Company description

Ozark Forest Mushrooms is a family farm and specialty foods distributor selling to restaurants, grocery stores, CSAs, porch pickups, and farmer's markets in the St. Louis area for over 30 years. We specialize in growing and distributing unique mushroom varieties, and wild edibles. We are deeply committed to sustainable practices. Our farm is located in Timber, Missouri which produces many unique foods including the product we are most known for, our log grown shiitake. It is located in an area of outstanding beauty on Sinking Creek.

Job description

The Farm Manager is responsible for managing year-round shiitake mushroom production, 1 acre of vegetable production, general farm maintenance, giving farm tours, managing part-time staff, and assisting Airbnb guests if they need anything. The farm manger is based full-time at our remote farm in Timber, MO. Other staff travel to the farm each weekend and take the harvest to St. Louis for distribution.

Responsibilities:

• This is a full-time 40 hour per week, 5 days per week position, flex time with weekend work and overtime often needed to pick mushrooms and irrigate as needed.
• Soaking mushroom logs, irrigating, and picking mushrooms takes roughly ½ the time.
• Preparing the garden, planting basil and pepper crops, irrigation, weeding, and harvesting takes roughly ¼ the time during the growing season.
• General farm maintenance of roads, fixing equipment, ability to drive a tractor, mowing, fridge cleaning, feeding cats, construction, maintaining the greenhouses etc take roughly ¼ the time.
• This position will work closely with the owners who are typically at the farm Fri-Mon and our team at the St. Louis facility.

Qualifications:

• Agricultural/Horticulture experience (required)
• High School Diploma (required)
• Tractor Experience (desired)
• Ability to lift 50 lbs (required)
• Mycological knowledge (desired)
• Chainsaw experience (desired)
• Construction experience (desired)
• Strong communication skills (required)

Ozark Forest Mushrooms is seeking a farmer who values agroforestry, sustainability, self motivation, team building, leadership, fun, and hard work (heavy lifting required regularly). Applicants must demonstrate strong leadership capabilities, self-motivation and trustworthiness as much of the work is unsupervised. We are willing to work and help teach the right candidate. This could be a great job for a young farmer looking to gain experience and work in a beautiful and remote part of Missouri.

Compensation:

• $15-20/hour depending on experience
• 1 week paid vacation (after 6 months work)
• Summer and Winter bonus based on farm production and profit.

Benefits:

• For non-local applicants we have a property for subsidized rent on the farm. Could work for a young couple wanting to gain farming experience. We also have part-time work available.

COVID-19 considerations:
Common surfaces are sanitized regularly, vaccination/ booster shots are encouraged. Social distancing: when engaging with visitors / other workers

Compensation

this position is: hourly, varies DOE, $15.00 - $20.00

Application instructions

Deadline

March 15, 2022