ORGANIC VEGETABLE FARMING

Hiring: Post-Harvest Lead & Field Crew – Organic Vegetable Farm
Farm: Fertile Ground Farm
Location: Saint Agatha, Kitchener-Waterloo Region, Ontario

Our Farm

We are a community-oriented, organic vegetable farm operating on a beautiful 100 acre property near Waterloo, ON. Our mixed production includes 10 acres of garden (with 4 in vegetable production annually), pastured laying hens, 40 acres hay, and honeybees.

Since building relationships with the people we feed is really important to us, most of our produce is sold through our 350 member CSA (Community Shared Agriculture), supplemented by an online store and some local restaurant & retail sales. Our members donate to a Community Shares Fund which we use to grow $10K+ for the Cambridge Food Bank and to offer sliding-scale CSA shares. We have a heated greenhouse for seedling production and 3 unheated tunnels for season extension and tomatoes. Our work is a blend of human and tractor scale: our 3 Farmall tractors are used for primary tillage and in-row cultivation but we continue with plenty of hand work as well. Our team includes 4-5 full time workers. While the landscape is very rural, we are a mere 10 minute drive from the west edge of the city of Waterloo.

Skills & Assets to Thrive on Our Team

Diversified market gardening is highly skilled work. Applicants will ideally have experience on a vegetable farm. Whether experienced on not, the ability to absorb and integrate detailed instruction and feedback is key. We are looking to build a team with quick hands, positive & collaborative attitudes, strong observation skills and tenacity to see tasks through start to finish. Adaptability to roll with rapidly shifting task priorities, curiosity to drive your learning, a desire to contribute creatively to the ongoing improvement of our farm systems and a sense of humour are all highly valued.

Our work is physically and mentally demanding, with long hours outdoors in all weather. Great stamina, and in particular strong back and knees are essential.

Baseline Qualifications

• Legally able to work in Canada
• Minimum 2 yrs vegetable farming experience
• Skilled at washing & packing of vegetables
• Efficient field skills
• Ability to work hard physically incl lifting 50lb regularly

Work Overview

During main harvest season (June-Oct) ~50% of your work will involve managing and carrying out post-harvest production and ~50% will involve working with the rest of our crew as a field worker. Most tasks require quality work at a quick pace, often under pressure:

• Field work incl planting, harvesting, weeding etc
• Washing/packing vegetables for CSA and orders
• Greenhouse and tunnel work
• Endless problem-solving
• Hosting CSA distributions weekly June-Oct

Key Responsibilities (3-4 mornings/wk):

• washing produce & performing quality control
• packing wholesale & retail orders
• ensuring that post-harvest systems are maintained & improved
• managing cooler inventory
• training staff to assist with post-harvest work
• providing feedback to harvest crew

Additional Assets

• tractor experience
• online store management experience
• Social Media savvy
• Basic carpentry and general fix-it skills

We are also hiring staff for our Field Crew.

Hours & Remuneration

We are an Ontario Living Wage certified employer

• $21.50/hr starting wage
• April 15-Oct 31 (with PT negotiable to early Dec)
• 40-50 hr/wk Mon-Fri, typically 6am-4pm June-Aug
• 1 wk holidays paid at 75%
• 2 professional development days
• plenty of vegetables & eggs for personal consumption.

To Apply

Please send resume and cover letter outlining your relevant work and farming experiences, as well as your motivations for working with us to: angie@fertilegroundcsa.com . Please indicate you saw this posting at FoodWork.

Housing/Transportation

Please note: While we don't provide on-farm housing, St. Agatha and West Waterloo are within reasonable biking distance, and we are only 10-20 mins drive from town.