After 25 years, Sol says “I feel like I’m just beginning to understand the complexities of working with soil and the cycles of life.”
Beyond farming, she is the mother of a young woman who is now living in Quebec and lives off farm in a housing co-op, an intentional community of first, second and third generation immigrant families.
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 | Techniques for plant diversity |
|---|---|
| CSA market gardening | basic operation of tractor & truck |
| assessing soil health | Profitable farm business practices |
| Tree Shelter belts & Food Forests | Picking and packaging for retail sales |
| irrigation set-up/use | compost making/processing |
| greenhouse management | starting a co-operative |
| no till vegetable production | cut flower production & sales |
Skills Required of the Apprentice
One season of experience working at a market farm/garden in vegetable and/or flower production or outdoor manual labour would be an asset. Kitchen and restaurant experience is also valuable. Curiosity, adaptability and flexibility, along with significant interest in learning about regenerative agriculture, 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
Apprentices and employees are responsible for finding their own housing. A good place to look for rental housing is through online listings, including the University of Victoria’s off campus housing listings.
https://www.uvic.ca/residence/home/home/off campus/index.php.
(Please be cautious if looking to rent through online listings, and meet the landowner in person.) Renting in Victoria is competitive. Attaching a letter about why you would make a good tenant can be helpful.
Apprentices and employees have access to produce from the farm unless designated for special orders. We often have surpluses or damaged produce that we offer to employees to try out preserving at home.
Apprentices will be paid an hourly wage.
Pay will be $18.00/hour, FTE (40 hrs/week) plus 4% vacation pay.
*wage is negotiable if the apprentice comes with more than a full season of full time farm experience.
The ideal length of apprenticeship is March to November
About the Community
City’s Edge Farm is located on the traditional territories of the Ləkwəŋən and the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. The land we farm on has been managed for food production and harvesting since time immemorial.
The farm is located just outside the city of Victoria, with public transportation available from downtown Victoria directly to the farm or anywhere in greater Victoria. The farm is a 20 minute drive from downtown Victoria, with all the amenities a city has to offer. It is also a 5-10 minute drive to the ocean, swimmable lakes and hiking trails.
Be sure to check out City’s Edge Farm on their socials @citys_edge_farm
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.