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this job's deadline has passed
This job expired on December 17, 2022

Four-Season Apprenticeship Siena Farms

  • Date Posted December 15, 2022
  • Location Sudbury, MA
  • Category Agriculture
  • Job type Full-Time
Company description Siena Farms is an award-winning, 75-acre market farm growing diversified produce on the fertile soils of the Sudbury River valley, twenty-five miles west of Boston.  We grow over 100 varieties of vegetables for our year-round CSA, our farmstores in the Boston Public Market and Boston’s South End, and area restaurants including family-owned Oleana, Sofra, and Sarma.  We use regenerative, biological agricultural practices to build our soil’s health and productivity, free of chemical herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers. Internship description

We are seeking individuals who are motivated by a career interest in sustainable agriculture to join our 2023 team, for a year-long apprenticeship starting this winter! Previous farming experience is preferred but not required.

Please note: our Four-Season Farm Apprentice job description below is very similar to our Seasonal Farm Apprenticeship, except for its start date being late fall or winter 2022 rather than spring or summer 2023.

Siena Farms’ apprentices are hard-working, committed, honest, passionate individuals who participate in many daily farm operations, including production, harvest and post-harvest handling. We expect our apprentices to approach tasks thoughtfully, embracing a team effort to achieve the farms’ goals for quality and efficient work, along with their own goals of developing their farming career through professional work experience.

Our apprenticeship program is modeled on traditional methods of learning a skilled trade through hands-on experience. We believe that the best way to learn to farm is, of course, by farming. Our apprentices are integral, productive members of our fast-paced, for-profit, 75-acre farm operation. They are here to work, and work hard.  And, they are here to learn. We encourage questions, we encourage ideas, and we promise to listen and to share our own questions and ideas!

This is a full-time, year-long position with flexible start dates between November 2022 and February 2023, through a specific end date of November 21, 2023 (Thanksgiving weekend).

Responsibilities

Areas of responsibilities for apprentices include but are not limited to the following;

Crop Production

  • Planting, including greenhouse propagation and mechanical transplanting in the fields
  • Winter greens production in heated greenhouses as well as unheated high tunnels.
  • Cultivation/weed-control by hand and hoe
  • Field work such as trellising, pruning, fencing & thinning
  • Mushroom, cut-flower, and specialty crop production as well as our larger scale veggie production.

Harvest

  • Daily harvest of our 150+ varieties of vegetables, fresh herbs, mushrooms and flowers
  • Post-harvest handling, including washing, curing, packing, and transporting produce

Distribution & Outreach

  • Preparation and packing of orders for restaurant deliveries and our retail stores in Boston
  • Preparation and packing of CSA Farm Shares for pickup and distribution
  • Participation in farm outreach events such as CSA member farm-tours & volunteer days

Networking & Planning

  • Bi-weekly participation in Eastern Massachusetts CRAFT farm-tours from April through October
  • In-depth crop planning sessions with our management team in January and February; reviewing and amending our 2022 crop plan line by line to build our 2023 crop plan as part of a broader annual business planning process each winter
  • Group field walks during the season with Farmer Chris and farm managers to learn from the fields and crops themselves
  • Support in developing opportunities for continuing to farm after the completion of apprenticeship, post-Thanksgiving 2023, whether at Siena Farms or elsewhere

Our apprentices, like all of our employees, are held to high standards for organization, communication, positive attitude, respect and kindness for coworkers, work quality, and professional agricultural work ethic and schedule. Of all of these values, respect and kindness for coworkers is the top priority, as everything else follows from that.  

Details

Schedule

  • Position is seasonal with start dates between November 2022 and February 2023, and an end date at Thanksgiving 2023.
  • Hours range from 40-55 hours per week depending on the season. Apprentices work four, 10-hour days per week in the winter (a.k.a., three-day weekends during winter), and five, 10- or 11-hour days per week during the spring, summer and fall.
  • Start-time is at 7 a.m. year-round, and end-time is at 5 p.m. in the winter and spring, and 6 p.m. in the summer and fall.
  • The farm as a whole is operational seven days per week during peak season (summer and fall) including holidays. Apprentices' weekly schedules during those months are either Sunday through Thursday (with a Fri/Sat weekend), or Tuesday through Saturday (with a Sun/Mon weekend).

Compensation

  • This is an hourly position, with normal overtime hours paid at time-and-a-half. 
  • Perks include a weekly veggie farm share to take home, additional access to surplus produce, plus employee discounts at Siena Farms' retail sites as well as at family restaurants Oleana and Sofra.

Other

  • We do not offer on-farm housing
  • We do offer employer sponsored health insurance to all full-time employees after 90 days from start date.

To Apply

Please email a letter of interest and a resumé to jobs@sienafarms.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Compensation this position is : salaried, $15-20/hr
Application instructions
This job expired on December 17, 2022
DeadlineFebruary 15, 2023

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