Yurtstead Farm

Last Updated On: January 25th, 2021 at 09:55AM MST

Contact information

Farm Address:
11885 5800 Rd
Montrose, Colorado, 81403

Primary Contact: Jenn Mueller
Secondary Contact: text

Primary Phone:
    Type: Cell
    Number: 435-210-0016
    Email: yurtsteadfarm@gmail.com

Website: https://www.yurtsteadfarm.com

Internship information

General Farm Description: We are an all-season, off-grid, family-owned operation balancing vegetable, meat, egg, and flower production on 10 acres on the western slope of Colorado. We follow the guidelines specified for organic production, but are not certified, and are newly adopting regenerative farming practices including minimal tillage (once every 7 years). We grow all the vegetables (except stalk celery, because, yuck); raise weaner piglets, heritage turkeys, and broiler chickens; maintain a flock of about three dozen egg layers; and, through the main summer season, provide fresh-cut poison-free flowers. Our products are sold mainly at the Ridgway, Crested Butte, and Montrose Farmers’ markets; a winter CSA; and occasionally wholesale clients including middle-marketers, local retail stores, and chefs. Above all, we are obsessed with tilth, environmental conservation, and healthy growing environments for folks, critters and plants. Working with our regional markets helps to keep healthy, local food production alive in the central Rockies, avoids the fuelishness of shipping food from distant growers to local eaters, and keeps accountability for high quality safe product at the forefront of our operation.

CRAFT Member Farm? No

Internship Starts: late April/ early May
Internship Ends: mid to late October/ early November
Number of Internship Available: 1
Application Deadline: until position is filled
Minimum Length of Stay: worker must be committed for the season (5 1/2 ish months)

Internship Details:

Yurtstead Farm is searching for one full-time, paid ($12/hr) seasonal hero for the main market season (Mid to late April or very early May through at least the middle of October). You will have two consecutive days off in a row each week, and if you let us know well in advance and work around our main harvest days, a handful of extra vacation days can be taken during the year. The vegetable portion of our operation is probably 80% of your expected workload, although routine daily animal care for broiler chickens and hogs (moving chicken tractors, in season, and watering and feeding) are expected to be part of someone’s workload. Our goal is to share our farming knowledge and tactics in exchange for a self-starting worker with a strong work ethic who can accomplish vegetable farming with all the joys that that entails: routine, often tedious, sometimes heavy, repetitious tasks in all the weather. Montrose is a very dry environment, and while we have never endured temperatures above 100, things can be in the upper 90s with very low humidity for several weeks. Generally, all aspects of bed prep, seeding, cultivation, pruning, thinning, harvesting, washing, and packing will be skills that you acquire. If you’re a social duck, assisting with one of the markets might also be on your docket.
For an interested individual, assisting with flower harvest can be a component of your weekly workload. Flowers constitute about 10% of our business, but the harvest time is disproportionate for its earning potential.
We butcher broiler chickens and turkeys on site, and if a worker is interested, butchery skills will be taught, but this is in no way mandatory. Ethical, friendly care for animals to be harvested for meat is an expected duty, so if that will trouble you, it likely isn’t a good fit. Animal harvesting is, regardless, an infrequent event.

Educational Opportunities: Gladly teach you everything we know, proud to investigate new issues or questions

Skills Desired: Previous farm experience is sure beneficial, evidence of a strong work ethic and ability to work outside is a must

Meals: Yes. Food for all workdays is provided; most meals are consumed in our house (the yurt), although if an individual wanted to cook meals alone, we could establish an outdoor kitchen (an outdoor kitchen worked for us the first year, maybe it will for you too). Tobacco smoking is not permitted on the farm property (Jenn’s mom died, emaciated from lung cancer, and she’s really firm on this).

Stipend: Yes

Housing: Yes, On-site housing is included (a small, furnished, off-grid cabin). It has a stand-alone 12-volt solar system, wifi, and a separate heating system. We have a shared bathroom in the “barn” including a clothes washer, and evening meals are shared “family dinners”. Food for all workdays is provided; most meals are consumed in our house (the yurt), although if an individual wanted to cook meals alone, we could establish an outdoor kitchen (an outdoor kitchen worked for us the first year, maybe it will for you too). Tobacco smoking is not permitted on the farm property (Jenn’s mom died, emaciated from lung cancer, and she’s really firm on this).

Preferred method of Contact: email