Do you want to learn to milk a goat, ferment sauerkraut, save garden seeds, slaughter a chicken, prune an orchard, mix and apply clay plaster, make cheese, harvest produce for market, install drip irrigation, make tortillas from home-grown corn, change a diaper, graft fruit trees, pour a foundation, process and eat acorns? Spreadwing Farm in the Capay Valley (Yolo County, California) is looking for one more intern. We are a small organic farm and homestead being developed by Cathy Suematsu, Michael G. Smith, their 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. Our goal is to provide a healthy, balanced, and inspirational home environment for our family and visitors, while eventually generating enough on-farm income to meet our financial needs. A lot of our energy goes into food production and preparation and caring for our children, with farm infrastructure, permaculture and natural building projects fitting in whenever possible. We recently completed an earthen pizza oven, composting toilet, and a major expansion of our fruit orchard. Projects planned for the near future include a solar fruit dryer, a grey water system, a solar shower, and restoration of a century-old water tower. We'd like to share our decades of experience with others who are excited to learn these skills. We provide amazing organic food, beautiful surroundings, a small cabin or tent site, and endless learning opportunities in exchange for about 40 hours a week of your help. Some experience is helpful, but the most important qualifications are enthusiasm, compatible personalities, and a desire to learn and to work hard. We prefer interns who can commit to between six and twelve months, but we can sometimes take people for shorter time periods. We will need to meet you in person before we can commit to working with you. For more info please email
michael@emeraldearth.org or
cathy@emeraldearth.org. Thank you!
In the words of one recent intern, "Working at Spreadwing Farm has been one of the most consistently challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. It has been an absolute privilege to learn from Michael and Cathy's collective wealth of knowledge. I have gained so many skills that I came here without, and have had the chance to hone skills I brought with me. I know that I have also grown personally, and understand myself in a way that I never have before. And that doesn't even begin to cover the incredible landscapes, wildlife, community and food that sustained me through all of it."
