New Beat Farm seeking summer Apprentices on our Horsepowered farm in Knox, Maine

New Beat Farm is a MOFGA Certified Organic Farm growing produce, cut flowers and lamb. We,Ken Lamson and Adrienne Lee, sell our products through a multi-farm horsepower CSA, two farmers markets and some wholesale accounts. Our 90 acre farm in situated in the heart of Waldo County’s right agricultural community and 15 minutes from Belfast, a fun coastal town that has a little of everything.
We farm because it is the best way for us to live by our ideals and give back. Our farming reflects our interest in building healthy self-sufficient communities. Healthy soils make for healthy crops, and our farm management plans reflect our commitment to building up soil fertility in an effort to produce the most nutrient dense food for our customers and ourselves! Along with this commitment we focus on trying to reduce off farm inputs from outside our bioregion. Deciding to work with draft power is one way in which we work to achieve this goal, helping reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and off farm fertility. Other ways are through building up soil fertility through cover-cropping systems, reducing the need for chemical pest control through proper rotation and fertility management, following Biodynamic principles, and trying to farm at a scale where we don’t rely too heavily on off farm labor.
Apprenticeship Education:
New Beat Farm offers apprenticeship opportunities which create symbiotic relationships between the daily operating needs of our farm and the educational interest of our apprentices. We strive to find a comfortable balance between work and education. We are committed to giving our apprentices a well rounded education in all aspects of our organic farm. These skills include crop planning, organic certification, propagation, planting, cultivating, harvesting & marketing, crop rotation, cover cropping and field nutrient management. Apprentices will see how we plan for and manage our CSA as well as farmers markets. There will also be peripheral education in pasture management, livestock care of our horses and flock of sheep, and biodynamic agricultural principles which we are working on incorporating on our farm.
Apprentices will also learn the care and maintenance of our draft horses. A first year apprentice can expect to learn to lead, drive, use the fore cart, spread manure, plow, disk and use a variety of different cultivating equipment with our horses. A second year apprentice will also learn to mow with our team. The amount of experience with draft animal power you learn on our farm is unique to each individuals experience level and abilities. We will constantly be monitoring your progression as a teamster to decide when you are ready to learn the next set of skills.
April-June: crop planning, plant propagation, nutrient management, planting, primary and secondary tillage techniques for preparing the soil for planting. Spring flock health management.
June-August: crop planting, hand and horse cultivation, harvest and post harvest handling, marketing, summer cover crop strategies, rotational grazing and haying with horses.
August-October: cultivating techniques, harvesting and care of storage crops, marketing, and fall cover crop and fertility management.
Apprentices will receive the bulk majority of their training from first hand experience in the fields, greenhouse and barns on the property. Working alongside one or both of the farmers the majority of the time, apprentices will have the opportunity to seek out answers from the farmers and we will provide useful information about the task at hand.
Regular Work Schedule:
We recognize the importance of having a regular work schedule will work hard to plan our days to fit into regular work hours. That being said we believe in teamwork and finishing the task at hand. There may be times when in order to finish a project as a group we need you to work later than your regular hours, although we will keep these situations limited. The regular work day will be from 6:30am to 5:30pm with a 1 hour lunch break mid-day, Monday through Friday and Saturday 7 to noon. One weekend a month apprentices are expected to be on farm chore and market duty. These duties will include one apprentice going to our Orono Market on Saturdays, animal chores, woodstove chores if necessary, monitoring and watering the greenhouse and cold frames as needed, and doing any harvesting that needs to be done on the weekend. Along with this, apprentices will have one weekend a month completely off, from Friday afternoon after the truck is unloaded from market through Sunday.
Compensation, Food and Housing:
Apprentices will be housed wall tents with a tent platform equipped with woodstove. The apprentice outdoor kitchen has a two burner gas stove, sink, and basic cook ware/dishes. We have one planned meal a day together as a group (lunch!) in the farm house and the rest of your meals will be made down outdoor kitchen. The occasional use of our kitchen for baking or large cooking projects is ok, but keep in mind we have housemates so our kitchen serves a lot of people and sometimes will be a little full.
Apprentices are provided produce and eggs from the farm, and dairy product when we can trade for them. We have factored paying for other food items into your monthly stipend and will give apprentices the opportunity to go in on bulk ordering of dry food goods such as whole grains, pasta, beans etc as a group with the farmers. For compensation for all your hard work we truly dedicate our time to help in your education towards being a farmer and give you a monthly apprentice stipend of $525, paid in bi-weekly increments.
We are seeking apprentice help from April through November with shorter summer stays possible as well. For more information please contact us at newbeatfarm@gmail.com or by phone at 207-382-3400. You can also learn more about the farm on our website http://www.newbeatfarm.com.