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Paradise
Gardens and Farm LLC We're
growing with lots of opportunity for your creativity and innovation. (814)
568-1207 JSTEPHENCLEGHORN@YAHOO.COM
(Click to email me)
Home Who We Are PGF News What is Organic CSA Milk and Cheese Goats |
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A GARDEN/CSA APPRENTICE You will study our organic plan and seed orders, assist in seed-starting, readying and planting beds in spring, tending beds all summer, harvest and CSA box prep, serving CSA subscribers, handling CSA and organic records, will be involved in any and all inspections and other documentation requirements to get a full sense of what we do. The CSA/garden apprentice will start the beginning of March with seed-saving and bed-planning and will continue through the end of Sepember to help with final harvest and food storage and putting the beds to bed and will also help with haying and pasture management and any personal projects mutually agreed upon. As an organic, sustainable farm, we stress biodiversity. This means job diversity as well. You should expect to help with daily milking, and learn some goat care and chicken care (and dog care) as well as care for the gardens, pastures, and fruit trees. In addition, there is the sales shed on the farm and three weekly Farmers' Markets in Pittsburgh (2 hours away -- we pay for gas if you use your car)! Help welcome on weekly newsletter recipes and nutrition facts. (Skills Needed -- Minimum -- Able to work outside in various weather, bending, digging, and some heavy lifting. Commitment to organic farming. Preferred -- Knowledge of and interest in organic vegetable and fruit production and marketing.) |
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A DAIRY APPRENTICE will become familiar with all of the regulations governing our dairy licenses, will assist with goat care including kidding and kid care, milking, pasteurizing, bottling, and cheese making and packing with strong emphasis on milk sanitation, serving dairy customers and handling dairy and cheese-making records, and a once-a-week farmers' market in the next county. The dairy apprentice will be involved in any and all inspections and other documentation requirements to get a full sense of what we do. Ideally, the dairy apprentice will start in April to help with aged cheeses before markets start. Will assist in pasture management, and any personal projects mutually agreed upon. As an organic, sustainable farm, we stress biodiversity. This means job diversity as well. You should expect to help with daily milking, and learn some garden care and chicken care (and dog care) as well as dairy. In addition, there is the sales shed on the farm and three weekly Farmers' Markets in Pittsburgh (2 hours away -- we pay for gas if you use your car)! Help welcome on weekly newsletter recipes and nutrition facts. (Skills Needed -- Minimum -- Serious interest in goat care, milk sanitation, and cheese making, able to work with animals in all weather, some heavy lifting. Preferred -- Some training in milk sanitation and/or cheese making and marketing.) |
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| TO APPLY |
Contact Stephen at 814-568-1207 or at JSTEPHENCLEGHORN@YAHOO.COM
Please send resume and
tell me how you heard of us. |
| WORKING CONDITIONS |
This is hard work, long days six days a week starting before
breakfast and sometimes running after dinner. You get Sundays off. Bring a bike if you
have one. There is also hiking and camping not too far away. The work is hard especially after the newness wears off and the work remains to be done. But we can confidently promise that you will find new levels of learning and self-discovery on the other side of that hump... There are also growing levels of responsibility. Once you know a task, you may be put in charge of it, perhaps scary at first, but you will come out on the other side confident about being on your own farm with your own responsibility. It can be lonely here on the farm. We are far out in the country, away from centers with young people, restaurants, movie houses, clubs, etc. It is us and the goats and chickens and dogs. Once you know a job, you will often be working at it alone while others are doing other jobs in other places. You may spend much of your working day alone, responsible for your job. Farmwork is like that. It is also intense; the work is sometimes life-and-death as we work, for instance, to assist in birthing a goat kid or to save a sick goat kid that we may have birthed only a few weeks earlier, or to tenderly slaughter a chicken for dinner. Life on the farm is intensely real, and we would not have it any other way. While the work is hard and we need your work for the farm to work, we also recognize that apprenticeship is a learning experience. We open our library to you, and we encourage you to network and visit other sustainable farms in the area or beyond, provided chores are accounted for. We will pay for you to attend one PASA field day of your choice during the season, in addition to any field days we hold at our farm and we will let you know of opportunities as they arise. |
| LIVING | |
| Weekly stipend -- $100. We are also happy to work with your school to arrange for credit-bearing apprenticeships. |