SWEET MOUNTAINTOP FARM
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM 2021
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM 2021
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Thank you for your interest in becoming an intern at Sweet Mountaintop Farm in 2021! On this page you will find all of the information about the internship opportunity to learn and gain experience on our farm this season - below that you will find the application form. Please read this entire information page before completing and submitting the application below. |
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Length and dates of internships:
We are offering two 14 week internship programs during 2021 (Internship A and Internship B). During each 14 week internship program, we will have space for 2 interns. The dates of each program are:
Internship A: April 5 - July 12
Internship B: July 19 - October 25
Required commitment:
The internship program is something that we take seriously, and we expect all participants to take it seriously. You should be applying for this program for the opportunity to gain experience farming medicinal herbs and everlasting flowers. We are providing an educational experience and it takes a lot of our time to train everyone. You should expect to show up on time to a scheduled work day, and work for the duration of that day with focus, just as you would at a normal job. We expect interns to work 12 hours a week for the duration of the 14 week program; we break the work week into two 6 hour days. We would prefer to have a set schedule each week, and you need to be available for two days between Monday and Thursday. The work day would start in the morning between 7:00 am and 7:30 am, depending on the season. In order for us to keep our whole operation organized and running smoothly we require interns to adhere to the dates, days of the week, and hours listed above.
Skills and Attributes that we are seeking in our interns:
- Strong work ethic
- Ability to do very strenuous manual labor for hours at a time
- Desire to learn about farming medicinal herbs and flowers
- Positive and friendly attitude
- Ability to work as part of a team
- Ability to work unsupervised and complete tasks as assigned in a timely manner
- Willingness to get dirty and perform repetitive and physically demanding tasks in all weather conditions
- Good organizational skills
- Ability to follow direction
- Ability to take care of yourself while performing physically demanding tasks (i.e. staying hydrated and well fed)
- Ability to pay close attention when being instructed on how to perform any given task
Prior experience with farm work is preferred and highly valuable, and may help your application, but is not necessarily required. Applicants should be in good physical and emotional health and applicants should consider their ability to adapt to unfamiliar and occasionally uncomfortable conditions, especially as one is becoming accustomed to the work. You will sometimes have to tolerate heat or cold, wet and foggy weather, dry and windy weather, dirty skin and clothes, sore muscles, calloused and blistered hands, repetitive tasks, and direct contact with mud, manure, and insects. You should possess clothing and apparel that is suited to farm work (we recommend sturdy boots, a hat for sun protection, durable clothing that can get dirty, and clothing that can be worn while performing manual labor). Realistically, potential interns must be capable of sustained physical work outdoors in all weather conditions and temperatures. While we are not a huge farming operation that relies on a large labor pool of professional speed pickers, we do value efficiency and personal initiative. Farming is not always fun, and you should be prepared for tedious and tiring tasks. Key qualities we are looking for in our interns are genuine friendliness and enthusiasm for life, willingness to learn and to work hard, a high degree of self-motivation, and the ability to learn through observation and questioning, in addition to direct teaching. In addition, patience, possession of a good sense of humor, adaptability, and the ability to respect and work with others in a team will serve you well. The internship will provide you with many opportunities for learning and skill building, but how much you get out of it will in large part be up to you and how actively you pursue these opportunities. We will nudge you in some critical directions, but we feel that those who ask us more questions and pursue more paths of personal interest will ultimately find more answers, and inevitably more questions.
Compensation for Interns:
What we are offering in return for your hard work is the experience to learn about what it takes to run a medicinal herb and flower farm. We do not offer any monetary compensation to our interns, but we do offer a stipend in the form of product:
- For each week of work, you will earn $30 in credit toward any of our products
- You will be able to harvest your own herbs and flowers free of charge (within reason and availability)
- You will be able to attend all of the workshops that take place on our farm free of charge
Food:
Interns are responsible for providing their own food for the entirety of the program. We will have an outdoor kitchen that will be available to use. Occasionally we will provide snacks during the work day, but it is not something that should be relied on. We will also have plenty of filtered water available, and interns should have their own refillable water bottle to keep with them during the day.
Housing:
We do not offer any kind of housing or camping. All interns must have their own housing arranged off the farm.
Transportation:
We do not provide any transportation to or from our farm. The paved road that leads to our farm is very steep and every intern needs to have a very reliable car to drive up and down the mountain.
Descriptions of Internship Opportunity:
As an intern at Sweet Mountaintop Farm, you will spend your time focused on learning about the farming aspect of our business - the most important aspect. You will learn everything we do in our fields, from preparing the beds all the way to harvesting. Field work is the most physically demanding part of the whole business, and you must be prepared for a lot of the following: bending over, kneeling, lifting, shoveling, pushing around a full wheelbarrow, and using a variety of hand tools. This position will make you appreciate all of the hard work`, as well as the knowledge of how plants are grown and processed, that is needed to run a small scale farm.
While we would like to be able to offer opportunities to get involved in our herbal product program and our floral program, it just requires too much of our time to train people in those areas for it to make sense for us. With that being said, we are strictly looking for people who are interested in working in the field and learning to farm the way we farm.
