Farm Apprentice Work Trade

Home-scale farm & food forest (veggies, fruits & herbs)

Position: Farm Hand Apprentice, Work Trade
Type: volunteer/unpaid plus glamping accom (canvas tent), meals, more (see below)

Farm: Earthling Farm | Instagram | Facebook
Location: Forest Hill, near Wolfville, Nova Scotia
Season: July-October 2024 (whole season or minimum 4 weeks)

Greetings Good Workers,

We now have an Amazing Canvas Tent for resident farm helpers to stay in! See photos!

Please read the WHOLE profile first before applying.

We are Meg and Erich, and our small baby Leyda-Anonna, together with our animals and plants we make up our Farm and Food Forest!

• Meg is a passionate permaculture farmer, seed saver, dancer, nature loving, community herbalist, tea maker, art lover, animal lover, who moved to the Farm in June 2022. Meg farmed in B.C., on southern Vancouver Island for 7 seasons and now farming in N.S. Meg whips up delicious farm fresh food every day and believes in the power of delicious fresh grown and harvested food to bring communities together in a celebratory way! Meg is also an inspired walker and grower of perennial native and introduced plant garden Labyrinths.
• Erich grew up in Wolfville, loves playing many instruments, loves veggies and different ways to prepare tasty healthy food, studied Geography in Quebec at Bishop's University, planted over 2 Million trees in Western Canada's reforestation industry for 13 seasons, travelled seasonally to volunteer on various small farms and natural building projects across Nova Scotia, B.C, Ontario, California, New Mexico, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Spain, Portugal, and Nepal. Erich recently moved back to Gaspereau, Nova Scotia to start a Cooperative Permaculture Farm and Arts homested in 2019!
• Erich and Meg met in 2022 fell in Love and now have a beloved bebe Leyda Anonna Rose ❤️

Wolfville, Gaspereau and Grand Pre are beautifully located in the beautiful lands and waters of the unceeded Mi'k Mak'i First Nation territory, colonized as Nova Scotia.

Mixed hardwood and conifer forests, roll along hills into farmland and dykelands constructed by the Acadian peoples, merging with the shores of the Bay of Fundy, which claim the highest tides on the planet.

There are numerous freshwater rivers, lakes and seaside swimming spots for those hot summer days or those wintery cold water submersions!

Its a big dream of Erich and Meg's to create an abundant and vibrant Cooperative Arts Farm and Ecology (CAFE) homestead, with multiple private cabins, that hosts farm team residents, travellers, guests, and people who are passionate and keen about realizing and expressing their inspirations through growing food organically and engaging in a dedicated heart felt creative practice in the arts or trade of their choosing!

Mission: Planning, Planting and Propagating as diverse and productive a garden and homestead as is manageable, while balancing creative free-time with family and friends.

Vision: An Abundant cooperative homestead with diverse, permaculture gardens, strawbale cob guest cabins and an earthship education and arts center that hosts an evolving seed bank, plant collection, seasonal workshops and picnic-potlucks with musical acts!

Rooted in Growing and Producing as Much Food as is Managable on the Land, Building Foundations in Regenerative Food Production on the Homested is the current priority for the Work Trade at this time.

Living on the land, dedicated to growing and regenerating fertility, and biodiversity in the soil and plant eco-systems is a crucial aspect of building the dream we wish to live here on the farm.

Farm Tasks and Goals of keeping up with seeding, planting, and plant care are a priority for the Farm Stay.

This Farm is an up-and-coming small-scale, mixed-vegetable and fruit Farm and Arts homestead in Gaspereau, Nova Scotia, Canada.

We a currently seeking collaborators for our 2024, Summer and Fall growing season!

Thanks for all the Wonderful Guests and Good Workers who helped out over the years!

It has been a tremendous feat of production and to you we are forever grateful and will cherish the memories for many years to come!

• We would prefer a 4 week minimum stay.
• Unfortunately we will not be able to host pets this season unless guests have their own camper van accommodation where they and their pet can have their own private space.
• We also encourage part-time work-trade situations for local helpers living off site where we provide meals and vegetables in exchange for field work.

We invite motivated, open, enthusiastic, diligent and playful individuals who have a passion for nature and community to learn and work together with us to bring to fruition our 2024 Garden Plan!

The Farm offers a space for people who seek to thrive in an experiential learning environment with organic farming, permaculture principles and creative, nature based arts activities.

• We offer 2 large, delicious and healthy vegetarian (sometimes meaty) meals a day.
• indoor shower/bathroom and kitchen in the house.
• A private glamping accomodation outside the house for June-October.

Work trade Farm Tasks are priority and vary depending on the season.

A general break-down of seasonal tasks looks like:

• Winter: Interior House Renovations, Wood Chores, Chicken Care, Canning and Pickling, Arts, Crafts, Music Making, Permaculture Design Planning, Drawing, Planning for the Market Garden.
• Spring: Indoor/Outdoor seeding, plant propagation, garden bed preparation, greenhouse maintenence, planting of vegetables, berry crops, trees, early harvests, washing, packing preparing for farmers markets and our CSA, caring for our chickens.
• Summer: Watering with irrigation, Harvests, Wash/pack of produce, Markets, seeding and planting for Fall harvests, Hosting potluck and special events, chicken care.
• Fall: Harvests, Markets, planting garlic, putting the garden to bed/preparing for winter, wood chores, chicken care.

Our schedule for Work Trade guests is:

• 8am-2pm with a 12-2pm lunch Monday to Friday.
• Or if it's too hot we will work more in the mornings and evenings, and break during the hottest hours.
• 2 Meals and accommodation included if available.

Work Trade Farm Tasks will include:

• Seeding and watering transplant trays,
• Prepping, amending, and maintaining garden beds with silage tarps and hand-tools like push forks and broadforks.
• Setting up and watering with drip and sprinkler irrigation
• Caring for laying hens, egg collection, coop maintenance and compost creation
• Direct seeding and Transplanting of crops
• Watering, Harvesting, Washing and Packing of produce
• Planting food forest plants, Fruit Trees, perennial shrubs, Vines, ground cover plants, nitrogen fixing trees, hardwood trees, grapes, blueberries, strawberries and more!
• Coming up with newer creative ways to find more markets for our produce and to increase efficiency and production capacity within our small-scale operation.

For more info visit earthlingfarm.org

Send an email cover letter application to: earthlingfarm@mail.com and we can see about calling you back for an interview!

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