Big Picture Farm is a goat dairy, creamery and farmstead confectionary located on a beautiful hillside in Townshend, Vermont.  Our approximately 40 saanens, alpines and nubian goats live happy and healthy lives rotating through the rich pastures and leafy woodlands that characterize our hillside Vermont farm. We are animal welfare approved and the happiness of our goats and the land they graze is of the highest priority. Most of our milk is transformed into our award winning goat milk caramels and chocolates - which are sold to over 1000 stores around the country. The rest of our milk goes into very small batches of raw milk cheese and other chocolates and confections. In addition to our goats we keep 30 or so laying hens, 6 hogs and tend an active flower & vegetable garden, and have a fledgling fruit orchard. We use our own eggs, honey, flowers and fruit in our confections as well. We also run a 9 bedroom farmhouse which we rent out for retreats, reunions, weddings and host on farm agri-tourism style programming.

Big Picture Farm is looking for our 2020 Apprentice. An entry-level position, this character fills a vital role on of our farm in the roll of Renaissance farm-hand/caretaker. You will live in our well-appointed and beautifully designed new tiny house (full bathroom, heat, wifi, dishwasher etc) and will be tasked with learning almost all of the varieties of jobs that exist on the farm. You will milk goats, make cheese, make caramel, tend the gardens, greet the airbnb guests, help wash sheets and clean, help host farm events, milk goats some more, muck stalls, take out the garbage, wack weeds and mow grass, feed and fence in the pigs, flip compost piles, weed the garden again, and then head to the farmer's market to sell our goodies. You will breathe beautiful mountain air, drink the tastiest water from our deep well, live a Vermont hillside life. You will fall in love with a herd of goats, a piece of land, a couple of dogs, a handful of cats, and the tastiest eggs you’ve ever had from our flock of hens. Hopefully you will like us, too. By the end of your stay you will know how to do everything we do on the farm.

Who are we? We are just starting our 10th year as a farm and as a business. We already have dedicated and incredible staff, many that have been with us for years. You will be working with all of us in all the various spheres. And with that, the hours vary as the nature of the job flows in and out of seasons. In late April and early May you will be a goat doula, midwife, and goat mama to orphaned babies. You will get up in the middle of the night to check in with the pregnant ladies, and rise at dawn to see if any new kiddos have arrived. While we wait for summer to come into full swing, you will be helping prep the grounds for another season. Once kidding season is over, more of a schedule starts to take hold and the rhythm of milking, pasture rotation, caramel and cheese production and agritourism takes over. This is a real farm job. You will learn a ton, and we will be patient with you as you learn, but you will also work hard, and the tasks are not always glamorous – often things are quite repetitive. As agritourism becomes a larger piece of our puzzle, we spend a lot of time making the farm look nice. We are always adding new garden beds, which means moving rocks, moving compost, more weeding and weed wacking. Guests come and go and that means exciting things like cocktails with goats, and farm dinners, but it also means changing sheets, greeting guests, tending to their needs, and maintaining a smile. It's a perfect job for someone who craves farm-life not just for its romance but also for its grit and hard work.
 

Start Date: February 5th** or April 15th with a minimum commitment through Dec 20th. No pets. Must have a reliable car since we live rurally. 40-45 hours per week in exchange for housing (including all utilities, heat, wifi) and veggies out of the garden, eggs from the hens, a meat and cheese allowance and, most importantly a stipend. 2 days off in a row each week, not weekends. 

If you start February 5th the winter caretaking gig is very mellow – just feeding goats hay etc, but also involves picking up our 3 year old daughter from school a few days a week at 2:30 and watching her until 5.