Chrysalis Earth Farm

Last Updated On: mayo 1st, 2019 at 09:11AM MST

Contact information

Farm Address:
433 Crawford Cemetery Rd
Sylva, North Carolina, 28779

Primary Contact: Candace Anthony
Secondary Contact: Justin Ellis

Primary Phone:
    Type: Cell
    Number: 561-504-4459
    Email: chrysalisearthfarm@gmail.com

Website: http://www.chrysalisearthfarm.org

Website: https://www.facebook.com/chrysalisearthfarm/

Internship information

General Farm Description: We seek one more full season intern and one Summer season Intern to join us in the 2019 season in the cultivation of an acre of annual vegetables and herbs, and acre of hemp using regenerative agricultural practices. We go to two farmers markets and have a line of plant medicine products that include our CBD oil. Farming is both hard and rewarding work and we look forward to spending the season with you if you are ready to dive in and see it through. This will be our fourth year farming vegetables and our second farming hemp. We are located in Balsam NC, 10 miles between the towns of Sylva and Waynesville and about 45 minutes west of Asheville. We are farming following the principles of William Albrecht, the BioNutrient Food Association, and others who have been articulating methods to grow robust and nutrient dense plants by focusing on the mineralization and microbiome of soil. We do no till and have been making permanent beds in our fields since we began 3 years ago (though we do use machinery to initially build beds). We have a flock of Welsh Harlequin ducks who provide eggs and occasional meat, and a small dairy goat heard. We expect interns to participate in animal chore rotation. As a family farm we see interns as part of family life too. We all are maintaining life here together which requires willingness to participate in all aspects of daily farm living including animal chores, food preparation, keeping space maintained, and an occasional eye on our 3 and a half year old. He likes hanging out when we are all working and is eager to help. He usually is curious and engaging toward the various people we've had live here. Depending on labor availability at the farm and our ability as a team to take care of daily tasks, we may do an earthen building project of building an outdoor shower, as well as some other special projects.

CRAFT Member Farm? Yes

Internship Starts: as soon as you are available
Internship Ends: 10/31/2019
Number of Internship Available: 2
Application Deadline: none
Minimum Length of Stay: full season preferred

Internship Details:

During the season, there are farm things to be done Monday through Saturday afternoon. Generally, Interns work Monday-Friday. Justin and Candace go to two separate farmers markets on Saturday Morning, an we ask for interns to cover the animal chores that morning. There may be an occasion where we ask you to do a market shift, in which case you could have time off at another point in the week. We also may ask you to farm sit for a night or two over a weekend. Other than that, Interns have Saturday and Sunday off.

As stated above, the bulk of the work will be in tending vegetables, herbs, and hemp. Of course we have a

Farming is rewarding work but can also be challenging. At times it will challenge you at your core, calling for a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, flexibility, perseverance, an ability to engage and be present to the moment at hand, and a willingness to collaborate and communicate with a group through tasks that can be tedious, repetitive, laborious, and creative. It is also wise to be cultivating within your self an open ear to the more subtle language of plants.

Educational Opportunities: Learn about a farm in its younger stages. Learn about: soil health, re-mineralization, permanent beds/to-till, mulch, hand tools, walk-behind tractors, greens and vegetables, Hemp for CBD oil, herbal medicine growing and making, seeding, greenhouses, propagating annuals and perennials, duck care, goat care, and food preservation. Please consider that we are a relatively new farm and are still developing our systems. This will not be the same experience as being on a farm that has been established for 10 or 20 years. There are advantages and disadvantages to both; consider what experience you are seeking.

Skills Desired: We do prefer having interns who have done some amount of farm work previously, but we are open to having someone for whom this is not the case. You have to start somewhere, right? Farming is beautiful, inspiring, rustic, in touch with the natural world, full of delicious food, and on a meta level is radical work that challenges the narrative of industrial food. In its lived reality though, farming is simply, a lot of work; endless work. There will be times that your body will ache, bugs bite, a rainstorm will soak, the sun will be too hot, the humidity thick, and the breeze still. Please take these truths to heart, especially if you have never worked on a farm before.

Meals: We prepare breakfast individually. We rotate lunch making between all of us and eat together, in the outdoor kitchen with interns cook and in the house when we cook. If you don't know how to cook, this is a great opportunity to learn. Dinner can either be rotated and shared or done individually, based on how folks are interested in doing it. Interns will primarily use the outdoor kitchen. It has cold water only (unless you boil some), 4 propane burners, a toaster oven, a blender and various cookware and utensils. We have space in the walk-in cooler and a chest freezer for you to have cold storage for food.

Stipend: The stipend begins between $400 - $600/month, with raises + housing, lunch on workdays, staple beans, grains, and oils for breakfast and dinner, farm produce, duck eggs and goat milk (when available), and occasional meat in exchange 5 days of work/week. Work days range from 8-10 hours depending on tasks at hand. The plants, weather and seasonal shifts do not wait on humans, and sometimes there are big pushes to get something planted or harvested on time.

Housing: We have a 8x8 rustic cabin and a 13ft round 4 season canvas bell tent on a platform. Both these spaces can have extention cords run to them for some electricity. We are also open to people who come with their own housing (tiny house, tipi, etc). There is an outdoor kitchen and a composting toilet near the outdoor kitchen for intern use. Everyone uses the shower in the farmhouse. The outdoor kitchen has cold water only, and we request folks use biodegradable soaps on our property.

Preferred method of Contact: email