The springtime sun is reminding you to wake up, peek out of hibernation, and sign up for a CSA share!
There’s no better way to make sure you’re investing in your health and happiness this upcoming year…
For everyone new to our site, you can Sign up here !
Today we started planting onions, leek, romanesco cauliflower, radicchio, cabbage, and kale.
We have so many delicious veggies in store for you this year….
Common Hands Farm seeks 2-3 hard working and energetic apprentices for the 2014 growing season to work directly with enthusiastic young biodynamic farmers, and participate in a burgeoning community of local organic food distribution and a direct farm-customer network building in the Hudson Valley.
About us:
We are a community of farmers led by founders Dan McManus and Tess Parker who live and work amongst this local community, attempting to integrate what we do at every level. Our land stewardship, thriving community and the vitality of our food becomes a currency with which we interact with our local economy and strengthen our local ecology as a whole. We are seeking to base our apprenticeship on developing not only the ability to work with nature to produce great food, but also on developing and innovating our local economy and food network in many ways through what we do.
About the farm:
We are heading into our 3rd season growing annual and perennial fruits and vegetables for our CSA, local restaurants, wholesalers, and farmers markets. Roughly 7-8 acres under rotating cultivation during the season. Currently we provide for roughly 150 CSA members, locally and in Brooklyn, we attend 3-4 farmers markets, sell from our own on-site farm stand., and sell to local chefs and wholesalers.
About the apprenticeship:
We emphasize teaching our apprentices to read the land, the soil and the plants, as well as develop fertility through biodynamics, and healthy biodiverse planning through permaculture based thinking. Every farm and farmer is unique and we seek to replicate that in our apprentice learning exposing you to multiple methods of doing many things.
We ask for a full season commitment, end of March through the first week of November
Apprenticeship includes housing, a communal food stipend and a personal monetary stipend
We ask for 5 days/week March- May and 5 ½ days/ week June-October
Hours will also fluctuate a bit with the sun and the demands of the garden and sales. Work will be roughly 8 hours/day in the early and late season and 9-10 hours during the high season (June-September).
Applicants must be prepared for a year of hard work, simple living, and dedication to learning what it takes to farm organically. This process will challenge your mind and body but is ultimately rewarding.
Room and board:
Housing is provided in the town of Hudson and the farm is approximately 1 mile outside of town. Having your own transport is encouraged because of the daily commute to the farm from town, but many have biked or carpooled instead.
The house has multiple rooms and two kitchens/two bathrooms. Many evenings are spent on the beautiful front porch with a big plate of food and the sun setting overlooking a vibrant community of neighbors.
Skills desired:
-able to think on your feet and promote awareness of your surroundings at all times
-able to promote the farm in the local community and further integrate our direct local relationships
-able to work fluctuating hours and in all weather throughout the season (sturdy weatherproof gear recommended)
-able to focus on efficiency and think of new ways to improve the capacities of the farm and the community.
-able to connect and care for and respect each of your co-workers like family. we put strong emphasis on supporting and sharing our personal development and growth with one another
-able to connect enthusiastically with our customers and visitors sometimes on a daily basis
-able to drive the delivery/market van(not a must but preferred)
-able to create and innovate when appropriate as well as observe and embody the methods of head farmers
-able to adapt and respond to fluctuating and at times high-stress environments
Typical work expected:
Seeding and transplanting, watering, weeding, bed prep, cover-cropping, plant maintenance and biodynamic prep application, composting, harvesting, processing and packing.
As the season progresses, other responsibilities include:
Working farm stands and farmers markets, CSA customer service, sales and delivery, care for the farm and living spaces (cooking, keeping communal areas tidy), giving basic instruction to volunteers that come to the farm
How to apply:
Send a cover letter and resume to hudsonlocale@gmail.com with the following:
-Interest and past experience in farming
-What are you looking for in an apprenticeship?
-What are you drawn to about farming, or about our farm specifically?
-Have you had past experiences living in community?
-Skill set you are bringing and skill set you would like to improve
-What do you love? What gets you up in the morning?
Join the farmers of Common Hands for a fantastic Indian meal cooked exclusively with our fall vegetables and donations from local businesses!
We will be transforming our greenhouse for winter growing and raising funds for our production into the snowy months!
All guests will be hosted in our greenhouse to keep warm and there will be a fire afterwards…Come celebrate a successful end to our second season, and christen the beginning of our third…
Details below:
Saturday, Nov 2nd
3-7pm
$50
@ Common Hands Farm on 370 Rt 23B, Hudson NY
Email ahead to RSVP or buy tickets in advance
hudsonlocale@gmail.com
Hi all!
Come on out to Another Fork in the Road this Sunday the 27th for a special harvest dinner celebrating our farm!
Taste for yourself the produce that everyone’s raving about!!
630 pm, 1215 Rt 199, Milan NY
$45/person
See you there!
Come one, Come All
To our Farm Stand on Rt 23B!
FRIDAY EVENING 3-6 pm
SATURDAY 9am-12pm
Check it out….! All Organic and Biodynamic produce, all the time!
To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass
to grow and die. I have plowed in the seeds
of winter grains and of various legumes,
their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth.
I have stirred into the ground the offal
and the decay of the growth of past seasons
and so mended the earth and made its yield increase.
All this serves the dark. I am slowly falling
into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth,
not knowing what I serve, gives a wideness
and a delight to the air, and my days
do not wholly pass. It is the mind’s service,
for when the will fails so do the hands
and one lives at the expense of life.
After death, willing or not, the body serves,
entering the earth. And so what was heaviest
and most mute is at last raised up into song.
All of us at Common Hands Farm are excited to be joining Ghenya & Justin at JJ’s Scoop House/Trailside Cafe to provide you all with delicious vegetables during the months June through November.
Full, Half, Fruit and Egg Shares are available for order.
We will be delivering through the Trailside Cafe, and pickups are on Tuesday evenings after 6pm. Located 315 Kear St, Yorktown Heights, NY.
More details to come!
Click here to sign-up or email hudsonlocale@gmail.com for details.
Thank you!
The months are rolling on and here we are in May – our final shout out, far and wide, it’s time to sign up for your share!
If you’ve been thinking, pondering, deciding, weighing the options, now is that crucial moment to hit that paypal button, scrawl in that checkbook, and start imagining those summer nights of full, happy bellies.
Nearly 80 people have signed up already and we have enough food for double that many people! Join our incredible and growing community. Help us reach 150!
If you’re in Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Yorktown, Hudson, Chatham, Hillsdale, Philmont, Troy, etc…we have a pick-up location accessible to YOU.
And we have Veggies, Fruits, Eggs and Meat so you can go to the supermarket less and enjoy yourself more. Sign up today!
HUDSONLOCALE@GMAIL.COM
what you’re seeing:
the sun formed into the wall of our stone washroom
last years butternut squash with this years radish microgreens
