Company description

SweetRoot Farm is a small organic farm run by partners Mary Bricker and Noah Jackson in the center of Montana's Bitterroot Valley.  We raise vegetables, herbs, flowers, and laying hens on 10 acres just outside of the town of Hamilton.  We are entering our sixth season of full-time farming, and in 2020 we will have about 2.5 acres in production including 7,200 square feet of space in stationary unheated high-tunnels, and another 5,000 sf of season extension through moveable caterpillar tunnels.  We sell our produce through a local farmers' market, a self-serve farmstore, a membership program of approximately 100 households, as well as through a grower's co-operative and 3 local chef accounts. Part of our motivation as farmers is to be an integrated part of our community, giving people a place to connect with and a better understanding of the process behind their food. We are very open with the community about our practices, our farm development, and our challenges, and encourage farm members and customers to tour the farm throughout the season as we host seasonal farm events. Because of this high degree of outreach, farm crew will find themselves welcomed by a highly engaged and involved community of farm members and customers.  

We grow about 50 crops for direct sales (market, farmstore, and farm members), and a smaller sub-set of crops for wholesale accounts.  Those wholesale crops include baby greens mixes (salad, arugula, baby kale, spinach), head lettuce, radishes, onions, and cucumbers. Our production is about 70% for direct-sales and 30% for wholesale.  We grow using all organic methods, are certified by Montana Homegrown (Montana Sustainable Growers Union), with potential to eventually add USDA organic certification. In 2019 we altered much of our soil preparation methods to transition to minimal tillage on permanent beds; we use both a BCS walk-behind, and a four-wheeled Kubota tractor for various farm tasks. 

From the farm, the town of Hamilton is a flat bike ride of less than 2 miles; the larger university-town of Missoula is about a one-hour drive. There are multiple trailheads for accessing the Bitterroot National forest and other public lands within a 5-10 miles drive, and a good swimming hole on the Bitterroot River about a half-mile from the farm.   

Internship description We have an immediate opening for farm crew. We farm intensively and organically on 3 acres of permanent beds and have 10,000 square feet of protected space (including high tunnels and caterpillars) and farm deep into winter in Montana. Additional enterprises include cut flowers and laying hens on our 10 acres. Position includes learning as many of our systems as you want, compensation DOE, housing, and farm food. We serve a market, a small regional food hub, several restaurants, a busy farm store and about 100 farm members. We have an active, engagement community of food lovers and are planning some socially distanced farm workshops for the fall. Position is available immediately.  Compensation this position is : salaried
Location job can be done remotely Application instructions DeadlineAugust 14, 2020