Company description

The edible landscape nursery at CRMPI offers hardy fruit trees, fruit shrubs, grapevines, nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs, and perennial edible, medicinal, and insectary herbaceous plants for landscapes, gardens, farms, and orchards in the Rockies and beyond. The nursery’s mission is to provide plant material, education, and inspiration to help clients and customers grow food, build soil, and nurture nature.

Internship description

Are you fascinated by soil-building, plant propagation, and edible, perennial trees, shrubs, and vines?

Do you have some prior knowledge/background in agriculture/horticulture, and you’re looking for hands-on professional experience to take your career to the next level?
Do you want to learn what it takes to run a nursery business and manage a forest garden?
Do you love the outdoors and relish the idea of physical labor with a positive purpose?
Can you imagine living eight months on a peaceful mountainside where your electricity is powered by the sun, your drinking water comes from a mountain spring, and wild turkeys and bighorn sheep share your “backyard”?

Apply to apprentice at the Edible Landscape Nursery at Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute (CRMPI)! The nursery’s mission is to provide plant material, education, and inspiration to help clients and customers grow food, build soil, and nurture nature. We offer hardy fruit trees, fruit shrubs, grapevines, nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs, and perennial edible, medicinal, and insectary herbaceous plants for landscapes, gardens, farms, and orchards in the Rockies and beyond. Learn more about the nursery at: http://crmpi.org/projects/nursery/

Description
The edible landscape nursery apprentice is expected to work five days per week, March 2018 through October 2018, reporting to nursery owner-operator, Vanessa Harmony. Work activities will include: propagating plants (by seed, by cutting, by grafting), preparing soil mixes, transplanting, pruning, mulching, watering, foliar feeding with compost tea, maintaining vermi-compost beds, sales and marketing events and tactics, preparing plant tags, inventory, and catalog, participating in design, planning, and installation projects for clients, and other duties in support of the nursery and general upkeep at CRMPI.

During spring and fall, you will work primarily under Vanessa’s direction on nursery-related tasks. During the summer, when nursery work scales back to watering and sales appointments, and numerous other interns, students, and visitors are passing through CRMPI, you’ll join the wider team’s activities supporting CRMPI’s educational programs and classes, and tending and harvesting our perennial and annual, indoor and outdoor, edible and medicinal crops. Between CRMPI’s 25 year old forest garden, tropical greenhouse, Mediterranean greenhouse, three season-extension greenhouses, hillside permaculture swales (aka "berm-n-basins"), and small livestock, there are extensive opportunities for you to learn and contribute.

Your compensation would include:

• a small stipend, based upon commitment
• room and board at CRMPI
  • indoors until weather is favorable for camping (spring)
  • camping accommodations (summer)
  • indoors once weather is no longer favorable for camping (fall)
• access to indoor kitchen, indoor pantry, indoor shower, indoor R&R area, wi-fi internet
• close mentorship and personalized training from Vanessa Harmony, drawing on her five years of field experience in agriculture and horticulture, and seven years of corporate experience in project management. Observe, learn from, and participate in design, maintenance, and installation for Vanessa’s clients, including an exciting 1-acre orchard installation project.
• various opportunities for paid hourly landscape installation/maintenance work for clients including compost tea application services
• the chance to spend the growing season “playing outside” (i.e., working hard and having fun) at CRMPI’s mountainside farmstead and sampling the rainbow of fruits that ripen in our forest garden between June and October. Apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches, mulberries, cherries, currants, gooseberries, and grapes, straight from the mature tree/shrub/vine!
• the thrill and satisfaction of joining CRMPI’s 30+ year history of research, demonstration, and education in permaculture
• possibility for partial or full work-trade for tuition to attend courses at CRMPI, when course space is available and not conflicting with apprenticeship duties

Preferred attitude and abilities
This opportunity is best for individuals who are self-motivated, hard-working, inquisitive, excited for outdoor physical labor, proactive about learning and self-development, and adaptable to moderately rugged, remote living. Positive, confident attitudes a must; humor for nerdy plant/permaculture/farm jokes a plus. We’ll have fun and we’ll work hard, too. Everyone who lives at CRMPI is expected to pitch in with chores and be ready to help with any task, however mundane, that keeps our farmstead and our non-profit running smoothly. Kitchen and housekeeping responsibilities are shared so please step up for your turn to cook and clean. Sorry, NO DOGS ALLOWED on the property. 4WD/AWD vehicle recommended to navigate narrow, winding mountain road. We are located approximately fifteen minutes outside “town” and facilities are adequate but basic. Be prepared to camp in all weather during the summer. No smoking allowed inside facilities or near facility entrances, and butts must be discarded in designated areas outside. Must be able to lift up to 50 pounds. Typing and computer skills including Microsoft Excel are an asset to this position.

Compensation

this position is: stipend / non-monetary compensation

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline