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CSA

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Last Updated (Tuesday, 08 December 2009 23:19) Tuesday, 08 December 2009 21:38

2010 Positions at Spoutwood Farm and Spoutwood Farm CSA

  • Transitional Farm Manager
  • Apprentices
  • Interns

Spoutwood Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), established in 1996 is going into its 15th year of operation.  Spoutwood Farm Center, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational farm in Glen Rock, PA (southern York County), is seeking highly motivated, highly qualified applicants for the following positions:

1)  Spoutwood Farm Transitional Farm Manager.

We are looking for a potential partner with whom to forge a working relationship for expanding Spoutwood’s ground operations.  This would involve working closely together with Spoutwood’s owners Rob and Lucy Wood.  The outcome would be a thoroughly-researched joint business plan.

This is an ideal position for a couple who want to run a farming operation. The candidate(s) should be college graduate(s) or have similar levels of life experience. Previous farm or garden experience is required.  You will be expected to hit the ground running, learn by doing, and take responsibility for CSA operations quickly. Spoutwood Farm staff will be on hand to provide orientation, guidance, and answer questions.  Some involvement with other Farm activities – including Festivals and Education programs – will also be included. The Transitional Farm Manager will receive a salary, lodging in Dogwood House, and of course, free vegetables from the CSA gardens.

2)  Two (2) CSA Associate Apprentices.

These are also full-season positions. However, here again, Associate Apprentices are expected to take on significant responsibility.  Some involvement with other Farm activities – including Festivals and Education programs – will also be included.  CSA Associate Apprentices receive a stipend, and free vegetables, but cannot be guaranteed lodging on the Farm. We will endeavor to work with you to solve your lodging issues.

3)  CSA Interns (one month to full season, number variable).

CSA Interns are typically college students or older who are interested in experiencing community supported agriculture from the inside. Interns may assist with all aspects of CSA operations, but do not have the level of responsibility expected of Apprentices, and need not sign up for the full season. CSA Interns normally do not receive a stipend, but we will work with you to obtain credit at your school, if desired, and you will receive vegetables from the CSA gardens.

For all positions drive, dedication, commitment, and enthusiasm are essential. So is a sense of humor, and a willingness to adjust/adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and unexpected challenges. All candidates help promote Spoutwood’s educational mission and it’s overall keynote of Hospitality.  Note that all positions involve sometimes hard physical labor, in a wide range of weather conditions! Willingness and ability to work well with others, including one’s fellow apprentices & interns, permanent Spoutwood staff, CSA shareholders, and the general public is vital.

Please send resume and cover letter to Spoutwood Farm at 717-235-6610 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 

News from the CSA Gardens

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Last Updated (Saturday, 27 June 2009 00:48) Thursday, 18 June 2009 19:22

Greetings, Spoutwood Farm friends!

Often this time of year sees us struggling already with drought, forced to irrigate regularly to keep our plants producing. This year, however, we are 4-5” above the usual rainfall for this time of year, and drought is the least of our worries. Still, early-morning rain and soggy fields did not prevent a healthy turn-out of shareholders to help us on this, our second harvest of the 2009 CSA season. We are deeply grateful to those who turn out to assist: although they’re fulfilling their contracted hours, they are doing so much more as well, including easing the burden of Spoutwood farm staff and apprentices, and helping to build the community we value. And there’s just something about seeing people of all ages, and especially families with children, in the garden together that is just a beautiful sight.

This week’s is a particularly bountiful harvest (see Harvest Guides for full details)! We have lots and lots of green leafy vegetables, including nice, large Chinese cabbages, and lettuces, some of which are also rather large. In the case of large shares, they will have two nice large Chinese cabbages to deal with, and no less than four lettuces! In addition, you’ll receive mustard greens, mizuna, arugula, Swiss chard, and bok choi. Radishes and beets also have edible greens. We urge you not to allow yourselves to become intimidated by your share! No matter how big it is, you are bigger! Make extra soup or stir-fry (Chinese cabbage is largely water, and cooks down a lot) and freeze it for Winter, or sometime when you may not get as many veggies in your share. Make lots of salads! Use the opportunity to learn to make fermented foods like kimchee (Asian sauerkraut). As a last resort, don’t feel bad about composting the excess. If you compost it, it’ll go back into the Earth and nourish new plants next year.

A couple of pages on composting:
http://www.greendaily.com/2009/01/21/the-perfect-countertop-compost-container

http://www.cleanairgardening.com/accessories.html


Spoutwood Farm Center Website

(sounds trumpet)

Announcing Spoutwood Farm Center, Inc.’s, brand-new (well, just before the Fairie Festival) website! If you're reading this, you've found it, now please feel free to poke around and enjoy to your heart's content. Thanks to the tremendous work of CSA shareholder, graphic artist, and web designer Marc Hudgings – who also, with his lovely Queen Chrissy, is King of the Spoutwood Fairies this year, crowned for his myriad services – we have a lovely and full-featured website which includes sections for each of our major activities, including the CSA, and Forums to discuss topics of interest.

