Learn to grow your own food on an organic minded farm in Louisa, Virginia, USA

Informationen

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  Beschreibung

  An organic minded farm focusing on veggie production, pastured beef and lamb, honey, niche fruits/flowers/herbs. We have a small CSA, online store and participate both a city and online farmers market.
  
  This is a real working farm. We currently have 16 beehives, a flerd (cows and sheep) that we direct market as grassfed beef/lamb. Our farm grows over 40+ different veggies, with our crowd favorite crops including carrots, baby ginger, hardneck garlic, and lettuce mix.
  
  The farm is managed by Jesse (M) 30 years old, he has been educated in horticulture and business management and been managing the farm since 2016.
  
  Jesse loves real food and knows how to grow some delicious produce! He tries to combine ideals of permaculture into a production farm. It is hard growing veggies for retail sales and has learned that some aspects of permaculture are better suited to smaller scale production. The farm uses smart tillage practices, grows lots of cover crops to keep our organic matter levels up, uses smart cultivation efforts and tries to balance soils for nutrient dense veggies with organic amendments.
  
  We also avoid single use plastic, known as plasticulture, which is mainstream in organic production. We are beginning to explore planting options with third-party tested biodegradable films.
  
  The farm is recovering from growing to big to fast and working on sustainability in the balance of labor to what sales our difficult markets bear. Our culture of convenience makes retail sales of a high quality product to be labored over in the kitchen less desirable to the masses. But the customers that we find are a blend of friends centered on the love of great food!
  
  Through our recovery we discarded the laying hen operation of 500 laying hens and are so happy that we did. We have a few hens out with the animals for our delicious farm breakfasts.
  
  Current projects include maintaining the vegetable operation and marketing/sales/packing efforts. We have gotten started with log mushroom production of shiitake on white oak and are experimenting with totems for lions mane and oyster mushrooms.
  
  Future projects securing funding for more high tunnels, setting up more nursery space for plant/shrub/tree sales, expanding and maintaining fences for the animals, building a processing barn for the veggies with additional cold-storage space, and securing governmental funding for woodland conservation for wildlife biodiversity (winter work).

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  Arten von Hilfe und Lernmöglichkeiten

  Kunstprojekte

  Hilfe bei Ökoprojekten

  Gartenarbeiten

  Heimwerker- und Bauarbeiten

  Mithilfe auf einem Bauernhof

  Hausarbeiten

  Handwerkliche Arbeiten

  Hilfe mit Computer /Internet
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  Kultureller Austausch und Lernmöglichkeiten

  Helping on a farm, you soon learn to wear many hats as they say. Joining our farm you could learn anything from cultivation science, dry farming methods, how to repair small engines, how to drive a tractor, how/why we grow cover crops, when to plant veggies and much more.
  
  Our culture is centered around growing nutrient dense food, veggies, pastured meats, & honey. And of course eating delicious food along the way. Jesse is great at teaching not only how, but why we do things especially in regards to soil health. You can also learn how to manage the pastures and sheep/cows. The best thing to do is ask questions! We are glad to share our thoughts and ideas on our practices.
  
  Our participation in a nonprofit based in Richmond, also opens up access to 50+ other farms, bakeries etc that you can shop with or maybe get to know.
  
  We grow the majority of our diet and Jesse is a great cook and enjoys using up leftover or excess veggies each week. We eat communally taking care of all our our guests meals and hope that you don't need to spend any money to be here to make up for the lower wages. Also you are welcome to forage in our woods, we have loads of edible mushrooms growing through the season and hope to wild simulate mushrooms in the future.
  
  Our project manager, Tom, loves to help out on the farm when his weekends are free. He also loves to plein air oil paint and is a great teacher. The farm is his favorite subject to paint so if you want a lesson, it would make his day!
  
  Fun things to do locally on days off include pickleball at the community center in town, go hiking in the woods, hiking in the mountains, go swimming in Lake Anna or down to the Rappahannock River.
  
  The farm has a pond, 100 acre woods, the Appalachian mountains are an hour drive away for hikes and Lake Anna State Park is a 30 min drive from the farm.

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  Die vom Gastgeber angebotene Vergütung entspricht dem Mindestlohn

  Dieser Host bietet Unterkunft und Bezahlung.

