Please forgive the x-postings. 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
