12-Acre Organic Farming Community looking for Volunteers!

We're a group of farmhands and craftspeople (and above all, friends!) who have come together to create a new kind of organic farming community in central New York State. We have all been involved for years in the organic farming movement, contributing as volunteers (most of us began our careers through the wwoof network), hired hands, farm managers and master builders. After years of gaining experience on organic farming projects around the world, we’re pooling our resources into a project of our own: an organic farm that’s cooperatively owned by a residential community of workers.

This is our organization's first year of existence (yaaay!!), and we have a lot to do to get our community farm up and running. We're offering positions on our farm for volunteers, an ongoing apprenticeship program, and occasional hands-on workshops so that we can get things done and share what we're learning with others along the way. We're also always open to new members, though we ask prospective members to come live and work with us in the role of volunteer or apprentice for at least 4 months before officially asking to join. (everything is decided by consensus between members!)

If any of this sounds interesting to you, you can learn more by visiting our website! http://unadillacommunityfarm.blogspot.com/
And for wwoofers, here is our wwoof profile: http://www.wwoofusa.org/Farms/Details?UserId=3fd1543a-fa86-455c-8826-72347141b43f

Any questions or comments, post away!!

- Ben

For those of you who would like to participate in UCF this summer, our apprenticeship program is now underway (we hosted our first apprentices here last month!), and we've finalized our calendar of soap making and natural building workshops. We're especially excited to be hosting Jay C. White Cloud, timber wright and fellow permies member, who will be teaching a workshop at UCF over 2 weekends in July/August. For those of you interested in traditional timber framing, this is a great opportunity to work alongside a timber wright with experience in various traditional framing styles, from Amish to Asian - we'll be incorporating traditional Japanese timber frames in all of our structures here at UCF, for style points.

Our apprenticeship program: http://unadillacommunityfarm.blogspot.com/2014/03/get-involved-posted-march-12-2014-most.html#apprenticeships
Our calendar of workshops: http://unadillacommunityfarm.blogspot.com/2014/03/events-calendar-we-keep-this-calendar.html#eventsandworkshops
Our news f eed: http://unadillacommunityfarm.blogspot.com/2014/03/unadilla-news.html

Hi Ben,

I previously posted in the forum with some details about what I'm doing and what I'm looking for:

Topics created by Sandra Harriette

I am liking the sound of an apprenticeship.

Would you all be open to me building a cob home?

Thanks,

Sandra

Sandra Harriette wrote:Hi Ben,

I previously posted in the forum with some details about what I'm doing and what I'm looking for:

Topics created by Sandra Harriette

I am liking the sound of an apprenticeship.

Would you all be open to me building a cob home?

Thanks,

Sandra

Hi Sandra, thanks for writing! We're definitely open to the building of cob homes on the property! Since we're just starting up, we're focusing on building the communal spaces and infrastructure first. So this first year we're building a barn with a small built-in greenhouse and rainwater catchment system; next year we'll probably be building the stables; and then eventually we'll start on the residences. We're thinking this is a good way to build a relationship with our neighbors and also test out our building methods / logistics so we can do a really great job on the residences. We're showcasing a variety of natural building methods through our buildings, too. So if you're interested in building a natural home from the ground up, this is definitely a good place to get some experience!

If you'd like to visit or volunteer with us, or if you want to ask us some questions or tell us more about yourself, you can email us at: unadillacommunityfarm@gmail.com

Also, here's a page that describes some of the projects and building methods we're implementing this season: http://unadillacommunityfarm.blogspot.com/2014/03/events-calendar-we-keep-this-calendar.html#eventsandworkshops