Blue Ridge CSA has funding to add two internship positions this
season at the beginning of June. Priority will be given to applicants
who are willing to stay to the end of the season, which is October.
Two to four interns desired. No experience necessary, but a passion
for working with soil, plants, and families is important. Ability to
accept and understand instruction and a willingness to get along with
others is important.
Work in a diversified biodynamic biointensive CSA vegetable garden.
This is a start-up season for the CSA; interns must be aware that
this first season will be particularly challenging, as well as
uncommonly rewarding. Please be prepared to put in as many hours in a
day or a week as are necessary to keep us on schedule.
CSA manager Allan Balliett is the founder and organizer of the
Mid-Atlantic Biodynamic Food and Farming Conference. Primary source
agriculturists visit the farm during the season, with the regional
conference occurring in October. This past year author and seedsman
Howard Shapiro, herbalist Jim Duke, and agroforester Mark Shepherd
visited the garden at The Blue Ridge Center. The intern program will
also attempt to visit several other sustainable farms in the region
through the season. We are within commuting distance to the monuments
and museums of Washington, DC.
Stipend of $900/mo. is offered for qualified applicants. Interns
willing to live in the garden will have access to rustic cabins and
tent sites. Meals require flexibility this season. Interns will
provide their own meals (assisted by the stipend), but are invited to
browse the garden.
We are located just off the Appalachian Trail, about 2 miles south of
the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers on 1200 acres of
environmental preserve. We have bear, deer, red fox, gray fox, and
coyotes, as well as Alpine goats, Jacobs sheep, organically raised
Black Angus beef, Guinea fowl, Barred Rock and Rhode Island Red
layers, and some of the smartest mongrel pigs you've ever chased in
your underwear!
The garden is constructed on 4 acres and 4 slopes of historic land
(Union and Confederates swapped control of these fields repeatedly
during the Civil War). Practices here are biodynamic biointensive. We
just purchased an Earthworks brewer and will be brewing and
experimenting with compost teas extensively this coming season.
(Elaine Ingham will be speaking at this fall's conference.) We do a
great deal of cover cropping and make extensive use of our Celli
spader. We have over 50 acres of grasslands and transitional
grasslands, which will be under rotational grazing in future seasons.
Deadline for application is on-going. Contact by e-mail
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or letter (Allan Balliett 111661 Harpers Ferry
Rd, Purcellville, VA 20132), with phone follow-up.
Blue Ridge Center CSA is located at 11661 Harpers Ferry Road,
Purcellville, VA 20132, Contact CSA manager, Allan Balliett, at (540)
668-6165, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
website:http://www.gardeningforthefuture.com