  Der Gastgeber gibt an, dass er den gesetzlichen Stundenlohn seines Landes für jede gearbeitete Stunde zahlt und zudem die Unterkunft zur Verfügung stellt. Er sucht Mithilfe an seinem Unternehmen bzw. bei seiner Geschäftstätigkeit. Nutze bitte die Messaging-Funktion der Website, um mehr Informationen und Details zum gezahlten Lohn zu erhalten. Du solltest alle Absprachen im Vorfeld direkt mit deinem Gastgeber treffen.

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  Arbeit

  In exchange for your help we are offering a private room/bathroom with shared living/cooking space. (See more info on food in section on cultural exchange!)
  
  **Experience/skills desired for positions
  -able to drive
  -ability to follow direction, and take on responsibilities
  -Able to work in groups and alone
  -Quick learner, critical thinker, problem solver
  -Organized, able to remember processes/details
  -Previous experience (1-2 years of previous farm work or gardening/landscaping work, not required but will help chances of being selected for limited seasonal positions)
  -Is flexible, with the changing climate we try to work when it makes sense for our bodies and not just punch in from 9-5.
  -Valid driver's license / clean driving record
  -Strong communication and interpersonal skills
  -Applicant who is honest, trustworthy, dependable, flexible, good-humored and genuinely interested in growing delicious nutritive food
  
  Main growing season:
  The months we are looking for more help will be March- November, with the busiest months being May-early September. We are looking for help a minimum of 25 hours per week, max of 40 hours depending on the time of year. This will be a paid position of $12/hr. Typical growing seasonal help involves packing orders, harvesting, cultivating, watering, landscaping, setting up fences and moving the sheep and cows!
  
  Each week there is a harvest list of what we sold online and then everything ends up either packed for online store orders or individually labeled for the online farmers market we take part in. The online farmers market is over 50 producers distributing produce to about 20 locations around Richmond, and a customer can order just one bag of carrots. Each item any producer sells on there needs a farm logo and customer ID logo, this translates into lots of packing time for us! This packing typically takes place each Wednesday, so having open Wednesdays is crucial if you are thinking of reaching out!
  
  Cooking/cleaning are part of living in the same house and are not counted towards paid time. We cook/clean communally and want the kitchen to remain clean!

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  Sprachen

  Gesprochene Sprachen
  Englisch: Fließend
  Spanisch: Gute Kenntnisse
  Niederländisch: Grundkenntnisse
  Portugiesisch: Grundkenntnisse

  Dieser Gastgeber bietet Sprachaustausch an
  Dieser Gastgeber gibt an, dass er dir gern seine Muttersprache beibringt oder selbst eine Sprache lernen möchte.
  Bitte wende dich direkt an ihn, um weitere Auskünfte zu erhalten.
  
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  Unterkunft

  Shared housing with the farm manager, when we have rooms and work available determines which rooms options are open. As of now we have 2 bedrooms available for workers.
  
  1)-Private bedroom 12'x14' with twin bed/ full bathroom with shared living spaces/kitchen/dining areas/front and back porch
  
  2)-Private bedroom with shared bathoom

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  Was noch ...

  The town of Louisa is a 5 minute drive from the farm, with a Food Lion and 2 pharmacies you are in the country but also close to town. Virginia has lots of great hiking trails, skyline drive is just under an hour from the farm. Lake Anna state park is 30 min drive away, Charlottesville city center is 40 min drive away, Richmond is an hour away, and DC is about 2 hours.
  
  The cheapest way to get here we have found is to fly into New York and then take a train either to Richmond or Charlottesville if you are traveling on a tight budget!
  
  I am happy to come give our guests a ride from either Richmond or Charlottesville which are about an hour away from the farm.

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  Etwas mehr Information

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    Internet Zugang

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    Eingeschränkter Internet Zugang

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    Wir besitzen Tiere

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    Wir sind Raucher

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    Familien möglich

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  Kann Digital Nomads unterbringen

  We now have high-speed internet with Starlink

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  Platz zum Abstellen von Camper Vans

  Dieser Gastgeber bietet Platz für Wohnmobile.

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  Kapazität - wie viele Workawayer maximal

  zwei

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  Arbeitszeiten

  25-40+ hours/week

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