Employment Opportunities
Round Right Farm is currently seeking a Garden Manager, Apprentices and Part-time Employees.
Garden Manager
Round Right Farm is an organic vegetable farm with a 75 member online choice CSA that also attends 3 farmer's markets a week and sells to restaurants. Most of our produce goes to Morgantown, WV and we are located near the WV, PA, MD tri-state intersection.
We are seeking a full time garden manager from the beginning of April through the end of October. We're looking for someone with 2-4 years experience growing vegetables for direct sale through CSA and farmer's markets. Their primary responsibilty is to establish and care for plants in our 4 acre vegetable garden, assist in their harvest and to supervise garden employees. We work full days Monday through Friday and attend Saturday morning markets. Unless we are falling behind or the weather presents a golden opportunity, we take Saturday afternoons off and always have Sunday off.
The Garden Manager is first and foremost a team leader. They directly supervise apprentices and hourly employees in most garden activities, so people skills are a must. We are looking for someone who is a good communicater and teacher and who also can prioritize activities, delegate responsibilities and demonstrate a strong work ethic. The garden manager is responsible for working with their crew to stay on top of the following tasks.
- Transplanting- is a weekly activity at Round Right Farm from April through September. We use a soil blocking system. You will work with the greenhouse manager, who prepares the transplants, to see that they are transplanted on time and given adequate moisture.
- Direct seeding- We use an Earthway push seeder for most direct seeding.
- Harvest Assistant- You will work directly with the packing shed manager to make sure items are harvested at their peak and handled in a way to preserve quality. The time required for this job will increase in July, August and September as the harvests get larger and the planting becomes less time consuming.
- Mulching- We use a flail chooper to make weed-free mulch out of our cover crops and meadows. This will be collected by the field manager and spread by you and your crew on many of our crops.
- Row Cover- Season extension is vital with our shorter growing season. Most things growing in April and early May will be under row cover. We also use it occasionally for pest protection and fall frost protection.
- Hand Weeding- You will work with the field manager to see that weeds are dealt with in a timely manner. Although the field manager tries to make hand weeding unnecessary with the cultivating tractor, some amount is inevitable.
- Irrigation- We primarily use temporary drip tape installations which you will setup, manage and take down.
- Cultural Practices- tying up, spraying, thinning etc.
- Fence Maintenance & Repair- The area under our electric deer fence needs to kept short with the riding-mower and weed-eater, and the fence will occasionally need repair.
If interested please contact Steve or Sunshine at 304-789-5887 or email us at roundrightfarm@gmail.com. Please also view the rest of our website for more info about the farm.
Part-time Positions
We are looking for applicants with flexible schedules who can work around the weather 16-32 hrs/wk. Positions pay piece-rate for harvesters and hourly for general helpers. Responsibilities for general helpers include planting, transplanting, harvesting, and washing/packing. Pay starts at $8/hr.
Apprenticeships
We are currently seeking apprentices for the 2011 farming season. Apprenticeships would begin in early April and run through mid-October. In exchange for room and board, as well as a $100 weekly stipend, we would expect apprentices to work 5 days a week. This apprenticeship is for people who think they might be interested in farming for a living and want to learn more about the day to day operations and economics of running a farm. We are looking for someone who has the stamina to keep up with the rigorous physical demands of farming and can prioritize activities and work efficiently. In addition, it is necessary that you feel comfortable working around our two small children.
We will prepare you as best we can to begin farming for a living. You will learn all aspects of produce-growing and marketing from seed to sale. This includes CSA and farmer's market management; greenhouse and high tunnel production; cover cropping; compost management; tractor/implement operation, care and repair; harvest and post-harvest handling and delivery to market. You will also learn basic marketing: farmer's market stand setup, CSA relationship building, and basic web design. In addition, you will learn some farm financial planning in order to get a feel for the economics of farming for a living. If interested, please download, fill out and email us the application.