Orchard Botanicals


Contact information
Farm Address:
8792 SE Overaa Rd
Port Orchard, Washington, 98367

Primary Contact: Jene Farr
Secondary Contact: Sonya Pongsavas

Primary Phone:
    Type:
Cell
    Number: 2063277080
    Email: harborherbalist@gmail.com

Secondary Phone
    Type:
-----
    Number: 9096800015
    Email:

Website: https://www.harborherbalist.com

Internship information
General Farm Description: We have 20 acres of mixed forest, mixed orchard, and row plantings (including herbs, medicinal plants, food, and flowers). About eight acres are cleared, the rest of the property is forested with a few paths into the forest. We live in a rural-suburban area close to the Puget Sound, Seattle, and Tacoma. Our farm is currently not in full-production in terms of herb, veggie, and flowers. But we are looking for an intern or a couple who are interested in land tending and maintenance. We make chili and rose jam during the summer and fall, distill herbs into essential oils and hydrosols, and have a small herbal tea business. We vend at two Seattle farmers markets seasonally and part of the internship could be vending at the market and preparing teas for the markets. We are also currently looking for someone with holistic orcharding and general farming experience. We have a renovated bus, 20 ft bell tent, or a 24 ft camper trailer for lodging. The owner/farmer is a full-time therapist and can be very busy, but is an avid cook, herbalist, and likes to hangout whenever possible. The farm tends to be quiet, peaceful, and easily fulfills needs for solitude and personal space. We are looking for self-aware individuals who can physically work hard and love working with their hands, are lgbtqia allies, and already have some land tending, herbalism, and/or natural building experience.

CRAFT Member Farm? No

Internship Starts: April 2024
Internship Ends: Sept 15, 2023
Number of Internship Available: 2
Application Deadline: April 2024
Minimum Length of Stay: 2 months

Internship Details:

The internship/work-trade is designed for people interested in longterm homesteading, herbalism, and regenerative agriculture on a small scale. We focus on perennial mixed interspecies plantings, pollinator planting, and mixed perennial orcharding. We do not grow a large variety of annual food crops and do not do any successional planting throughout the season. We spend the spring prepping beds and planting through the spring and just do a little weed control throughout the height of the summer in our food and flower gardens. Our project is ideal for people who love working with ducks and geese, have a sense for how much work goes into living on land sustainably, and love living generously with others. Since we do not have a production farm the work is cyclical with periods of high productivity and periods of ease. We love folks who work hard, are energetic, and come with holistic ecological principles in mind.

We are looking for interns to work about 15-20 hrs a week, pay options available based on experience or for individuals interested in vending at the Seattle farmers markets on weekends.

 


Educational Opportunities: Learning to make herbal products including: herbal jam, teas, essential oils, hydrosols, flower arranging, land tending. We do extensive rotational grazing with ducks, chickens, geese, and guinea fowl, so a love of poultry and moving animals around is a must.

Skills Desired: Most of the work we do during the season is mulching, building no-till perennial gardens, making and spraying compost tea, weed whacking, moving animals, and forest maintenance. The work we do is a little arduous at times, but done in a relaxed manner and rewarding. We love people into herbalism and cooking, who can work solo and are self-driven. We always love interns with carpentry experience or a love of building poultry coops, sheds, etc.

Meals: Not currently, but this is negotiable

Stipend: yes

Housing: yes

Preferred method of Contact: email