MD/DC Area Urban Farm Apprenticeship: Fall/Winter
Christian M
Please pass on to your networks!
ISO Urban Farm Apprentices
@ ECO City Farms (Fall/Winter 2011)
This is a great opportunity to be part of a new urban farm and the local food movement in the Chesapeake region. ECO City Farms is a local non-profit that is working to cultivate environmentally-sound, food secure, and economically sustainable communities through urban farming. We are looking for 2 qualified apprentices to spend at least 10 hours a week assisting with all aspects of our urban farm in Edmonston, MD (the position is unpaid but we are happy to help in earning college credit for the apprenticeship).
In the 18 months since ECO City Farms' founding in 2010, we built our first urban farm, held a regional summit on urban farming, initiated a New Urban Farmer Training program, sold organically-grown produce locally at local farmers markets, restaurants, and coops, offered workforce development classes through the Prince George's Community College, and engaged local youth through classroom presentations and “seed to feed” summer internships.
The urban farm in Edmonston is at the core of our organization's work, serving as both a production farm and an educational venue. We are pioneering ways of producing organically-grown food in a space-intensive, chemical-free manner that empowers all to engage in urban food production. We grow healthy food, farms, and farmers. It starts with food and we seek passionate and determined apprentices to work with us in the fall/winter seasons.
Because we grow in passively-heated solar greenhouses, we continue to produce food even when there's 2 feet of snow outside. This is an opportunity to learn about year-round farming, from methods of protection, to choosing the right varieties, and timing out the planting to get a winter-long harvest. At our farm, we're never “out of season”.
The apprenticeship responsibilities, at minimum, include:
Harvesting and processing of produce for local farmers markets, restaurants, and co-ops.
Seeding and transplanting seedlings
Composting and vermi-composting
Maintenance (weeding, mulching, feeding with compost tea, and more); and...
Helping to direct activities of farm volunteers
However, there is much else to learn about urban agriculture, from selling at market, to urban livestock (bees and chickens), crop rotations, and much more. We are open to negotiating the workload and schedule, but do require some Thursday availability, as it is our harvest and market day.
Our farm is small, but the work is intensive and demanding. Apprentices must be reliable, on-time, creative, passionate, flexible, fast, and fun (not necessarily in that order!) Reliable transportation is a must (there is a bike path that leads to the farm). Prior farm experience is preferred, but not required. You can learn more about our programs at www.ecocityfarms.org
Interested? Please send a cover letter and resume to Christian Melendez at chri...@ecocityfarms.org by August 26.