Here is a general list of the internship responsibilities:
We are offering two 14 week internship programs during 2021 (Internship A and Internship B). During each 14 week internship program, we will have space for 2 interns. The dates of each program are:
Internship A: April 5 - July 12
Internship B: July 19 - October 25
Required commitment:
The internship program is something that we take seriously, and we expect all participants to take it seriously. You should be applying for this program for the opportunity to gain experience farming medicinal herbs and everlasting flowers. We are providing an educational experience and it takes a lot of our time to train everyone. You should expect to show up on time to a scheduled work day, and work for the duration of that day with focus, just as you would at a normal job. We expect interns to work 12 hours a week for the duration of the 14 week program; we break the work week into two 6 hour days. We would prefer to have a set schedule each week, and you need to be available for two days between Monday and Thursday. The work day would start in the morning between 7:00 am and 7:30 am, depending on the season. In order for us to keep our whole operation organized and running smoothly we require interns to adhere to the dates, days of the week, and hours listed above.
Skills and Attributes that we are seeking in our interns:
- Strong work ethic
- Ability to do very strenuous manual labor for hours at a time
- Desire to learn about farming medicinal herbs and flowers
- Positive and friendly attitude
- Ability to work as part of a team
- Ability to work unsupervised and complete tasks as assigned in a timely manner
- Willingness to get dirty and perform repetitive and physically demanding tasks in all weather conditions
- Good organizational skills
- Ability to follow direction
- Ability to take care of yourself while performing physically demanding tasks (i.e. staying hydrated and well fed)
- Ability to pay close attention when being instructed on how to perform any given task
Prior experience with farm work is preferred and highly valuable, and may help your application, but is not necessarily required. Applicants should be in good physical and emotional health and applicants should consider their ability to adapt to unfamiliar and occasionally uncomfortable conditions, especially as one is becoming accustomed to the work. You will sometimes have to tolerate heat or cold, wet and foggy weather, dry and windy weather, dirty skin and clothes, sore muscles, calloused and blistered hands, repetitive tasks, and direct contact with mud, manure, and insects. You should possess clothing and apparel that is suited to farm work (we recommend sturdy boots, a hat for sun protection, durable clothing that can get dirty, and clothing that can be worn while performing manual labor). Realistically, potential interns must be capable of sustained physical work outdoors in all weather conditions and temperatures. While we are not a huge farming operation that relies on a large labor pool of professional speed pickers, we do value efficiency and personal initiative. Farming is not always fun, and you should be prepared for tedious and tiring tasks. Key qualities we are looking for in our interns are genuine friendliness and enthusiasm for life, willingness to learn and to work hard, a high degree of self-motivation, and the ability to learn through observation and questioning, in addition to direct teaching. In addition, patience, possession of a good sense of humor, adaptability, and the ability to respect and work with others in a team will serve you well. The internship will provide you with many opportunities for learning and skill building, but how much you get out of it will in large part be up to you and how actively you pursue these opportunities. We will nudge you in some critical directions, but we feel that those who ask us more questions and pursue more paths of personal interest will ultimately find more answers, and inevitably more questions.
Compensation for Interns:
What we are offering in return for your hard work is the experience to learn about what it takes to run a medicinal herb and flower farm. We do not offer any monetary compensation to our interns, but we do offer a stipend in the form of product:
- For each week of work, you will earn $30 in credit toward any of our products
- You will be able to harvest your own herbs and flowers free of charge (within reason and availability)
- You will be able to attend all of the workshops that take place on our farm free of charge
Food:
Interns are responsible for providing their own food for the entirety of the program. We will have an outdoor kitchen that will be available to use. Occasionally we will provide snacks during the work day, but it is not something that should be relied on. We will also have plenty of filtered water available, and interns should have their own refillable water bottle to keep with them during the day.
Housing:
We do not offer any kind of housing or camping. All interns must have their own housing arranged off the farm.
Transportation:
We do not provide any transportation to or from our farm. The paved road that leads to our farm is very steep and every intern needs to have a very reliable car to drive up and down the mountain.
Descriptions of Internship Opportunity:
As an intern at Sweet Mountaintop Farm, you will spend your time focused on learning about the farming aspect of our business - the most important aspect. You will learn everything we do in our fields, from preparing the beds all the way to harvesting. Field work is the most physically demanding part of the whole business, and you must be prepared for a lot of the following: bending over, kneeling, lifting, shoveling, pushing around a full wheelbarrow, and using a variety of hand tools. This position will make you appreciate all of the hard work`, as well as the knowledge of how plants are grown and processed, that is needed to run a small scale farm.
While we would like to be able to offer opportunities to get involved in our herbal product program and our floral program, it just requires too much of our time to train people in those areas for it to make sense for us. With that being said, we are strictly looking for people who are interested in working in the field and learning to farm the way we farm.
Here is a general list of the internship responsibilities:
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- Weeding - Planting - Harvesting - Preparing beds - Pruning plants - Mowing and weed whacking - Installing irrigation - Repairing irrigation - Staking and trellising plants - Spreading mulch, manure, and compost - Digging holes - Organizing farming tools and equipment - Harvesting herbs - Placing herbs on drying racks - Cleaning drying racks - Sifting herbs Occasionally, you will also be: - Making, packaging, and labeling products: -Tinctures -Salves -Herb infused oils -Teas -Hydrosols |
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How to Apply:
Please fill out the application below.
Applications for Internship A are due by March 1st, and applicants will be notified about our decision by March 18th.
Applications for Internship B are due by June 14th, and applicants will be notified about our decision by June 28th.
If you have any questions please email us at sweetmountaintop@gmail.com.
Please fill out the application below.
Applications for Internship A are due by March 1st, and applicants will be notified about our decision by March 18th.
Applications for Internship B are due by June 14th, and applicants will be notified about our decision by June 28th.
If you have any questions please email us at sweetmountaintop@gmail.com.