Plowbreak Farm, Hector NY
Full Time Farm Worker Position Available
Plowbreak Farm is an organically managed (USDA certified) vegetable farm serving the greater Ithaca, NY and Finger Lakes region with high-quality specialty produce from our ten acres of field crops and nine high tunnels. We serve several dozen wholesale clients including two distributors, a grocery store, restaurants, and a medium-sized CSA with a downtown, market-style pickup at a beer garden.
The ideal candidate has experience working on production-scale vegetable farms and is looking forward to a career in agriculture or starting their own business.
Our farm work focuses on lean operation, tractor mechanization whenever possible, working together to keep spirits high, having fun and sharing meals. We use little to no spray, reduced tillage, and extensive cover cropping and compost applications to keep our soils and plants healthy.
Much of our work with the crew is spread between field planting, harvesting, packing, trellising summer crops, greenhouse seeding and weeding. Other tasks are end-of-season cleanup, irrigation, mulching, mowing/weedwacking, and tarping/row covering fields. We use the tractor to eliminate as much heavy lifting as we can, and we work in unison to finish jobs quickly and easily.
We are a profitable farm with sufficient low-tech infrastructure and a commitment to work-life balance. We take three months off every winter to recharge and look forward to the year ahead. We are located close to Seneca Lake, with nearby lakefront beaches, gorges, swimming holes, wineries, breweries and restaurants. Our property also adjoins the Finger Lakes National Forest.
Details:
We can’t wait to meet you!
Aaron, Kara and baby June
Full Time Farm Worker Position Available
Plowbreak Farm is an organically managed (USDA certified) vegetable farm serving the greater Ithaca, NY and Finger Lakes region with high-quality specialty produce from our ten acres of field crops and nine high tunnels. We serve several dozen wholesale clients including two distributors, a grocery store, restaurants, and a medium-sized CSA with a downtown, market-style pickup at a beer garden.
The ideal candidate has experience working on production-scale vegetable farms and is looking forward to a career in agriculture or starting their own business.
Our farm work focuses on lean operation, tractor mechanization whenever possible, working together to keep spirits high, having fun and sharing meals. We use little to no spray, reduced tillage, and extensive cover cropping and compost applications to keep our soils and plants healthy.
Much of our work with the crew is spread between field planting, harvesting, packing, trellising summer crops, greenhouse seeding and weeding. Other tasks are end-of-season cleanup, irrigation, mulching, mowing/weedwacking, and tarping/row covering fields. We use the tractor to eliminate as much heavy lifting as we can, and we work in unison to finish jobs quickly and easily.
We are a profitable farm with sufficient low-tech infrastructure and a commitment to work-life balance. We take three months off every winter to recharge and look forward to the year ahead. We are located close to Seneca Lake, with nearby lakefront beaches, gorges, swimming holes, wineries, breweries and restaurants. Our property also adjoins the Finger Lakes National Forest.
Details:
- 40 hours per week on average
- Monday-Friday, with approx. 3-4 hrs work Saturday or Sunday every weekend for cucumber/zucchini/tomato maintenance harvesting
- Mid-April through Mid-November
- Workday starts at 8 and ends at 5, with generally an hour for lunch.
- No housing available, must be able to commute via car, about half hour from Ithaca/fifteen minutes from Trumansburg/ten minutes from Watkins Glen.
- $15/hr to start
- End of year bonus for full season completion.
- Home-cooked farmhouse lunch provided several times per week.
- At least one year commercial vegetable farming experience (farm size irrelevant) preferred
- Attention to detail
- Works fast and efficiently. Sense of urgency is a must.
- Works efficiently in any weather (heat, cold, rain, snow, all with proper gear and popsicle breaks of course)
- Can take a list of tasks, projects or crops to harvest and efficiently manage them to completion alone.
- Able to comfortably lift 60 lbs repeatedly
- Knows when to take initiative and when to ask questions
- 3-5 weekly harvest days, where you will dig, bunch, cut and band vegetables, and pick tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in our trellised greenhouses.
- Once or twice a week seeding/planting days where we seed trays of veggies in the barn or plant out seedlings on our water wheel transplanter.
- Materials handling sessions, where we lay out row cover, greenhouse plastic, occultation tarps, and landscape fabric for weed suppression and crop protection.
- You’ll work with a small crew including both Kara and Aaron, the farm owners, to accomplish the day’s tasks. There is also time spent working alone on various jobs, so the inveterate reader or podcast listener has lots to look forward to.
- Larger harvests of squash, potatoes, cabbage, etc done with a crew by tractor.
- Managing a seedling greenhouse for high quality transplants
- Managing 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 packshed.
- Basic cover cropping essentials (timing, seeding, incorporation, varieties)
- How to effectively use basic farm hand tools and gear (pruners, wheelhoes, root washer, pallet jack, screw guns, and more.
- Employees with us for more than two years are encouraged to start their own farm-adjacent businesses with some support from us.
- Resume, with detailed descriptions of farming (and other) experience
- Brief letter explaining why you’re applying to work on our farm, specifically. Include: What are you hoping to learn? What would you like to get better at? What are your farming strengths?
- Two references (one is ideally a farm business owner)
- Working interview: 2-3 paid hours of work together on farm
We can’t wait to meet you!
Aaron, Kara and baby June
