Company description

Freewheel Farm, established in 2013, is a diversified urban farm based in the heart of Atlanta. We grow just over 1 acre of veggies, herbs, microgreens, mushrooms, and keep honeybees.

We are Certified Naturally Grown and utilize low-till/ no-till principles and practices. We are a community-based farm, growing high quality produce for residents of Summerhill, Grant Park, Peoplestown, and the surrounding neighborhoods. We strive to make our food accessible to all residents, and have partnered with Wholesome Wave Georgia to double SNAP/EBT produce purchases.

Our farm operation is made up of three leased properties, all within a 20 minute drive of eachother. We sell onsite at our Wednesday evening farmstand, at the Grant Park Farmers Market on Sunday mornings, through our 30-week 30-member CSA program, and to a handful of nearby restaurants. We have a collaborative farm model, sharing field space with a cut flower farmer, partnering with a beekeeper to co-manage our hives, and co-marketing with a local baker.

This is an exciting time to be a part of our farm, as we are still breaking new ground, building new infrastructure, building our customer base/ sales channels, and refining/expanding the operation. It is also an interesting time with the pandemic happening. We take our role as stewards of our customers' health very seriously, and are adapting weekly to meet CDC guidelines for harvesting and distributing our food.

Farmer/owner Brent Hall is a young farmer originally from Maine, where he began working on multi-acre MOFGA certified organic farms in 2007.

Internship description

Our apprenticeship is a full-on urban farm experience. Sounds romantic, right? Being in the heart of the city, you will have access to all that entails, but know that we work as hard as any other farm. Our work often includes long hours in extreme weather, on repetitive and strenuous tasks. For this reason, apprentices should be able to lift 50 pounds and work on your feet all day in hot, cold, wet, and windy conditions. We also require apprentices to have a valid license, vehicle, and cell phone to be able to work at farmers market, and commute to our multiple sites.

Experience with some farm, garden, or outdoor work is preferred but not absolutely necessary. A desire to learn/ understand, a good work ethic, ability to listen well/follow instructions, and taking pride in the quality of your work are most important to us.

Working at the farmers market and at our farmstand each week is a big part of the job, so being quick on your toes and having some sales and customer service skills in a fast-paced environment is highly preferred.

In addition apprentices can expect to learn and participate in crop planning, harvesting, post-harvest processing, bed building, soil fertility, cover cropping, plant propagation/ greenhouse work, direct seeding, trellising, weed management, pest/disease management, running a BCS tractor and other small engine equipment, and more. If you are interested in the administrative/business side of things, beekeeping, mushroom log cultivation, social media, or anything else that we do, just ask! The intent of this apprenticeship is to give you all the tools you need to run your own successful farm or garden in the future.

We strive to build a strong team and a positive workplace environment, and explain why and how we do things. Most of the time one or both of our full-time staff will be working alongside you. We encourage you to ask questions and share your ideas- we don't pretend to know it all, and some of our best innovations have come from apprentices and volunteers! As the season goes on, you may occasionally be asked to work alone on a task after you've been fully trained on it.

Duration- April or early May through November 31st (with some wiggle room possible). We only bring on one apprentice per year, and are looking for someone who can stay the full duration of season.

Hours- approximately 45 hours per week, Wednesday through Sunday. In addition to Mondays/ Tuesdays off, apprentices get 1 extra day off per month, of your choosing.

Much of what you gain from the apprenticeship will come from being engaged in the work, and asking questions. All aspects of our farm operation are open to apprentices, and we are happy to dive as deep as you'd like into any of them.

During the season we will go on 3-5 "field trips" to visit and learn from other local farms of your choosing. We have an extensive library of farming books, a subscription to Growing for Market which you are welcome to take advantage of, and we can introduce you to a great community of farmers through the Atlanta Farmers Coalition, a chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition.

Compensation

this position is: stipend / non-monetary compensation

Application instructions

Deadline

May 10, 2020