Sara Grusky

Drought, wildfire, Covid. Nothing is certain. How do we embrace this? We have no easy answers, but we do feel grateful to have a piece of land, a community of people, animals and plants, and to be able to work and live together in a beautiful mountain valley in Northern California. We would like to invite two more people, ideally a couple or two friends, to share the 2022 growing season with us for a 6 month educational internship, 30 hours of work weekly, April through October. We offer housing, seasonal farm fresh food and $500 monthly stipend.  We are affiliated with the School of Adaptive Agriculture where you can participate (free of charge) in educational workshops.  For more information contact: homesteadingsara@gmail.com

What might you find here? Goats, ducks, turkeys, chickens, humans (ten of us from age 11 to 76), various gardens and living structures, old and new orchards, berries and vineyards, a struggling creek, oaks, madrones and a lone redwood, an outdoor kitchen, shower and bathtub, hoophouses, a medicinal herb garden, bio-char, compost, humanure and a roadside farmstand.

What do we do? We pull some weeds and eat others. We prepare new beds and try to leave roots in the ground for all those lovely soil organisms. We make compost, milk goats, make cheese and kefir, plant and harvest fruits, vegetables and medicinal herbs, sell produce at the farmstand or farmers market, grow medicinal herbs, mulch beds, plant cover crops, watch plants die when there is no water, worry about drought and wildfire, repair fallen fences, clogged pumps, and broken gates, and try to be there for each other when times are hard.

What do we think? We look toward peasant, indigenous and traditional cultures for knowledge and inspiration as these offer the longest and most time-tested models for living collectively within ecological limits. We also respect the many contributions from permaculture, bio-intensive, biodynamic, organic and regenerative agriculture. We realize the world is crumbling around us and we like to think this opens new opportunities to think about what kind of world we really want to live in and how to begin remaking it. We would like a world that is centered on learning about and loving this place where we are rooted. We would like to be more rooted. We would like a world that is not human-centric, with less fossil fuels, less plastic, more local livelihoods, lots of mutual aid, and fewer screens.

For the 2020 farming season we will offer a 6-month internship (April to September) which includes housing, lots of farm fresh food, free educational workshops at the School of Adaptive Agriculture, and a $300/month stipend.  We may also have openings for shorter 3 to 5-month internships.

WHO WE ARE: We're a multi-generational family farm working 5 acres near the town of Willits, in a small valley nestled in the beautiful mountains of the northern California coastal range, just an hour from the spectacular Mendocino coast. We are committed to shrinking our ecological footprint, healing the land, and improving its productivity. We want to face the truth about climate change and prepare ourselves and the next generation for whatever that brings.

We've been here thirteen years working to resuscitate this old farm, with orchards of apples, pears, plums, and walnut trees, a couple of small vineyards and lots of wild blackberries. We have developed several gardens and built three greenhouses. We grow fruit and vegetables using no-till organic methods for farmers market, restaurants and our roadside stand. We have a small herd of goats, whose rich milk gives us cheese, kefir and yogurt; and we’ve recently started raising pigs to consume the abundant whey from cheese production and leftovers from garden and orchard. We raise winter vegetables in a large production high tunnel and under row cover.  And we grow a variety of medicinal herbs for salves, medicines, and teas.

This past year we spent time learning what we call the Native American Cornucopia – the array of amazing, high-caloric plants developed in the Americas by indigenous farmers, from potatoes and quinoa in the Andes to maize and beans and squash in Middle and North America.  Those crops can produce a reliable subsistence in times of stress, and we now have enough for ourselves and to share at market.

We're tied to the School of Adaptive Agriculture at Ridgewood Ranch, where you can meet young farmers and aspiring farmers, participate in workshops and farm tours, and make new friends.  And you’ll find plenty of good music and good beer, if that’s to your taste, along with a vibrant art and theater community in town.

WHO YOU ARE: You may or may not have some farming experience, but you love plants, animals, children, good food, hard work, getting dirty, sunshine, a refreshing dip in a cold creek, and community. You like the satisfaction of seeing a project through to the end. You want to find a way to cope with the crises of our time, and you bring to the task a mind that is curious, observant, ask lots of questions, take initiative, eager to learn, full of good ideas, and practical enough to see the steps necessary to implement them. You're interested in problem-solving and learning new things every day such as: how to make a good compost tea or use a wheel hoe, how to use herbs to increase lactation in goats, how to build diverse microbiology in soil (and in kombucha, cheese or sauerkraut). And, you like to live close to nature with a small, gentle footprint. We offer a small furnished place, use of our outdoor kitchen, and lots of farm fresh food.

