We love having guest gardeners at Meeting House Farm who want to get to know the plants! Please read this entire page of information and apply as directed below.
The Many Hands work-trade & apprentice program is focused on educating participants about how to grow medicinal herbs, dry and process them. We require a 2 hour per week commitment May - Oct. We have 6 work sessions per week and three folks per session. You will receive one on one guidance as you learn about soil, plant harvest, cultivation and biodynamic & organic growing. In addition to the learning you will receive you will also have access to harvest fresh herbs after your shift has completed.
Here's the scoop
Our Trade Offering
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Experience in biodynamic/organic methods
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Mini-lessons in the field from our experienced herbalists
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Time to get to know the plants directly
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Seedlings (early season) or self-harvest fresh herbs from the farm (mid- & late season). Trades will be for fresh plant material or live plants only.
- MHF T-shirts/sweatshirts will be available to the work trade team at cost.
- We WILL be having an end of season celebration this year!!
- Summer popsicles are still on offer & Summer swimming is always available.
- We will have an educational plant based theme for each work session.
Tasks
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Early: transplanting seedlings into pots or beds
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Mid-late: harvesting, processing dried plants
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Throughout: CULTIVATING! Cultivating is very important work - we see it as keeping our agreement with plants we've raised by removing the competition. Some call this 'weeding' - we do not see any plant as a weed and strive to find an honorable use for each one, whether it is to move to a more suitable growing location or to add organic matter to our compost.
- We also operate a market garden and farm stand and would welcome anyone who would like to also work among the veggies. Work trade in this case could also incorporate vegetables.
Accessibility
- Most tasks will require the ability to grasp hand tools and sit, kneel, or squat down close to the ground, as well as reaching out into the garden beds from a low position or bending over plants that are anywhere between a few inches to several feet tall.
- Access to the field is mostly flat grass lawn with some gentle slopes.
Schedule
"Full Season" May-Oct
One 2-hr shift each week:
- Morning (9:00AM-11:00 AM) Tues, Weds, or Thurs
OR
- Afternoon (1:00PM - 3:00PM) Tues, Weds, or Thurs
Each shift will be two hours long. There will be 3 work trade team members onsite at a time. There are 18 openings for work trade on the farm in 2022.
Important Considerations & Safety
Cancellations
- If the farm has to cancel a work day due to inclement weather or other reasons, it does not count against your missed weeks, and you do not earn a trade for it.
Tools
- Work-traders bring their own supplies: gardening tools (hand tools work well), a bucket, something to kneel on, natural sunscreen, natural bug spray, and something to harvest with and into (a basket or paper bag, clippers/shears). Please let us know if acquiring these things will be a hardship and we will do our best to find a fitting solution.
Facilities
- There is a drinking water bubbler in the apothecary, and bathroom facilities will be available.
- We have a bathroom on site, fresh herbed water available and a pool for swimming after a hot session in the gardens.
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Summer popsicles are still on offer & Summer swimming is always available
To Apply
If you are interested in work trade at Meeting House farm in 2022 please let us know by responding below. The deadline for responding is March 30 2022.
Fill out this google form. Include some details about your experience with plants, what experience you're hoping to gain, and which of the above schedule options would work for you.
Have questions? Shoot us a message below (but please send all applications to the email address listed above:)
