Plowbreak Farm, Hector NY
Full-time crew member and farm management apprenticeships
Plowbreak Farm is a ten-acre USDA certified organic diversified vegetable farm. We are located in Hector, NY and specialize in wholesale and CSA markets as well as three-season high-tunnel production.
The ideal candidate has experience working on production-scale vegetable farms, loves food and the outdoors and aspires to a career in agriculture and/or farm ownership.
Primary tasks vary by the season and include: field planting, high tunnel management (planting, trellising tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers), harvest, greenhouse seeding and weeding. Other tasks include: irrigation management, mulching, mowing/weedwacking, and tarping/row covering fields and end-of-season cleanup. We use tractors to eliminate as much heavy lifting as we can, and often work as a group to finish jobs quickly and easily. Farm work tasks on our crew are varied; we make an effort to not do the same thing all day long, and we do our best to find indoor (barn/pack shed or high tunnel) work in inclement weather.
Details:
Requirements:
To apply to work with us, please submit:
As part of our crew, you’ll learn:
We can’t wait to meet you!
Aaron, Kara, June and Maeve
Full-time crew member and farm management apprenticeships
Plowbreak Farm is a ten-acre USDA certified organic diversified vegetable farm. We are located in Hector, NY and specialize in wholesale and CSA markets as well as three-season high-tunnel production.
The ideal candidate has experience working on production-scale vegetable farms, loves food and the outdoors and aspires to a career in agriculture and/or farm ownership.
Primary tasks vary by the season and include: field planting, high tunnel management (planting, trellising tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers), harvest, greenhouse seeding and weeding. Other tasks include: irrigation management, mulching, mowing/weedwacking, and tarping/row covering fields and end-of-season cleanup. We use tractors to eliminate as much heavy lifting as we can, and often work as a group to finish jobs quickly and easily. Farm work tasks on our crew are varied; we make an effort to not do the same thing all day long, and we do our best to find indoor (barn/pack shed or high tunnel) work in inclement weather.
Details:
- 40 hours per week, Monday-Friday, 8 to 5 with an hour lunch
- Mid-April through late November
- Must be able to commute via car, about half hour from Ithaca/twenty minutes from Trumansburg/ten minutes from Watkins Glen. Carpooling is often an option.
- Starting at $17/hr, commensurate with experience and work ethic/ability with full-season bonus
- All the produce needed for the week
- Five days vacation after 6 months’ full-time employment
Requirements:
- At least one year commercial vegetable farming experience, any size farm
- Two years’ work experience in any industry
- Attention to detail, ability to listen to and follow directions
- Ability to work fast, efficiently, enthusiastically
- Ability to work efficiently in any weather (heat, cold, rain, snow, all with proper gear and many popsicle breaks, of course)
- Can take a list of tasks, projects or crops to harvest and efficiently manage them to completion alone
- Able to lift 60 lbs comfortably, repeatedly
To apply to work with us, please submit:
- Resume, with descriptions of farming (and other) experience
- Two references (ideally one should be a farm business owner)
- Working interview: 1-2 paid hours of work together on farm
- Please also be prepared to discuss at your interview, or let us know in writing ahead of it: What are you hoping to learn? What would you like to get better at? What are your farming strengths? Do you have farming goals?
As part of our crew, you’ll learn:
- How to manage a seedling greenhouse for high quality transplants
- How to manage almost a half acre of high tunnels for fertility, crop vigor, disease pressure and climate conditions
- The basics of tractor operations, including our two Kubota utility tractors, Farmall cultivating tractor, and BCS walk-behind tractor.
- How to construct irrigation systems
- How to monitor crops for pests and disease
- Trellising systems for high tunnel tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers
- Farm finances, profitability, and business systems.
- How to efficiently manage a clean, simple pack shed.
- Basic cover cropping essentials (timing, seeding, incorporation, varieties) and reduced tillage field management
- How to effectively use basic farm hand tools and gear (pruners, wheel hoes, root washer, pallet jack, screw guns, and more.)
- If interested, employees who work with us for more than two seasons are encouraged to start their own farm-adjacent businesses with some support from us.
We can’t wait to meet you!
Aaron, Kara, June and Maeve
