Culinary Farm Intern – Deck Family Farm

Last Updated On: julio 16th, 2025 at 09:00AM MST

Contact information

Farm Address:
25362 High Pass Road
Junction City, Oregon, 97448

Primary Contact: Jeremy Hyland
Secondary Contact: Christine Deck

Primary Phone:
    Type: Cell
    Number: 716-410-2933
    Email: deckfamilyfarm@gmail.com

Secondary Phone
    Type: -----
    Number: 541-953-3393
    Email:

Website: https://www.deckfamilyfarm.com

Internship information

General Farm Description: Deck Family Farm is located in Western Willamette Valley. The farm is a highly diversified operation that focuses on Regenerative Agriculture practices using pasture based animal systems. Own and lease approximately 300-500 acres. Animal groups include Heritage Red Wattle Pork, Heritage Galloway Beef, Pastured Poultry, Lamb, Jersey Dairy Cows and Organic Layer Hens. Products include beef, pork, lamb, chicken, raw milk, milk products & artisan cheese, organic eggs, fruit, nuts, and vegetable market garden. Deck Family farm stands on the principle of sustainability in all forms; energetic, environmental, and financial. Practices currently employed include riparian exclusion and restoration, managed intensive grazing, humane animal handling, reforestation and oak woodland planting, nutrient management, ethical business practice, transparency and traditional family values. The farm practices regenerative agriculture improving soil through nutrient management systems of assessing soil needs, applying composted manures, ash, and lime. DFF employs a 7-year rotation to graze, renovate and restore pastures. Over the last 20 years the farm has put 1 mile plus of riparian corridors into the Creek Restoration & Enhancement Program (CREP), performed 5 Environment Quality Incentive Program (EQUIP) projects to sequester and compost manure on farm, and planted over 100,000 trees through the Forest Trust Program. All forage produced on farm is certified organic with Oregon Tilth. Deck Family Farm maintains a humane handling certification with GAP (Good Animal Practices), is AGA (American Grass-fed Association) Certified, and holds Salmon Safe certification for our creek and riparian restoration work. Deck strives to build reasonable efficiencies and economies of scale for financial resiliency while acknowledging that the lives of the animals we raise and the people we feed are all sacred. DFF runs a year-round education program for 8-10 intern/trainees and apprentices that includes a cost of living allowance, introduces trainees to neighboring farms, supports externships and on and off farm research projects. Approximately 50% of DFF graduates continue into some sector of the agriculture industry. The workday begins at 7 AM with an all farm meeting, milking, and farm chores. We break for an hour at noon and finish the day between 4 to 6PM. The work week is 5 days on 2 days off, 8-10 hours/day. We appreciate flexibility depending on the season and work load. Deck Family Farm is a multi-generational and community-oriented farm. The ideal applicant thrives in a full and rich environment of activity and diversity. The farm has an open gate; policy that welcomes visitors any day but Sunday. Deck is dedicated to being transparent in our practice and is committed to keeping our agricultural heritage alive and relevant for our farm community and beyond.

CRAFT Member Farm? No

Internship Starts: Applicants considered year-round
Internship Ends: Applicants considered year-round
Number of Internship Available: 1
Application Deadline: open
Minimum Length of Stay: 1 year w/ stipend, extended stays considered. 2nd year program available by application.

Internship Details:

This is perfect for someone who is interested in the culinary side of farming! We’re looking for someone passionate about creating high-quality food and cares about how those animals were raised. Some of the key things you will learn are: Animal butchery, sausage making, cheesemaking, rendering lard, making broth, knife, kitchen, and cooking skills, spreadsheeting, and record keeping.

You will be an important part of our house-made, value-added products program. You will primarily work alongside our processing manager and be trained through hands-on experience with written Standard Operating Procedures. This is a very dynamic role. A usual week will consist of producing and packaging 1-2 batches of value-added meat product (sausage, broth, lard, or pet food) and 1-2 batches of cheese/week. There are also semi-annual events and dinners that happen here, so you will assist in preparing those meals. April-November is poultry processing season so you will be part of the crew processing chickens and turkeys from live animal to packaged product. When needed, animals need to be put down due to disability or sickness. When possible, we save this meat for ourselves or our farm dogs. This is an opportunity to learn how to humanely and respectfully kill and process livestock.

You will also assist in delivering our livestock to our USDA processor and picking up the resulting packaged product. This is a very important part of running the farm that takes an often-overlooked degree of knowledge and planning. These are integral skills and protocols to know, especially if you intend on raising animals for slaughter and sale in the future.

This program will prepare you for work in many food handling and preparation jobs. It will be a great way to learn butchery skills if you have goals of becoming a butcher, meat processor, homesteader, chef, or own a livestock farm.  There are also many opportunities for working on the farm and gaining animal husbandry experience. About 30 hours/week are dedicated to meat and dairy processing. The remaining 20 hours can be made up in our other intern tracks that are listed above. If you are interested in this companion program, the best contact is Jeremy at 716-410-2933 or Deckfamilyfarm@gmail.com.

Educational Opportunities: This is perfect for someone who is interested in the culinary side of farming! We’re looking for someone passionate about creating high-quality food and cares about how those animals were raised. Some of the key things you will learn are: Animal butchery, sausage making, cheesemaking, rendering lard, making broth, knife, kitchen, and cooking skills, spreadsheeting, and record keeping. You will be an important part of our house-made, value-added products program. You will primarily work alongside our processing manager and be trained through hands-on experience with written Standard Operating Procedures. This is a very dynamic role. A usual week will consist of producing and packaging 1-2 batches of value-added meat product (sausage, broth, lard, or pet food) and 1-2 batches of cheese/week. There are also semi-annual events and dinners that happen here, so you will assist in preparing those meals. April-November is poultry processing season so you will be part of the crew processing chickens and turkeys from live animal to packaged product. When needed, animals need to be put down due to disability or sickness. When possible, we save this meat for ourselves or our farm dogs. This is an opportunity to learn how to humanely and respectfully kill and process livestock. You will also assist in delivering our livestock to our USDA processor and picking up the resulting packaged product. This is a very important part of running the farm that takes an often-overlooked degree of knowledge and planning. These are integral skills and protocols to know, especially if you intend on raising animals for slaughter and sale in the future. This program will prepare you for work in many food handling and preparation jobs. It will be a great way to learn butchery skills if you have goals of becoming a butcher, meat processor, homesteader, chef, or own a livestock farm. There are also many opportunities for working on the farm and gaining animal husbandry experience. About 30 hours/week are dedicated to meat and dairy processing. The remaining 20 hours can be made up in our other intern tracks that are listed above. If you are interested in this companion program, the best contact is Jeremy at 716-410-2933 or Deckfamilyfarm@gmail.com.

Skills Desired: Experience is welcome. Desire to learn is required. We will train the right candidate.

Meals: All food is provided, evening meal is family style, with all community members sharing rotating cooking and cleaning chores.

Stipend: $10,000 for 1st year internship, Room and Board included. Second year apprenticeship positions open $20,000 after completion of first year.

Housing: Accommodations are modest, either shared housing in an intern room, cabin or COB (Adobe) house. Room & Board provided, kitchen, bathroom and laundry access in main house.

Preferred method of Contact: Email or phone