Hi Al,
Got any restaurant experience? My husband and I run a small cafe in the Belfast area, and we'll be hiring for the summer here pretty soon - having a summer job somewhere is always a good way to get a foot in the door and meet folks, and I always prefer to hire people who I don't have to come along behind and pick plastic out of the
compost buckets... We cook breakfast & lunch as well as baking artisan breads (retail and wholesale, hopefully some farmer's markets this year too if we can find the trustworthy warm bodies to attend them!). It's all from scratch and as local as we can get it. Much of our produce is organic, though we rarely advertise that - we're meeting people where they're at and showing that local, organic, and delicious doesn't have to break the bank, and isn't just for left coast types (we serve a lot of tradesmen and farmers, people with mud on their boots who work hard for a living and need serious feeding - people for whom Organic is often a dirty word. What can I say, I'm a subversive at heart.)
While we are primarily looking for part-time seasonal help, we work closely with several local farms who are constantly trying to poach my employees for farm interns and day labor - opportunities can be truly abundant for people who show up on time, work hard, and don't mind getting dirty in the course of a day's work. There are several farms in the area that rent tent sites by the month for a very reasonable rate (sometimes under $100 per month with bathroom and laundry privileges, easily the best rent around in the summer), and it's highly likely that myself, my husband, and our two full-time staff (who are also good friends and active permie-farmy people) will be buying a few acres in town come the thaw, in which case we'd probably have space for another tent at least.
Our town is small, walkable, and beautiful with much to recommend it. There's even a nascent community of like-minded younger folks stranded here in the midst of Retiree Paradise, but we're growing and getting more organized (fairs, contra dances, knitting nights, game nights, bonfires, sailing groups, hikes and permablitzes and all sorts of stuff) and we are always looking for new recruits to Maine...
If it sounds like something you'd maybe be interested in, check us out at Searsportcafe.com or send a resume to
coastalcafeandbakery@gmail.com. Otherwise, I'll also second the recommendation to check out the MOFGA site and forums - their farm internship programs are amazing, though not always well-set-up for people with families or other preexisting obligations. Common Ground is amazing, and well worth the trip for its own sake. (Our cafe is about a half hours' trip from their facility, which has incredible teaching programs open to the public all year long)
