As an intern you will experience many aspects of our commercial produce farm. You will report to work and join our crew right away. Learning is achieved through experience. You will realize 10 hour days bunching greens, sitting on the transplanter, washing carrots, or packing CSA boxes. You will come to understand and appreciate the excitement that occurs when things do not go as planned (as they almost never do in farming). You will return home each night with a feeling of exhaustion and gratitude with all that occurred throughout the day. You will walk away from Full Circle with the knowledge needed to start your own farm.

Following are examples of possible activities:

• Field work: harvesting, transplanting, weeding, pruning, thinning, and other tasks
• Tractor work: bed preparation, seeding, and cultivation
• Packing shed operations: salad-mix washer, quality control and packing/storage requirements of all crops
• Greenhouse operations: seeding, irrigation, soil mix, pest control, as well as other tasks
• Marketing and Sales operations: delivering produce, working with the CSA and farmers markets
• Weekly readings: such farming topics as weed/pest control, irrigation, soil fertility, greenhouse operations, marketing strategies, equipment and implements, and CSA will be explored.
• Field trips: to one or more other interesting farms in our area

In addition to the hands-on education the following forms of compensation are offered:

• Housing - on the farm in a personal trailer
• Stipend
• Farm Grown Produce - food from Full Circle Farm is available to all employees and interns for their personal consumption
• Education - we have prepared an educational workbook (approx. 325 pages) of reading material relevant to organic food production and also have a number of reference books available for your use

Full Circle Farm is interested in providing a quality practical education through an apprenticing method. Interns will be given responsibilities that will enhance their ability to think like a farmer in addition to the opportunity to learn about growing organic produce commercially. We are looking for candidates who are willing to work hard when required and enjoy the benefits of being a farmer.

We are a commercial produce farm which relies heavily upon equipment to facilitate efficiencies in production. The farm is run very similarly to any business. Scheduled days and hours of employment, a top down management structure, and attention to profits and losses are all important and constant issues. It is our belief that the farm has to be economically sustainable for the owners and employees while providing a good quality of life (limits on work hours and stress) as well as nurture the soil, environment and community.

Finding a match between our farm and its interns is of utmost importance. Without a symbiotic relationship between the two, a drastic decrease in performance and overall satisfaction will occur on behalf of both parties. We try to give an accurate description of Full Circle Farm and present the internship responsibilities in a straightforward manner. We ask that you complete the application carefully, paying particular attention to what you would like to accomplish from an internship at Full Circle Farm. Hopefully this process will assist you in determining if our farm is the right place for you. We will follow up with a telephone interview after we have reviewed your application and if possible, will arrange an on-site visit.

Thank you for your interest in organic agriculture and in our farm.

Full Circle Farm

Download the Full Circle Farm Internship Application (10 KB PDF document)

Additional information on internships can be found at the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) Web site.
 

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