EMPLOYMENT
Come Work With Us
We are excited to provide the opportunity for individuals to learn the inner workings of our small farm business. We are a young, highly motivated farm that is committed to sustainable and organic practices. We are a small enough farm that your presence will have an impact, but large enough to be financially sustainable. We believe that the size of our farm is ideal for individuals wanting to learn how to vegetable farm on a small scale, as we do most things by hand with limited tasks done by mechanization.
There will be countless ways to learn ALL aspects of farming:
- Greenhouse production: seeding, spotting, irrigation, plant identification, and succession planting.
- Harvesting and packing: harvesting, washing, sorting, quality control, and storage requirements.
- Soil fertility and pest management.
- Marketing: CSA, wholesale accounts, and farmers markets.
- Field work: field preparation, transplanting, drip irrigation set-up, and weeding.
In addition to the hands-on education you will receive:
- $1,600 monthly stipend.
- On-farm housing.
- Produce from the farm.
- Field trips: This region has a strong community of sustainable farms. We are friends and neighbors with farms who have intern programs, encouraging the exchange of information and experience through farm tours.
- Discussions and readings: We will work together a majority (7+ hours) of the work day. This allows ample opportunities for discussion about the specific tasks we are doing and questions that might arise. We also have quite a few reference books, as well as articles and publications that you will have access to.
Hiring for 2020!
Interested?
Skills and qualities desired:
* Strong work ethic
* Serious interest in agriculture
* Ability to physically work long hours
* Attention to detail
* Communication skills
* Sense of humor
LAUREN
Lauren's love for the outdoors has driven her pursuits, from studying Environmental Science as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, to traveling to some of the furthest reaches of the world. Even though her ninth grade career aptitude test placed her in the farming category, it wasn’t until she was working on organic farms in New Zealand that something clicked! Driven by a desire to learn more about sustainable small scale farming, Lauren is overjoyed to start her first season at Whisper Hill Farm.
Getting her hands dirty and feeling in tune with the seasons are important to Lauren, and she especially loves the community around organic farming. There is something incredibly heart-warming and fundamentally human about seeing people get excited about something they’ve grown and want to share. If she is not in the fields, you can most likely find Lauren reading, hiking, or running.
SYDNEY
This is Sydney's second season working at Whisper Hill. Sydney has always had a passion for growing plants and gardening which has lead her to her love of farming! She hopes to one day own a small organic farm of her own with her partner Dan. She has been working on different farms since graduating college and really enjoys working outside and getting her hands dirty. She also worked at a small plant nursery where she learned a lot about non-vegetable plants and grew to appreciate good landscaping.
In her free time Sydney loves to bake, garden, read and do crafty things!
DAN
2019 is Dan's second season at Whisper Hill. Organic farming began as an interest budding from Dan's love of growing plants, studying ecology, and permaculture design. He has always loved being outdoors, whether it's hiking, kayaking, gardening or working in the fields.
When he's not running around outside, he is cooking, and reading!
SAVANNAH
This will be Savannah's second season at Whisper Hill and she will be helping out part-time while working on a becoming a court stenographer!
Growing up the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, Savannah developed a love for environmental conservation and sustainability at a young age. She worked in a soil science lab and at a farm in Western Massachusetts throughout her undergraduate career at UT. After graduating from college in 2016, Savannah was anxious to return to a farm to further her sustainable growing knowledge!
In her spare time, she is an avid painter and hot yogi fanatic. She also loves baking Southern food and reading science fiction!
HELEN
Helen is getting into organic farming for the first time this season at Whisper Hill, and she is very excited to learn more about sustainability in agriculture in order to take her advocacy for better human and planetary health to the next level.
Her background has been quite meandering, from graphic design to bartending to an undergraduate degree in neuroscience. Although she loves studying many different subjects, instead of continuing on in academia or healthcare she would rather get her hands dirty and address our broken food system from the ground, literally, in a way that feeds people and tastes great!
In her spare time she likes to explore outdoors, cook plant based food, and read books related to the humanities and life sciences.
Our farm is located fifteen miles south of the city of Charlottesville and three miles north of the town of Scottsville. The land that we lease is part of a larger (1,200 acre) certified organic farm and is surrounded by rolling pastures and woodland. This region is rich with history (Thomas Jefferson's Monticello) and, with its proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains, there are plenty of beautiful day hikes nearby.
We work together a lot and finding the right fit between our farm and our employees is very important. If you are interested in applying, please send us an email indicating your interest. We will promptly reply with our application and additional information.
With it being early in the season, preference will be given to applicants that are able to visit. We also think it is important for interested applicants to speak with past employees about their experience working with us. This process will hopefully help both parties in determining if our farm is the right place for you. We look forward to hearing from you!