Homesteading, Self-sufficiency, Organic farming

Seeking: Homestead / Eco-farm Intern(s)
Type: Stipend plus work-trade in exchange for housing, food, learning, more (see below)
Farm: Plainfield Heritage Farm

Location: near Belleville, Ontario
Housing: private on-farm accom. (see below)

Dates: 3 to 6-month stay

Want to experience living in harmony with nature on a vibrant, diverse, organic, regenerative historic 64 acre farm & homestead?

Seeking to learn farming and learn self-sufficiency skills?

Love animals and want to experience working with oxen & a variety of livestock.

Be one of the many who have come through our successful year-round farm mentorship program. We offer unique experiences as the only Canadian farm mentoring folks to work with oxen teams. Farm activities focus on organic, regenerative farming and self-sufficiency tasks including permaculture, organic fruit & vegetable growing strategies, care of livestock, sustainable logging, holistic pasture management and farm maintenance. Our operation includes heritage cattle, geese and chickens. We are also in process of installing a large commerical woodfired outdoor oven.

We offer a $500 stipend/ month.

Farm interns tell us their rounded experiencial knowledge gives them confident to launch into farming or self-sufficient lifestyle. Further, they report not only are the skills they learn transferable to the larger world but, they discover they are far more capable than they imagine. You are encouraged to read the former farm intern reviews on our Facebook page. References available.

Part-time duties are daily varied & interesting. Work with our oxen. Care for oxen, cattle, geese and chickens. (Very limited stall cleaning.) Prepare, plant, maintain the home organic permaculture food gardens & orchard, plant guilds, food forest build. Practice sustainable logging and firewood preparations. Help us rehabilitate hedgerows and historic fencing.

Based on your learning goals, learn food preservation, fermentation, make sourdough breads (in our woodfired oven), cheeses and fermented foods. Learn the many roles of willow, help us harvest and try your hand at basket weaving. We gear work towards your interests & learning objectives.

You'll leave with experiential understanding of the interdependence of ecology & regenerative, organic food production with concrete strategies to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. You will have a clear understanding of why regenerative farming and permaculture are effective approachs mimicing nature to foster organic food production on farms and on homesteads. You will have practiced self-sufficiency strategies and developed homesteading skills. You will be experienced with how to be around large animals, how to herd geese, partner respectfully with oxen: all within a cooperative, supportive, hands-on learning environment. You will learn much about a willow enterprise. This year is unique as we will be planting a few orchard trees, expanding the willow basket enterprise and establishing nut production.  

This minimum 3-6 month stay opportunity is appropriate to an individual or couple who is not maintaining an off-site job and is willing to be predominantly on-farm. We are diversity friendly! Must be able-bodied, trustworthy, value the natural environment and care about animals. The right candidate is physically fit, has good self-awareness, values non-violence, cooperative approaches and possesses excellent observational skills. An essential requirement is being dependable, independent self-starter. Many of our interns come with zero experience of cattle, livestock, carpentry, farm machinery etc. What is required is a willingness to try, possibly fail yet, keep at it until skills are learned. Steel-toed boots, working gloves and maintaining farm safety protocols are a must.

Accommodation is a newly renovated private apartment or large room in farmhouse. Wifi available. Feel free to take online courses or connect with friends. Cell and wifi service works well here. $500/ month stipend plus housing valued at $1000/ month plus mentoring plus food; work hours in lieu of are 5 hours daily/ 6 days a week. We will treat you like family: we encourage eating dinners together. Food is excellent, organic where possible and predominately food produced on farm. In your downtime, work on your special projects taking advantage of the infrastructure here, receive talks, films etc on organic farming & marketing & sustainable living, practice willow basket making, bread making, cooking/ preserving. Walk our farm enjoying the varied habitats & trails. Our place is close to hiking trails, Frontenac Park, Bay of Quinte. Local tourist attractions & wineries within an hour's drive. This is a great opportunity for people who are exploring being more self-suffiucient, organic food production, sustainable living, homesteading or are writers, meditators, painters, readers, naturalists, bird watchers, or interested in experiencing a little of intentional community.

Farming and taking care of ecological land is serious work. It is not suitable for people who smoke, who cannot do sustained physical labour, or who need to make a lot of noise as we are conscientious to our neighbours.

Interested in the food business? My spouse has been working for decades in the natural food industry, had developed private labels so can speak to new food product development and trends within the natural food industry. Moreover, interns are considered for an upcoming opportunity to join our cooperature group of on-farm entreprenures. This business opportunity would be for the 5 months growing season/ yearly.  

Note that many of our interns stay connected, return to us and form part of our farm-based community here.

Our high-welfare heritage farm is 64 acres of varied habitat including meadow, coniferous & hardwood forest. It is truly a paradise. We are focused upon fostering the best in people and seek the same gentle care in return. Our major enterprises are heritage grass-fed beef, goose for table, oxen teams, registered heritage cattle.

Do check out our Facebook page under Plainfield Heritage Farm for more photos, comments about our program from previous interns, videos and to get a sense of who we are. Here is a video of my oldest oxen pair logging.

If you have questions, call us at 613-849-7552.

Email resume & cover letter to:
plainfield.heritage.farm@gmail.com

Please mention you saw this at GoodWork.ca.