apprenticeship at happy hollow farm

So, you want to be a farmer? These are a few of the things you will learn as an apprentice at Happy Hollow Farm:

• composting and methods of soil fertility management
• crop planning & rotations
• propagation (both in a greenhouse and direct seeding) of a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers
• organic pest and disease management
• an introduction to farm equipment use & maintenance
• proper harvest and post-harvest handling techniques
• selling and marketing via farmers markets & thru the CSA
• how to work effectively as a team player
• and much more!

My first experience with Community Supported Agriculture was as a member of a CSA farm while in grad school. I was hooked; you could say I had found my calling. But I didn’t know the first thing about farming! So, I attended a few organic farming conferences in upstate New York and everyone I talked to said I should intern on a few farms before venturing out on my own. I’m VERY thankful that I listened to their suggestions! I learned an enormous amount and am certain saved myself countless mistakes, time & money by working with other farmers.

a wonderful program

Training unemployed construction and building workers in the skills of energy retrofit.  This is a magnificent use of public investment!

Home Energy Retrofit Exchange
The Retrofit Exchange was designed to address the critical worker shortage. This Retrofit Marketplace Exchange networks the entire industry together, automates many of the missing business skills, and improves the rate of success for small efficiency retrofit businesses.  It is designed to engage both small businesses and larger contractors in entering the retrofit market to build an industry at scale.

A public/private training consortium being developed in collaboration with the University of Central Missouri in Kansas City, Missouri provides a case study to support the development of high-level national standards for training a national home retrofit workforce

seeking caretaker – mcclurg, MO

Another great opportunity!

We recently bought 76 acres in the Ozarks (in the defunct town of McClurg, MO) and are planning on retiring there.  We both love gardening and are looking for someone who might be interested in doing caretaker work for our raised gardens, small cattle herd, and small flock of chickens while we visit our family in Colorado.  If someone is interested in making it profession and is short on cash, we can probably provide living space and well water for their help in gardening/farming.  We have a furnished 2 bedroom single wide trailer with electricity and water, the heat needs some work.  We border the Mark Twain National Forest and there is great hunting and good fishing nearby.