2022 Farm Apprenticeship Program
How would you like to spend your summer?
Are you interested in growing food, living off-grid, and connecting with nature?
Do you have a skill or artisan craft that you would like to explore and find ways to create an economy to support yourself?
Twisted Roots Farm is putting a call out for designers, creators, architects, artists, crafters, farmers, builders, gardeners, forest dwellers, wild foragers, bush-crafters, and innovative thinkers to participate and co-create an Artisan Collective through a summer farming apprenticeship.
Many hands have helped us, and many projects have been completed by those who have found their way to the farm. What has and is emerging is a place where we are exploring and experiencing the creation of a permaculture demonstration site, a platform of creativity, and a place to build an economy through artistic expression. See Our Vision.
Maybe you’re someone interested in creating unique wood creations from trees ecologically harvested and milled on-site, or you have an interest in making wood-fired bread in a cob oven that you have designed and created, selling fresh sourdough bread directly from our farm stand with flour from locally sourced grains. You may also be someone who can offer a specific service, like teaching bush-craft skills to others or hosting yoga with goats. There are a variety of raw materials available from the farm and endless possibilities with the right inspiration and vision.
“The most valuable part of this experience was undoubtedly my ‘tuning out‘ of the city and my ‘tuning in’ to nature. Without electronic distractions, internet, or even consistent cell reception, I was forced to slow down and reestablish my relationship with the living world around me.” The Mindfulness of Farming
Murray, Farm Apprentice, August to November 2020 – excerpt from Twisted Roots Farm Blog
Program Outline
The program is 12 weeks in duration and during your time here you will be engaged in all of the workings of the farm in an apprenticeship. The add-on here is that you are an aspiring artisan who wants to create and develop an economy from your craft. We will provide the raw materials, show you how to use basic tools, and market your craft. In exchange, you will learn new skills or further develop your gifts as well as receive revenue from the sale of the items you create which will be sold through Twisted Roots Farm. The partnership over the 12 weeks is a percentage of the profits from an item or service that you are offering. The share is 50% for Twisted Roots Farm and 50% for you as the craft person making the item once the item has sold or the service has been completed. This will provide you with a platform to develop your craft or service with mentorship and resources from the farm as well as an income to help support your gifts and offerings.
As an apprentice on the farm, you will be engaged in the daily workings of this off-grid permaculture forestry site over the 12 week program. Typically, you will be working a minimum of 35 hours a week or more depending on the needs of the farm and forestry related activities, with the remainder of your time being spent developing your craft and or idea.
Working with Twisted Roots Farm will help you build the basics of your gifts, and the ongoing support and success of the farm will be the foundation for creating these alternative economies that will help to form this artisan collective.
The more successful the farm becomes, the more supported you will be in your unique offering.
Once the 12 week apprenticeship has been completed, opportunities will exist to stay on and continue to offer your artisan offerings with the hope of creating a supportive economy for yourself. We will work with you to come up with a fair and equitable exchange for an extended period of time with the vision of creating a formal cooperative with more ability for profit sharing.
Opportunities for learning for the 2022 season include:
- Permaculture design, mapping, and guild planting
- Building small individual summer cabin accommodations for Artisan Collective participants
- Creating forage areas for livestock
- Developing closed-loop feeding systems
- Expansion of market gardens
- Development of four season market garden harvest
- Natural building projects
- Bandsaw milling and creating secondary wood products
- Research projects
In exchange for your energy, we offer accommodations, meals, experiential learning opportunities, mentorship and a weekly cash stipend of $150.
We will work with you one-on-one, help guide your time on the farm, and reflect important experiences. This is an immersion program, experiential in nature, and our classroom is the land and farm that surrounds us.
For more information and how to apply, please visit our detailed information package on Google Docs here
Please forward any questions you may have about the 2022 Farm Apprenticeship Programs to info@twistedrootsfarm.ca
Twisted Roots Farm 