Chugach Farm

Last Updated On: February 21st, 2024 at 08:22AM MST

Contact information

Farm Address:
POB 1223
Chickaloon, Alaska, 99674

Primary Contact: Allie Barker
Primary Phone:
    Type: Home
    Number: 907-746-4566
    Email: chugachfarm@gmail.com

Website: http://www.chugachfarm.com

Internship information

General Farm Description: We are an off-grid, small scale homestead farm located in the beautiful Matanuska Valley in Alaska. We focus on no-till, regenerative growing methods and produce a diversity of vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs. We grow enough food to feed our family year round, sell on our online platform, at the farmers market, to restaurants, and provide CSF (Community Supported Ferments) shares from May-October. Farmers markets/deliveries are bi-weekly and require helpers to rise early, harvest veggies and have prepared value added goods the day before. We rely heavily on root cellar storage, traditional food preservation techniques, hunting, fishing, picking berries and wild plants. Chickens and ducks are used for egg production, composting and and add fertility to the soil. Pigs clear land, fertilize, and and are available in our pig share program. We grow intensively in a small space. In addition to outdoor beds, our growing capacity includes hoop houses, a wood fired seed-house and earthship style greenhouse with a wood-fired radiant heat system under the beds, a 16x90' high tunnel, and hardening off house. We focus on simple, low-cost methods of living using ingenuity. We strive to provide for all of our needs. This means some days we are milling wood, other days we are fermenting food, making bone broth, rebuilding a well pump, or hunting and wild harvesting plants and berries in addition to daily farm tasks.

CRAFT Member Farm? No

Internship Starts: March 15-April 15
Internship Ends: October 15
Number of Internship Available: 2
Application Deadline: Contact to fill out an application
Minimum Length of Stay: "2 months, full season preferred, or 2-3 days/week for local "

Internship Details:

Off Grid -Human Powered- Nutrient Dense- Small Scale- Beyond Organic Farm and Homestead.
Seeking motivated individuals passionate about growing regeneratively and putting up food, learning new skills, and working hard.
Most skills require lots of repetition others don’t.

After reading all of this, if you are seriously interested, email us for more information.

Educational Opportunities: Spring projects include: Prepping growing areas, building and fixing fence lines, prepping the gravity feed water system, installing pump for pond water, broad forking, amending beds, building and spreading compost, cleaning out chicken coop, maintaining wood heat in the greenhouse, making soil blocks starts, chopping wood, making ferments, and other various tasks. Note that this farm opportunity is not limited to the growing area, but a large portion of your time will be invested in all the workings of a homestead. Summer projects include: Transplanting, seeding, weeding, watering, harvesting for market, washing and processing vegetables, making value added products, harvesting herbs and making medicine, canning and freezing, smoking salmon, making ferments, building and turning compost, brewing compost tea, care of chickens, ducks, pigs, mixing, preparing, soaking and fermenting animal feed daily and/or weekly, building projects, etc. Fall Projects include: Vegetable harvest, berry picking, moose or caribou butchering and preserving, making ferments, pressing apple cider, food preservation and canning, clearing land for growing, cover cropping, laying silage tarps, chopping wood, and winterizing farm. Slaughter and processing of hogs in early Oct including traditional preservation techniques. Daily- taking care of pigs, making animal food for pigs, chickens, and ducks. Watering starts, maintaining gravity water system, managing and improving off grid systems, opening and closing venting systems for structures, rolling up sides on tunnels etc. and doing it all again in the evening. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also looking for individuals interested in coming to Chugach Farm with a structured symbiotic partnership fiefdom proposition. We are interested in creating community. If you have a tiny home, a business idea, and a desire to collaborate, GET IN TOUCH!

Skills Desired: farm experience with seeding, transplanting, making soil blocks, watering starts natural building experience herbal medicine skills, knowledge, or interest a passion for learning excellent communication skills must be comfortable living in rustic rural environment among moose and bears

Meals: We eat 100% from the foods that we hunt-fish-gather-grow from the farm and the wild. We provide our own meat, vegetables, goat milk (local goat share),eggs, ferments, and fat (lard). We encourage apprentices to truly embrace what it means to eat what’s in season, from the farm and the wild. Apprentices prepare their own breakfasts, lunch and most dinners. We will share dinners as often as possible. We purchase a few INGREDIENTS not grown on the farm for apprentices, like salt, coconut milk, and dried beans from a food Co-op. Non-staples and nuts must be purchased independently. Your enthusiasm for cooking and eating well will nourish and help sustain your energy during your time here. Eating well is core to our vision so we make time to prepare excellent food, by hand, fresh from the farm. Apprentices are encouraged to use their cooking time to develop skills working with farm-based, nutrient-dense ingredients. A sun oven is available for cooking on sunny days. An earth oven is available in the greenhouse but requires planning and preparation. Allie is committed to eating an ancestral diet and adheres to a strict gluten-free diet. We cannot accommodate vegetarians or vegans.

Stipend: Yes, please ask.

Housing: Apprentice accommodations include either a 12x14 deluxe wall tent with wood stove and propane cook stove. OR- bring your own tiny home. Outhouse- no plumbing available. Sauna is available for washing and cleaning as well an on-demand propane outdoor shower. Expect to haul water a few hundred yards to wall tent. Cell phone reception can be spotty. ATT is only service that works here. We have a landline for occasional daytime and emergency use.

Preferred method of Contact: Phone or Email