Apprentices who work the full season at Cerro Vista farm will learn how to profitably farm and sell vegetables on a 5-acres-of-crops scale. Specifically, all these farming skills can be learned:
1. Using tractors, rototillers, & hand tools; field preparation, incorporating cover crops, bed and stale bed preparation, hand and machine planting, hand and machine weeding, flame weeding; using tractor-mounted cultivating, transplanting, and harvesting tools
2. Transplant plug production: planning, propagation, and transplanting techniques
3. Drip, sprinkler, and furrow irrigation techniques and equipment
4. Harvesting, bunching, packing, and storing crops for retail and wholesale markets
5. Selling produce in CSA, Farmers Market, Restaurant, Grocery Store, and School markets
5. Root Cellar crop production, harvest, curing, and storage
6. Vegetable seed production and processing
7. Use of fertilizers, cover crops, green manures, crop rotations
8. Four-season greenhouse production
9. Farm Business Bookkeeping, Farm Production Planning, Cash Flow Projecting, and Field Mapping, CSA accounting, marketing, and distribution logistics, pre-season marketing and co-op marketing
Apprenticeship Commitment Dates: April 15, 2019 – October 13, 2019. The farm is only accepting Apprenticeship applications from candidates who can work for the full 26 week season.
Internship Commitment Dates: Minimum term for internship is 16 weeks. Season runs April 15th though October 13th, 2019.
Housing: The farm will provide a private 10′ x 10′ cabin, for each apprentice or intern. Cabins have electricity and wireless high-speed internet. Kitchen and Shower facilities are provided in separate community buildings shared by all interns and apprentices.
Food: Interns and Apprentices will receive a CSA share of Vegetables, fresh bread, eggs, and honey each week. They will be responsible for obtaining any other food they want to eat and for preparing their own meals.
Stipend: Apprentices will receive a stipend of $180.00 per week, plus a $1,000 bonus paid at the end of the season, if they fulfill their entire 26 week commitment.
Interns will receive a stipend of $180.00 per week.
Work Hours Required: Apprentices and Interns work approximately 8 to 9 hours per day, beginning at 7:00 am, Monday through Friday, plus 5 hours on Saturday OR Sunday. Sometimes the schedule must change if there is an emergency where we need to plant, transplant, harvest, or weed, or if some other workers are sick or absent. Apprentices may take a pre-arranged vacation (unpaid) (up to 7 days) if desired in late July, after planting and weeding are done, but before the major harvest begins in August.
Applicants for Internship and Apprenticeship positions must apply before February 1, 2019. Please use our Contact Form, and state why you are a good candidate for this position. Also send a resume and photograph of yourself. We will contact you once we review your email.