Equipment/Special Proj – Sylvester Manor
Last Updated On: August 4th, 2025 at 09:58AM MST
Contact information
Farm Address:80 North Ferry Road
PO Box 2029
Shelter Island, New York, 11964
Primary Contact: Arielle Gardner
Secondary Contact: Tracy McCarthy
Primary Phone:
Type: Cell
Number: 6319056981
Email: agardner@sylvestermanor.org
Secondary Phone
Type: -----
Number: 2039841247
Email: tmccarthy@sylvestermanor.org
Email: tmccarthy@sylvestermanor.org
Website: https://www.sylvestermanor.org
Internship information
General Farm Description: Our farm operation currently consists of 7+ acres of vegetables, small fruit and a cut flower program. The produce from our farm feeds over 100 CSA families, stocks our farmstand, and is donated to local food pantries. We raise pastured laying hens and pigs in marginal woodlands and rotate them through our growing fields. We have 40 runner ducks that graze our vegetable fields for soil fertility and egg production. We also have a unique on-farm, composting system(s), including a town wide food scraps diversion collection system.CRAFT Member Farm? Yes
Internship Starts: September 2025
Internship Ends: November 2026
Number of Internship Available: 1
Application Deadline: March 30, 2026
Minimum Length of Stay: 7 months
Internship Details:
Our Farm
Our farm operation currently consists of 7+ acres of vegetables, small fruit and a cut flower program. The produce from our farm feeds over 125 CSA families, stocks our farmstand, and is donated to local food pantries. We raise pastured laying hens and pigs in marginal woodlands and rotate them through our growing fields. We have 40 runner ducks that graze our vegetable fields for soil fertility and egg production. We also have a unique on-farm, composting system(s), including a town wide food scraps diversion collection system.
Job Description
We’re hiring an Apprentice with a focus on equipment and special projects for the Fall/Winter 2025/2026 season. We are seeking hardworking, high-energy, positive individuals who are motivated by a career in agriculture. This is a great position for someone who likes to challenge themselves and keep a fast pace, all while having fun growing vegetables, flowers and fruit, and raising livestock!
Shelter Island is a beautiful place accessible only by ferry via both Sag Harbor and Greenport on the East End of Long Island. Living on Shelter Island you’ll have access to bay and ocean beaches, nature preserves, fishing, sailing/boating, paddle boarding, biking, hiking, and so much more amongst a vibrant community.
Job Duration & Hours
This role would start late summer/early Fall of 2025. We are an ever-evolving Farm and if the fit is right, there are opportunities to grow into year round positions. This position is about 40-48 hours, 5-6 days/week, depending on the changing needs of the farm and time of year. Weekend responsibilities are shared among the farm crew.
How to Apply
All interested applicants should send a resume and cover letter, three professional references, and answers to the questionnaire below to our Farm Manager, Arielle Gardner, agardner@sylvestermanor.org
1. Provide an overview of your farm related experience and interest in farming.
2. Describe a situation where you had to overcome a challenge at work.
3. Describe an interpersonal challenge you’ve experienced and how you handled it.
4. Describe your ideal manager and why you liked working with them. This is a way to gauge working styles, values, and preferred communication to see if we are a good fit.
5. How do you spend your spare time?
This position will require interviews with multiple members of staff and, whenever possible, a farm visit/working interview is preferred. We can provide accommodations.
We encourage BIPOC, LGBTQ+ candidates, and people from all backgrounds and/or other underrepresented groups to apply.
About Sylvester Manor
The lands known today as Sylvester Manor were home to the indigenous Manhansett People for thousands of years, on the island they called Manhansack-aha-quash-awamock, the “Island Sheltered by Islands.” In the early 1650s Dutch-English colonists, Nathaniel Sylvester and three partners, established Shelter Island as a provisioning plantation for sugarcane operations in Barbados. Consisting today of 236 acres, Sylvester Manor is the most intact plantation remnant and former place of enslavement north of Virginia. Sylvester Manor was owned continuously by one family, Sylvesters and their descendants, from 1652 until 2010 when Eben Fiske Ostby, and his nephew Bennett Konesni, gifted the historic site to the nonprofit organization they established. Over the past 370 years, Sylvester Manor has been a provisioning plantation, an 18th-century Enlightenment-era farm, a pioneering food industrialist’s summer estate, and today includes the 1737 built Manor House, a 19th-century restored windmill, an Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground and family cemetery, a working farm, and educational and cultural arts programs open to all. Sylvester Manor was designated a Historic District of national significance on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. Our mission is to preserve, cultivate and share historic Sylvester Manor, and the Farm is a critical part of this mission and our work as a community based non-profit.
Educational Opportunities: On farm education with monthly themes and weekly topics Professional development/education stipend of $200
Skills Desired: Tractor/Equipment Farm Apprentice Specifications ● Assists Farm Manager with field prep and field maintenance which includes the use of tractors and other farm equipment ● This role will have previous experience with tractors and farm implements such as discs, rototillers, mowers, bed shapers, etc. ● Helps with maintenance and continued care for all of our farm equipment and vehicles ● Assists Farm Manager with irrigation management and installation ● Assists with expanding compost program, turning of the compost pile and record keeping ● This position will have some experience or interest in construction and will help maintain our livestock coops and greenhouses. Additionally, this role will take part in all aspects of our small scale farming program. As an apprentice you’ll learn and/or advance your skills in seeding, transplanting, harvest techniques, wash & pack, weed management techniques, our CSA, irrigation set up, compost production, understanding the flow of field prep and planting, and so much more! In addition, you’ll spend time with our livestock, caring for our laying hens, ducks and pigs. Strong teamwork and communication skills, patience, flexibility, and positivity are required. Farm work is extremely physically demanding, and a willingness and ability to work outdoors in all types of weather — heat, rain, sun, wind, and cold — is also a requirement.
Meals: No, but you will receive free vegetables, fruit and eggs from the farm and 20% off all Farmstand products!
Stipend: What We Offer ● Free shared housing: private bedroom and bathroom, communal laundry, kitchen and living room. At this time we cannot accommodate pets or significant others in employee housing. ● Starting pay: $20/hour depending on experience ● 5 Paid Days Off ● Professional development/education stipend of $200 ● Professional workwear stipend of $200 ● Free vegetables, fruit and eggs from the farm and 20% off all Farmstand products ● Working in an environment where farmers take joy and pride in their work, look out for their fellow crew members, and learn together
Housing: Free shared housing is provided: private bedroom and bathroom, communal laundry, kitchen and living room. At this time we cannot accommodate pets or significant others in employee housing.
Preferred method of Contact: Email
