January 31, 2005
That time of year again
Generally speaking, there are two kinds of labor on organic vegetable farms of our size and location. First, there interns or apprentices. These are folks who want to be farmers someday, or who for a variety of reasons, want a farm experience in their lives. So they work and live on a farm for the season, and have what amounts to a farm immersion experience.
Intern/apprentices typically trade labor for room, board, a modest stipend, and some learing. Learning time can be one on one, going to NOFA-VT workshops, or something more group oriented. For example, there is a group of farmers in our area that all labor share with their interns, which means that very week, all the farmers and their interns go work on someone else's farm for an afternoon, and then they have a potluck dinner together that night. That way the farmer gets a big crew for an afternoon, and the interns get to see how other farmers work as well. Plus, everyone gets to socialize at night.
This is the time of year that people start to advertize for intern/apprenticeships, so I am posting an notice on the site here, and I will link to it in the column on the left.
The second type of labor are hourly workers. We usually advertize for those folks later in the winter/spring -- sometime in March.
So here is the intern/apprencticeship notice:
Organic Vegetable Internship/Apprenticeship Available
Old Shaw Farm is a certified organic, family run, vegetable farm in Peacham, Vermont. We currently have three acres under production and market our vegetables and culinary herbs at two farmer's markets, at a farmstand on our property, through our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) membership, and through a couple of wholesale accounts.
We are looking for 1-2 interns/apprentices for the 2005 growing season.
Interns will be exposed to every aspect of the vegetable operation, from planning, field prep, seedling care, transplant and planting, cultivating, tractor work, harvesting, post-harvest handling, and greenhouse work. Other possible projects include trail upkeep, light carpentry work, or building a new greenhouse.
Interns will be expected to work 4 longish days a week for a total of approximately 36 hours. Interns should be dependable, in good physical shape, willing to get dirty and work hard, excited about organic agriculture, and reasonably fun to work with.
In addition, there are opportunities to visit other farms (and their interns!), attend NOFA summer workshops, and structure any one-on-one learning. For off-days, Peacham is a beautiful place, located in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, with nearby access to swimming, hiking, mountain biking, the White Mountains, the Green Mountains, and lots of fresh air.
Room and board are provided. Housing can be in our house, which would be a co-living situation (warning: we eat meat and dairy), or in the unfinished barn, or out in the woods. A weekly stipend is also provided. We need at least a ten week commitment, and would prefer people who are able to stay longer. Our season runs from April until October.
There is also a chance that later in the spring we will also be hiring an additional 1-2 hourly workers for 16-24 hours per week,
If you are interested or have any questions call or arrange a visit:
Maryellen and Peter Griffin -- (802) 592-3349
or email us at either maryellen AT oldshawfarm DOT com or peter AT oldshawfarm DOT com.
We will also be at the NOFA-VT winter conference on February 12, 2005 in Randolph, VT!
January 26, 2005
Love that off season!
We all went to Arizona for a few days, to visit family and enjoy the warm weather. It was awesome. We got to play with Waverly's cousins Billy and baby Annie plus her aunts and uncles including Auntie Jess and Uncle Pete who were both in from out of town.
My brother Joe and sister in law Barb are members of the Victory Farm CSA out there. We went to their pickup on Saturday morning, which was a lot of fun. And very interesting. I always think oh if we just had more heat for our crops, we'd be on easy street, but I realized every place has its own challenges and advantages. Obviously water is a major limiting factor out there. And we are always struggling to find ways to compete successfully with veggies from California, but that's even harder when you're just one state over!
Also, their CSA has 100 members. I thought they'd be so far ahead of us that I wouldn't really be able to relate to them, but they were very down to earth and their operation was in many ways similar to ours. Talking with them really gave me hope that we have what it takes to have a real CSA too. Of course we're not 20 minutes from a major metropolitan area, like they are, but we've got other advantages!
Anyway, we didn't get to visit the farm because it's their busy time (!!), and they were dealing with sick kids on top of that, but it was interesting just to see their pickup site. We spent the morning hiking in the desert instead.
January 16, 2005
New trail
Our forester, Kurt Zschau, marked a new trail for us. It is a long loop through the woods which we can use for walking, skiing, snowshoeing, plus more utilitarian uses like getting into the woods for firewood, to get logs for building hoophouses, etc.
It will be built as part of some logging work which hopefully will start in a few weeks.
We all went and walked it yesterday afternoon. (Kurt is Waverly's friend Tommy's dad; that's Tommy on his back.) It was awesome!!
January 10, 2005
Is Waverly really a CIA secret agent?
We have three computers around the house, all in various stages of deterioration, and Waverly loves looking at the pictures on the blog, and banging on the keyboard.
But lately we have noticed something strange. Although supposedly she is only "banging" on the keyboard, the other day Maryellen saw that Wavo had somehow pulled up a spreadsheet on the screen with economic data on various South American countries. And yesterday I looked over her shoulder and saw a page entitled "NASA privacy policies and security protocols". Even more ominously, last week I saw she had a window up that simply stated "Your download is now complete". Yikes!
What is she up to? And should we be worried? I know there tend to be areas of a child's life that a parent doesn't know about, but I thought that was mostly a teenage thing. I think we are going to have to keep an eye on this one. For all we know, she may already be keeping an eye on us!
January 08, 2005
Hip boards
Peter's hustling to get the last hip boards up. I think I heard him say two more to go, and I think once those are up, it's ready for the plastic. Then the guts of the greenhouse, heating system, etc. go in. It's hard to believe, what with it snowing out there as I type, but there is starting to be time pressure to get the greenhouse ready for the season.
January 07, 2005
No sled needed
We've got a thick undercoat of ice, and the recent snowfall seems to only have served to wash the sand away from the walkway and driveway. Ethan found the silver lining.
Coyote print
At least I think this is a coyote print. I'm not sure how to tell the difference between coyote and dog print, but my guess is coyote because it was recent and far from any house with dogs in it.
January 06, 2005
Kid tricks
Waverly is firmly in her putting-food-on-her-head phase.
Here she is trying to wear some kale and soba noodles. All our parenting books say kids usually outgrow this stage, but in my family, I think my brothers and I continued into our early twenties.
January 02, 2005
No snow, no go
We had big plans this year to have a New Year's Day sledding party on the big hill behind the barn. But the strangest thing happened.
The week before Christmas and on New Year's Eve we had warm weather and rain! Lots of rain. And it wiped out all our snow. It looks very strange up here to have no snow on January 2. But there you have it.
When we saw the 10-day forecast predicting rain and temps in the 40s on New Year's Eve, we didn't even bother sending out calls or invites for the party. We just decided we couldn't go through with a party where we all rolled down a muddy hill all afternoon.
A final thank you
Thank you again to everyone who gave to our 2004 NOFA-VT fund raising drive. We had more donors than I would have ever expected, and with our own contribution (probably in the $200 range), we should end up with over $1600. Seriously, I am blown away by the outpouring by friends and family and total strangers who like our blog. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Housekeeping
Well, the holidays are over and now we return to reality. Hopefully, that will include some more frequent posting now that our travelling and partying have died down.
Just in case you have noticed, our comment sections have been being bombed by spam. The only solution we have, for now, is to go back and shut down many of the old comment threads. We now only leave open the comments on the most recent couple of posts. But the spambots find those as well, so if you see some spam in those comments before we do, please be patient. Thanks!