Tide Mill Organic Farm
Last Updated On: August 3rd, 2021 at 03:35PM MST
Contact information
Farm Address:91 TIDE MILL RD
EDMUNDS TWP, Maine, 04628
Primary Contact: AARON BELL
Secondary Contact: Carly DelSignore
Primary Phone:
Type: Cell
Number: 2072637135
Email: eatlocal@tidemillorganicfarm.com
Secondary Phone
Type: -----
Number: 207-733-2551
Email: aarontidemill@gmail.com
Email: aarontidemill@gmail.com
Website: https://www.tidemillorganicfarm.com
Internship information
General Farm Description: We are a nine generation family farm located on the coastal waters of rural Downeast Maine. Carly, Aaron, their family, and a hard-working crew of 7 to 10 others milk 25 dairy cows, tend to 30 to 50 pigs, 1000 turkeys and 2400 broilers on a daily basis. We attend Bar Harbor farmer’s market on Sunday mornings from May through October. We have an on-farm market on Saturdays and have a weekly delivery route from our farm to Portland. We also deliver to central Maine on a weekly basis. We bottle milk two to three times a week and spend several hours every week turning extra milk into a value added butter, cream, ricotta and fromage cheese, etc. We have a greenhouse where we start vegetable, herb and flower seedlings for our seedling sale. We make compost and turn our poultry processing waste, and livestock manures into black gold. We practice rotational grazing within a pasture-based system, and we process (harvest, cut, and package) our own poultry year-round in our on-farm USDA inspected processing facility. We utilize an array of tractors, second hand pickup trucks, several delivery vehicles, a skid steer, and various other machines to help keep all the pieces moving. We work with other organic poultry growers to process poultry every week of the year and offer our accounts with fresh chicken every week.CRAFT Member Farm? No
Internship Starts: Year Round
Internship Ends: Year Round
Number of Internship Available: 2 from May through November, 1 from December through April
Application Deadline: No deadline
Minimum Length of Stay: 6 months
Internship Details:
• Animals (Year Round)
Settling in piglets, day-old chicks, turkey poults and the daily care of cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys (feeding, watering, clean bedding, fresh pasture, and fence maintenance), poultry harvesting & processing, on-farm marketing and delivering, calf feeding and care, barn chores and milking, bottling milk, skimming cream.
• Other
Fence maintenance, haying, delivery runs, packing orders, farmers markets, loading livestock, balsam wreath business
• Skills to be learned:
Dairy production, raising organic livestock, harvesting poultry safely and efficiently, seedling production, scything for weed control, and fence maintenance. Building and maintaining relationships with customers, observation skills to maintain animal and crop health, basic record keeping and analysis for farm profitability, and all the processes (packing, branding, certification, etc.) necessary to bring a product to market.
You can expect to work six days a week with a guaranteed day off. Very occasionally (especially through winter) one or more of those days will involve only animal chores, but frequently there are plenty of projects that can round out the day. We expect an average of a 9 hour day, but there will be at least one day a week that exceeds 9 hours. We operate with a weekly “to do” list and then try to get those tasks accomplished within the week based on the weather and other deadlines and tasks. Farming, especially when you are depending on it for your sole source of income, is very physically demanding work in frequently adverse conditions. You will be expected to work in the rain, heat, cold, and bugs (black flies and mosquitoes). Many farming tasks are tedious (a step in the poultry processing line or bottling gallon after gallon of milk) and repetitive (basic animal chores that need to be done every day) — but satisfying! You should be able to lift and carry 40 lbs of weight and stand for two or three hours at a time. You will be living and working with a diverse range of personalities, and it’s expected that you try to approach differences in opinion with respect and patience. You should also be capable of leaving things as you found them and maintaining a clean space for all the others that will be using it after you.
Educational Opportunities: We tend to operate with the “learning by doing” philosophy. We will demonstrate how we want a task to be done and go into the details about why we do it that particular way. Either we or our other trusted workers will train you with patience as you become accustomed to the routines and tasks of the farm, although we do expect you to be increasingly efficient and independent as time goes on. It can take a couple of months to truly grasp all the workings of even one of the divisions on our farm, so we're very understanding of the learning process. You are welcome to respectfully use our large selection of farming books and Internet use, as well as other local library resources. We are also open to visiting other farms in our area and promote MOFGA’s apprentice opportunities and other exciting and educational farming related activities.
Skills Desired: Farming and processing experience is always a plus, but we can train you new skills and you'll hone them with experience. A good attitude, flexibility, reliability and the willingness to work and do a good job are more important to us than specific skills or experience.
Meals: We provide certified organic, seasonal vegetables that we have from a small greens garden and buy ins for our farm stand from other Maine organic farmers, fruits, and herbs, raw cow milk, eggs, turkey, chicken, pork, and beef that we grow on the farm. We also offer $100 a month towards other staples not provided on the farm, and are happy to share some of our snacks and other miscellaneous foods with you. Apprentice meals are to be arranged within the crew. It's up to the individual group how they want to handle extra groceries and meals.
Stipend: Yes
Housing: Yes Our main housing option is The AQ (short of "Apprentice Quarters), a 30 by 60 space above the processing facility that has a shared kitchen, a bathroom with bath and shower, common area, and four large, private bedrooms. Electricity, heat, internet, landline phone, and laundry services are available at no charge.
Preferred method of Contact: either