Organic Vegetables Crew Leader – New Morning Farm

Last Updated On: January 3rd, 2024 at 09:38AM MST

Contact information

Farm Address:
22263 Anderson Hollow Rd
Hustontown, Pennsylvania, 17229

Primary Contact: Jennifer Glenister
Primary Phone:
    Type: Office
    Number: 814 448 3904
    Email: jobs@newmorningfarm.net

Website: https://www.newmorningfarm.net/employment

Internship information

General Farm Description: Have experience growing vegetables, but not quite ready for the farm manager roles? We can offer the next step, bridging the gap, letting you build management skills and experience in crops, jobs, marketing, leadership, and business. We are a 25 acre, highly diversified (40+crops), organic vegetable farm managed by a team of 10 apprentices and experienced growers. We focus our production towards our bustling farmers markets in Washington D.C. To meet market demand, we strive to consistently produce high quality produce every week using season extension and succession plantings. We also sell many amazing veggies, fruits, and foods from our neighbors in the country. With a 50-year history, we are constantly striving to improve our systems and be sustainable with regards to our soil and environment, our people, and our business.

CRAFT Member Farm? No

Internship Starts: 2024 growing season with opportunities to start immediately
Internship Ends: Thanksgiving 2024 with opportunity for with year round work
Number of Internship Available: 1
Application Deadline: Please see our website for full application instructions. www.newmorningfarm.net/employment
Minimum Length of Stay: 8 months, Please let me know if you're interested in a shorter stay and we can tailor work, responsibility, and compensation

Internship Details:

Our crew leader coordinates and facilitates almost all aspects of our work as a team, growing crops through to the markets. Each job or crop has a manager, but the crew leader is our hub of information that helps the crew move from one task to the next and creatively manages resources of time, people, and equipment so we can get all our priority work done within our day/week. As crew leader you’ll learn our systems for production, communication, and most importantly for prioritizing work, labor management, and risk management. You will also manage a couple jobs and crops taking a deep dive and learning our decision making processes that can be applied to any crop or job.

Our apprentices are trained to manage a variety of crops and jobs on the farm. While apprentices spend a significant amount of time transplanting, weeding, irrigating, harvesting, and marketing, the primary role of each apprentice is to manage their areas of responsibility. Each person has the opportunity to engage in learning about organic vegetable production, marketing fresh produce, people/labor management, and problem solving. The farm is well developed and established, offering a great opportunity for beginning farmers to learn from seasoned farmers.

Educational Opportunities: Besides continual on the job learning, we do seminars every other week, covering training topics, but also topics chosen by our apprentices. Topics include: how to be a crop manager, postharvest handling, farm safety, tractor safety and operation, irrigation, farmers market displays and operations, crop costs/budgets and pricing, labor management, our Profit and Loss(how does this business function?) With commitment for the following season, we pay registration to off farm and virtual educational events, including conferences, trainings, and farmer gatherings.

Skills Desired: Significant previous vegetable experience would be key to jumping in as crew leader. Enthusiasm, work ethic, organization, communication, and willingness to work as a team are all qualities that make for a successful crew leader.

Meals: The farm pays for all food that we grow, that we buy from our neighbor growers, and that we sell at market. We also expect that you'll go to the grocery store for the usual everyday items like pasta, ice cream, chocolate etc. There are just a handful of foods that the farm doesn't pay for. We do a weekly potluck, but otherwise meal preparation is up to the employee and their household/coworkers to coordinate.

Stipend: compensation includes monthly salary plus full room and full board, opportunities for overtime, and steady year round work and a month paid vacation with a commitment for the next season

Housing: Yes, everyone has a private bedroom with shared kitchen and living space. No more than 3 people per kitchen, and all utilities are paid excepting only the monthly internet bill(shared by the household).

Preferred method of Contact: email