ORGANIC FARMING

Position: Market Garden Farm Manager
Farm: Little Fields Farm
Location: Bright, Ontario (30 mins SW of Kitchener-Waterloo Region)

• Full Time (36-40 hours/week)
• $20.90 per hour
• Tuesday-Friday (7am/8am-5pm)
• 6-7 Months (Late-April to Mid-November - flexible start/end dates)
• Low Cost Semi-Furnished On-Farm Accommodation Available (Shared Kitchen and Laundry)

We are excited to offer this opportunity to live out your passion for farming!

Our farm consists of 1 acre of vegetables, as well as 1 acre of cover crop for the following year’s vegetables, on which we pasture our laying hens in moveable shelters each summer. We also manage about 4 acres of pasture where we raise our turkeys (50), broiler chickens (2x150), and pigs (4-8). All told, together with the house and treed yard, we rent about 10 acres, though the property itself is nearly 200 acres – primarily organic hay and cash crops farmed by a neighbour as well as about 10 acres of woodlot and marshland.

Farmer Claire founded Little Fields Farm in 2015 after spending several seasons as an intern on farms in Ontario and BC. She is an active member of the National Farmer’s Union (NFU) and is currently serving as women’s advisor to the NFU-Ontario board of directors and as president of NFU Local 341 Oxford-Perth. Farmer Adam spent 10 years leading the Working Centre Market Garden, a 1.5 acre urban market garden in Kitchener. He holds a Master’s Degree in Agroecology and has been passionately committed to building community-based food systems. We have a 1 year old baby, Phoebe, who joins us in the field for much of the day. Our dog Bowie is also a constant working companion in the field.

Shared Responsibilities

Our farm thrives on cooperative work, and we are looking for a committed self-starter who can join our team and share some of our responsibilities in the field. These include:

• Planting
  • Preparing beds
  • Transplanting
  • Installing trellising, drip-line irrigation, hoops, and row cover
  • Laying landscape fabric
• Weeding and Tending Crops
  • Hoeing, wheel hoeing, and hand weeding
  • Pruning and thinning
  • Managing pests
• Harvesting
  • Picking, forking, and bunching
  • Ensuring proper sizing and quality
  • Washing and packing
  • Tracking inventory
• Tending Animals
  • feeding and watering livestock twice/day, including hauling feed (50lbs+)
  • moving chicken shelters twice weekly

Requirements

• Previous experience working on a farm (ideally a market garden) is required
• Able to work quickly and efficiently, both in a team and independently
• Able to cope with the physically-demanding nature of the work, including lifting 50+ pound bags of feed and bins of harvested vegetables
• Comfortable working in the rain, cold, and heat

• Communication and teamwork skills; Able to lead/coordinate other staff and volunteers through the day’s work in the field
• Organization skills for harvesting and packing orders
• Our rural location necessitates your own car

To Apply Please Email Cover Letter and Resume to: claire@littlefields.farm

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