To access the CSA section of the site, simply click on that menu item in the small green menu in the left column. From there, you can access much useful information on our CSA, including past and present Harvest Guides. Speaking of which…

Harvest Guides on the Web

Last week’s Harvest Guide, which unfortunately was late in coming out, is now available on the website. By the time you read this, the current Harvest Guide (this week’s, from which you are now reading a slightly modified excerpt) should also be there. We are, in fact, moving toward distributing our weekly Harvest Guides exclusively through the website: that means that, in a few weeks, you won’t be getting them via e-mail, you’ll need to actually visit this website to access your Harvest Guide. While you’re there, we hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity to see what else Spoutwood has to offer, and maybe even participate in our interactive community through the forums.

Thank you for your participation, and bon appetit!

 

Rodent Attack

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Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Thursday, 26 March 2009 18:12

I arrived at Spoutwood late Tuesday afternoon only to hear, from apprentice Pete McLean, a harrowing tale of disaster narrowly averted. It seems that some sort of small rodents – mice or voles – had wrought great devastation among the new seedlings in our germination chamber. Thankfully, our apprentices had wisely planted more seeds than were originally thought to be necessary, a precaution we'd also taken last year. As a result, they were able to plant up the backup seedlings and recoup the damage. Then they, along with farm handyman and jack-of-all trades Chris C., proceeded to heavily reinforce the germination chamber with plywood and wire mesh.

But it was a narrow escape, and just goes to show by what a thin thread farm success or failure often hangs. If they had not planted those extra seeds, the loss would have put our whole growing cycle weeks behind schedule. If we still lived in an early, agrarian-based culture, such a loss could have been catastrophic. As it was, our apprentices had to put in many more hours re-doing work they thought had been done for the season... which, of course, prevented them from doing other tasks they had planned to accomplish. This year, it was rodents. Last year, it was a "fungus gnat" attacking our brassicas shortly after they'd been planted in the field. Farming is nothing if not fraught with challenges! Yet somehow we manage.

 One thing working at a CSA (community supported agriculture farm) teaches, whether one is a staff member or shareholder, is that we can take nothing for granted. Another is that whatever produce we receive – and Spoutwood shareholders typically receive a lot – is a consequence of considerable hard work, and not a little luck. And, perhaps, the blessing of unseen forces, if you happen to believe in such... In any case, the disaster was averted, however narrowly. Kudos to our apprenices, Kat, Pete, and Ashlee, for catching on to the situation before it got worse, and for being foresighted enough to plant extras! We are, once again, blessed with an excellent team of apprentices, and are looking forward to another excellent year.

 Tom

   

On Tilling the Soil

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Last Updated (Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:11) Thursday, 12 March 2009 21:54

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There is a Zen-like quality to tilling a field: a combination of relaxed yet focused attention that is required to drive a tractor, pulling its tiller and bed-shaper, in a straight, even row down the field. Gazing ahead, one sees a mix of leaf-mulch and a few rugged weeds that have managed to poke through it; glancing behind, one sees the fertile brown earth turned up, eventually, after two or three passes, taking on the smooth, slightly crumbly texture of chocolate cake. Only instead of candles, as in a birthday cake, we will soon be planting vegetables: spring greens, at first, along with radishes, green onions, and brassicas: kale and turnips, broccoli and cauliflower.

Right now, those plants are in seedling form, growing and gathering strength in our germination chamber. And our new apprentices, Peter, Kat, and Ashlee, are busily preparing the garden to receive them. That includes pulling the stalks of last year’s dead plants, raking mulch, and spreading compost. It also includes learning Zen and the art of tilling a field. It is true that “no-till” gets a lot of attention these days, and rightly so in some respects. Tilling disturbs the structure of the soil, and the burrows of worms and other invertebrates. But in an operation like ours, free of chemical herbicides, it is also one of the best ways to keep weeds in check and prepare the soil for planting. Although alternatives exist, they would be either prohibitively labor-intensive, or prohibitively mechanized.

And so we till up the good earth, releasing the rich smell of newly-dug soil, and experience the almost primal sense of satisfaction that comes from tilling a good, straight bed, with proper spacing. And we look forward to the planting to come, and after that the long season of growing and harvesting – especially the 22 weeks of our CSA season, when each week will see shareholders come out to the farm to join in the harvest, and take home with them a bag typically bulging at the seams with seasonal produce. But before the harvest comes the preparation, and that’s where we are now. Seeding, planting up, composting, tilling… all the myriad tasks that go into making Spoutwood’s community supported agriculture gardens the source of bounty they are.
It’s been a long winter. It’s good to be getting our hands in the good earth once again.
Tom Harbold
Education Coordinator
Spoutwood Farm