Butcher Shop Internship, On-Farm Mace Chasm Farm
- Date Posted August 29, 2016
- Location Keeseville, NY
- Category Agriculture / Culinary
- Job type Internship/Apprentice
We do our own added-value work, and direct market the meats & eggs that we raise to a local customer base.
Meat cutting takes place in our on-farm 20C Butcher Shop, which specializes in fresh cuts, fresh sausages, and smoked meats, and is run by a crew of three here during the busy season. We also run a Farm Food Truck that features our meats & other local veggies, dairy, and baked goods.
2017 will be our 5th year in production, so we’re still shaping infrastructure & systems on the farm, but have a solid foundation and many great systems in place. The whole farm team is usually comprised of six people during the growing season, and three people during the deep Winter months, though we are working on some changes that will lead to the option for year-round employment. We're in research & design phase this winter of adding a dry curing facility to our small shop - we would like to switch gears in the Winter to dry curing of our pork, and then shift back to fresh cuts during the Summer months. We farrow twice per year, so half of our annual pork is ready during the Winter months when our local economy is much quieter - so we see this as an opportunity to make a different line of product.
Farm owners are Asa Thomas-Train (age 34) and Courtney Grimes-Sutton (age 33), and we both work full-time on the farm alongside the rest of the crew. Asa's background is in Geography, Trail-building, and Stone Masonry. Court's background is in Farming, Metal Work, and Butchery. Asa grew up here and knows the mountains well. Court grew up in MA and moved up here from the Hudson Valley in 2009.
Our farm is part of an awesome little ag community in the eastern Adirondacks. This region is rural, mountainous, and beautiful.
We are looking for someone with at least enough experience in a similar environment to know that you like this work, and are driven to improve. We are happy to share more about the day-in, day-out of this work through e-mail so that you can be sure this experience will be a good fit for you.
This internship is in the Butcher Shop, but could include some time out in the fields depending on where your interests lie, where you would be helping with farm projects, livestock care and hay making, etc. Everyone on the team will help out in each department when needed, but will have an area of personal responsibility where we spend the majority of our time.
Intern's responsibilities would include:
- Taking care of the shop & projects underway in coordination w/ coworkers in the shop. Rinsing bacons, smoking & cooling meats, making sure shop is clean and retail areas are stocked.
- Making & packing our awesome sausages.
- Grinding meats.
- Working with head Butcher in cutting and packing
- Preparing fresh ingredients for sausages (harvesting herbs, washing & chopping, etc.)
- Breaking down whole carcasses from the rail into cuts.
- Preparation of the various cuts that we market.
- Making sausages.
- Customer Service in a Butcher Shop, which usually involves helping people find the right ingredients for whatever dish or style of dish they have in mind. You will learn about the culinary uses of all the different cuts.
- Quality Control, Food Safety, Regulations.
- Raising Livestock.
- Poultry Processing. We do this right on the farm, and it's a team event.
Timing:
This internship is available year-round. Right now, we are looking for someone who will stay for the coming season. Ideally from some time in May through Thanksgiving, when things wind down - 6 months. Time before and after that window is flexible - being here during the slow season lends itself to more intensive training time, and will deepen your gains in knowledge during the busy season. We would be happy to take you on before May.
Markets here get rolling in late May and are full steam from June through September, and busy enough until Christmas. We're still butchering in lower volumes during later winter months, approving new recipes and testing new products, making improvements to the shop, etc. The earlier in the season you start, the more ready you'll be when things speed up for the growing & market season. The slower winter months are very different from the Summer, but it's a great time to learn the basics because the speed/push needed from the crew in the Summer subsides, and I am more available to teach breakdown at a slower pace. The hours are less in the shop during winter, and are flexible. However, there will be a training time in May, and you will still learn all of the above throughout the season.
What Else?
This Winter we will be doing some research and making some visits to other shops to prepare a design and plan for an addition to our Butcher Shop going up next season, which will give us more cold storage, a dry curing space, a new work space for carcass breakdown, and a new little retail front. Woot!
Compensation is on-farm housing, good food, and weekly stipend.
We are looking for someone who is; a patient & motivated learner, a driven person, attentive to detail, pro-diversity, and into rural life!
Don't hesitate to e-mail us w/ questions.
You can find some pictures & info about us on our website.
Thanks for reading!
- Courtney & Asa & co. @ MCF Compensation this position is : stipend / non-monetary compensation
Work visa This employer is willing to sponsor a work visa for international applicants Application instructions