For more information call 707 216-5549, 707 510-7473 or email: homesteadingsara@gmail.com

You are welcome to fill-out an application for the position.  Send me an email at homesteadingsara@gmail.com and I will send you an application.

Internship Position Available
Green Uprising Farm
Spring-Summer 2019

Who we are:  We are a five-acre community farm located about 130 miles north of San Francisco, near the town of Willits, CA., about an hour from the Mendocino coast.  What originated as an extended family farm has grown into a semi-intentional community of nine adults and three children.  Most every day we are just plain grateful to be here and work joyfully and contentedly to shrink our ecological footprint, and try to be good caretakers of the plants, animals, land and soil.

Description of Internship: This is a 30 hr/wk, 6 month internship (April 1 to September 30, 2019) focused on goat dairying, growing high caloric crops (corn, beans, squash, potatoes and quinoa), vegetables for the Market Garden, and developing value-added products with the seconds from our gardens and orchards.  The scope of the internship is broad and will provide a useful skill-set for an individual interested in self-sufficiency, community living, small-scale farming and homesteading.  We provide housing, partial board (food from the gardens, dairy and orchards), a $300/mo stipend and free tuition to classes at the School of Adaptive Agriculture.  Applicants should have 1-2 years farming experience or the equivalent.  For more information or to request an application email: homesteadingsara@gmail.com

Green Uprising Farm at Blackberry Bend
is offering ...
Live-In Work Trade Internship

Would you like to be our 2018 Spring-Summer Farm Intern?  In exchange for 15 hours of work weekly, we will provide you with housing, lots of farm fresh food, daily learning opportunities and a supportive farm community.  We are looking for someone with farm experience who is interested in all aspects of farm work; milking goats, cheese-making, compost-making, weeding, preparing beds, transplanting, harvesting, seeding, canning and preserving.

WHO WE ARE:  We're a 5 acre farm community, near the town of Willits, in a small valley nestled in the beautiful mountains of the northern California coastal range, just an hour from the spectacular Mendocino coast. We are committed to shrinking our ecological footprint, healing the land, and improving its productivity. We've been here eleven years working to resuscitate this old farm, with orchards of apples, pears, plums, and walnut trees, a couple of small vineyards and lots of wild
blackberries.  We have developed several gardens and built three greenhouses. We grow fruit and vegetables using no-till organic methods for farmers market, restaurants and our roadside stand. We have a small herd of goats, whose rich milk gives us cheese, kefir and yogurt. We raise winter vegetables in a large production high tunnel and under row cover. And we grow a variety of medicinal herbs for salves, medicines, and teas.

WHO YOU ARE:  You have some farming experience and you love plants, animals, children, good food, hard work, getting dirty, sunshine, a refreshing dip in a cold creek and community.  You like the satisfaction of seeing a project through to the end.  You are curious, observant, ask lots of questions, take initiative, eager to learn, full of good ideas, and practical enough to see the steps necessary to implement them.  You're interested in problem-solving and learning new things every day such as: how to make a good compost tea, how to use a wheel hoe, how to use herbs to increase lactation in goats, vermiculture, building diverse microbiology in soil (and in kombucha, cheese or sauerkraut).  And, you like to live close to nature with a small, gentle footprint.  We offer housing and lots of farm fresh food. The position runs from May thru September.

For more information call 707 216-5549, 707 367-5202 or email: homesteadingsara@gmail.com

Green Uprising Farm in Willits, CA has an opening for a new community member.  Small cabin available for $300 monthly rent.  Community responsibilities include 8 hrs of farm chores weekly, attend periodic meetings and participate in weekly Sunday garden workdays.  The farm community is a collection of 9 adults and two children living on five acres of land with gardens, hoophouses, orchards, goats, chickens, dogs and cats.  The community continues to evolve, change and re-define ourselves, but the fundamentals remain a commitment to care-taking the land, shrinking our ecological footprint, growing and making delicious and healthful food, gaining skills to increase our self-sufficiency, and learning to live together in productive, joyful, peaceful, creative and honest collaboration.  For more information or an application contact homesteadingsara@gmail.com or call 707 216-5549.