Interns and Farmer Josh planting the hoophouse.
Thanks for your interest in an internship position at Barking Moon Farm. We appreciate the increasing number of people being drawn to the honest, meaningful and enjoyable work of small-scale organic farming.
Located in the heart of Oregon’s Applegate Valley, Barking Moon Farm is owned and operated by Josh Cohen and Melissa Matthewson along with our two children, Everett and Ava. Josh has a background in restoration ecology with a BA from UCSC. Melissa has an MS from the University of Montana in agriculture and has previously worked as an agricultural extension agent with Oregon State University. We look back at the internship we embarked on as one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences we encountered before starting own farm in 2007.
Our farm is diverse in terms of both crops and markets. During the 2012 summer season (our sixth season farming in the Applegate), we will be managing ten acres in mixed organic vegetables. We produce upwards of 200 varieties of certified organic vegetables, flowers, grains, and herbs. We also raise laying hens for eggs for family and intern use. We will also be raising pigs and meat chickens in 2012. We market through three farmers’ markets, our own winter CSA program, the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative, local grocers and natural food stores and a handful of area restaurants. Our aim at Barking Moon Farm is to run a productive, profitable and efficient farm system while giving interns a meaningful agricultural experience. This internship is best geared toward people who eventually want to run their own commercial market farm. One of our specialities is developing farming systems that can provide food year-round to the community through winter farming and season extension. We also integrate many homestead skills into the internship including canning, preservation, building projects, cooking from the farm, etc. etc.
Primarily, interns gain hands on experience in all areas of the farm including but not limited to field preparation, greenhouse propagation, season extension, planting, irrigation, weeding, harvesting, post-harvest handling, and marketing. The day-to-day at BMF can be repetitive and physically demanding, and continues in all kinds of weather from snow to scorch…and beyond. At the beginning of the season, interns learn everything about running the farm and by the mid to late part of the season, many of our interns are running their own farmers’ market and are managing different aspects of the farm.
The internship begins April 1 (we sometimes can accommodate earlier start times) and finishes November 1 (interns also can stay later). Interns work 40–55 hours per week, 5 days per week. Accommodations consist of private trailer, community kitchen space, shared laundry, wireless Internet, and vegetables and eggs as seasonally available. As we are more than 20 miles from the nearest large town, we ask that interns have a reliable car/truck (for personal use) and cell phone. Please no pets. On-farm visit is encouraged and required for all applicants.
Melissa and Josh are passionate about organic agriculture and community farming systems. Each season at our farm is exciting with its own successes and challenges.
To apply, please go to the Rogue Farm Corps website and download an application. You can do that here! Thanks!
Josh, Melissa, Ava and Everett
