One of the main ways that aspiring growers learn the ropes is simply getting down in the dirt and doing the work. Bringing an apprentice onto your farm may fit within a wide range of commitment and opportunity:

• Your apprentice may be volunteer or paid, depending on your financial situation
• They may work anywhere from 4 hours a week to full time, depending on both of your capacity and availability
• Their work responsibilities can vary, but we ask that you train your apprentice in a variety of farm tasks so they get a well-rounded picture of daily life as a specialty crop grower.

What sets an apprentice apart from a regular farm hand is the mentorship. The program will compensate you $200 for providing eight hours of one-on-one mentoring for you apprentice, where you’ll cover big picture, background concepts that go into running a farm. From seed ordering to crop planning to recordkeeping to business management considerations – this is where your apprentice will have the chance to learn about the less obvious parts of running a farm.

The final thing we ask of you is to arrange your apprentice’s farm schedule so that they can attend the core workshops and any other learning opportunities they want to attend.

Core workshops occur approximately every three weeks on Monday afternoons and/or Saturday mornings. These sessions will cover a host of technical considerations – from soil management to seedling production to pest management to business planning. Click here for a full list of events. As a host farmer, you are also invited to attend the workshops at no cost, but we don’t require this of you.