Farmer Camino de Paz Montessori Sch. & Farm
- Date Posted August 23, 2020
- Location Santa Cruz, NM
- Category Education
- Job type Full-Time
Camino de Paz Montessori Secondary School and Farm in Santa Cruz, NM, produces fruits/vegetables and goat milk products for local farmers market and wholesale distribution. Our farm is integrated with a Montessori middle/high school and students play a big role in farm operations, research and sales. Our ten acre campus includes 4 greenhouses, produce fields, orchards, pastures, milk parlor and make room, classroom and art/music studio. We are certified organic and grow year-round selling 50 weeks per year at the Santa Fe Farmers Market. We have been in business for 18 years and continue develop our products and markets. We host visiting groups from all over the world who come to learn from our farm/school model.
Our unique setting as a Montessori adolescent community located on a farm provides many opportunities to share your knowledge and to learn more about yourself through challenging experiences with developing young adults. During the summer students rotate one week on the farm to help with the upkeep and daily routines. We also hire alumni to help during the summer months.
Our staff meets weekly for planning and problem-solving. Our focus is to create a community of adults who are able to be flexible, express themselves openly and problem solve. We strive for an atmosphere of honesty and openness. The work is hard and usually involves work on weekends as we rotate staff through the 24/7 needs of a farm.
Camino de Paz is located in the northern Rio Grande Valley, bounded east and west by beautiful and accessible mountain ranges. We are home to a diverse population of indigenous peoples (Eight Northern Indian Pueblos), descendants of Spanish settlers of the 1600's, recent Hispanic immigrants, and Anglo/European populations. The capital city of Santa Fe (25 miles to the south) is the second largest art market in the U.S. and tourism is the 4th largest industry. The surrounding countryside offers amazing camping, hiking, hunting, fishing and exploration of geological and ancient pueblo sites. Over 100 small farms in the area sell at a variety of local farmers markets: Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Espanola, etc.
Immediate opening for Farmer to work closely with our farm director in meeting responsibilities and deadlines of the farm. Our amazing farm/school needs a hard-working, experienced, efficient, flexible and enthusiastic worker to join our team. This is a great opportunity to apply diverse, integrated farming/ranching practices. You would join a team of 6 experienced farmers and teachers and a group of enthusiastic adolescents with a community-oriented focus.
Primary responsibilities include care of greenhouses and produce fields: plant, weed, harvest, fertilize, manage composting, drip and flood irrigation, plan crop rotation and weekly harvest for market and wholesale distribution).
This position requires minimum of 5 years experience in profitable farm production and fruit growing, team work and good communication skills.
Having draft horse experience, and being bilingual Spanish/English speaker is a plus.
Desired qualifications are experience with seeding, plant starts, transplanting, weed control and integrated pest management, along with marketing and sales skills. This job is not for the faint of heart and requires
- organization and efficiency
- understanding of running a farm as a successful business, not a hobby
- Willingness to communicate openly with the rest of the team.
We have weekly staff meetings for decision-making and to insure that things run smoothly.
Our farm is integrated with a Montessori middle and high school. This means that you will often be working with young adolescents – creating a model for hard work, careful observation, maintaining standards of cleanliness and organization and care of plants and animals.
Compensation ranges from $400 -$600/week (depending and experience and skill level). Compensation includes on site housing (with utilities) and access to farm's products (veggies, milk, cheese, meat, etc.) Work load varies with the season, from 35-50 hours/week.