Saturn’s Return Internships
Last Updated On: February 12th, 2025 at 04:01PM MST
Contact information
Farm Address:2687 West Valley Road
Friday Harbor, Washington, 98250
Primary Contact: Emma Rastatter
Primary Phone:
Type: Cell
Number: (360) 472-5756
Email: hello@saturnsreturn.com
Website: https://www.saturnsreturn.com/
Website: https://www.saturnsreturn.com/internships
Internship information
General Farm Description: Saturn’s Return is our small, diversified farm, inn, and home on 42 acres on San Juan Island, WA. This will be our third season in business and the inaugural year of our farm internship program. We grow vegetables and flowers in our no-till market garden, rotate laying hens and visiting sheep from Oak Knoll Farm across 20 acres of pasture, and await the fruits and nuts of our young trial orchard. Soil health and biodiversity are the foundation of our stewardship here, and while we’re not certified, we always follow organic practices. We sell our produce through our on-farm store, local food hub, grocery co-op, and to island restaurants. We also collaborate with local organizations on riparian, wetland, and forest restoration projects adjacent to our farmland. The inn is the financial backbone of our business that made our land purchase feasible and allows us to share the abundance, beauty, and nourishment of the life we’re building here with island visitors.CRAFT Member Farm? No
Internship Starts: April
Internship Ends: October
Number of Internship Available: 2
Application Deadline: We're accepting and reviewing applications on a rolling basis.
Minimum Length of Stay: 4 weeks
Internship Details:
We’re hiring two farm interns at a time from April – October for 4-, 8-, or 12-week internships. If you want to build foundational skills in small-scale market gardening, pasture management, livestock care, and farm hospitality — while living on our beautiful island — this could be a great fit for you!
While both interns will receive a holistic view into our farm operations, each will have their own focus:
- Gardens Intern – Vegetables & Flowers
- Seeding and seedling care
- Bed prep and transplanting
- Harvest, wash/pack
- Weeding, mulching, trellising, pruning
- Fertility Intern – Livestock, Compost & Perennials
- Rotate hens and sheep on pasture
- Egg wash/pack
- Grass management – mow pasture after sheep/chickens and in the market garden
- Build thermophilic compost piles
- Make and apply compost extracts in the gardens and orchard
- Weed, prune, and mulch trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials
Each intern will work 4 days per week. One intern will work Mon – Thurs, and the other Weds – Sat — with a team-wide day off on Sunday. Our daily farm schedule is 8am – 4pm with a 45-min lunch break.
Interns will receive on-farm housing; a weekly stipend; workers’ comp insurance; weekly team lunch, farm produce, and pantry staples, and farm education.
See our job description, application, and farm photos here: saturnsreturn.com/internship
Educational Opportunities: Interns will build foundational knowledge and skills in: - vegetable and flower production, from crop planning to propagation, field work, harvest, and sales - pasture management and livestock care - soil biology and no-till methods - farm economics through daily team meetings, collaborative work, weekly team lunches, and our farm library. Learn alongside us!
Skills Desired: Previous farming experience is not a requirement! But we ask that applicants bring strength in: - Curiosity - Teamwork & Communication - Quality & Efficiency - Physical Work - Hospitality
Meals: We provide a weekly team lunch on Wednesdays. Otherwise, interns can cook their own meals in the farm cottage's kitchenette. They will have access to abundant farm produce, pantry staples, and a team discount at Saturn's Farm Store.
Stipend: Yes, we offer a weekly stipend of $100-200, depending on which farm accommodations the intern is staying in.
Housing: The two interns will share a 2BD / 1.5BA furnished cottage on the farm with a living room, kitchenette, laundry, and full utilities (water, electricity, fast fiber internet, trash/recycling).
Preferred method of Contact: Email
