After 10 years of internships, we are taking a break during the 2019-2020 seasons. Why, you ask? Because Casey’s going to be a student for a bit instead of a teacher, and then come back and offer some new and amazing educational opportunities! Stay tuned!
The internship program is the cornerstone of Earthly Delights Farm, and over the years it has evolved into one of the most comprehensive, empowering, and fun farming education programs around. Through the years, we’ve had the pleasure of mentoring around 50 local folks, from many walks of life, toward greater food and seed literacy. The 2018 season brings a great many exciting endeavors for the chosen interns. We’ll be doing several dozen heritage grain trials, including an expansion of our tortilla corn trialing project, hosting a new Seed School program, and oodles of other fun projects.
In addition to running the CSA, we’ll be delving ever-deeper into the miraculous world of seeds and all the abundance they offer, producing over 100 seed crops for the Snake River Seed Co-op. Exciting stuff for seed geeks like us! Also afoot on the farm are numerous cool projects by our “farmmates” Draggin’ Wing Nursery, Knapp/Cox Apiaries, Herbal Mamas Demmi and Rachel, Snake River Seed Co-op, and Flowers With Rye!
A bit on our philosophy regarding interns: I see the farm primarily as a teaching farm, with education of the interns paid for by CSA members and the Snake River Seed Co-op, who buys seeds from us, rather than a CSA farm that has interns to help run it. In this way, I strive to create a solid, engaging educational environment for the interns as a first priority. A lot of organic farm internships can leave interns feeling exploited or taken advantage of. The balance of education and farm work alleviates this dilemma for our part-time interns, who can enjoy a full life outside the farm!
I have fallen in love with this part of the program–it is by far my favorite thing about the farm. I adore sharing my love of good land stewardship, obsessive ruminations and endless tweaking of farm systems with curious and like-minded folks, and learning from all the unique skills the interns bring to the table.
Scroll through this page to find an outline of the program, read testimonials from past interns, and download an application. I look forward to sharing this labor of love with you!
General Information
Apprenticeship Application Deadline: Feb. 10th, 2018
Dates: Tuesday, March 6th to Tuesday, October 30th
Time Commitment: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4 hours work plus 1 1/2 hour lunch/discussion. **In March, we eat lunch first and then work from 1:30-5 pm. When it gets warm enough (around the beginning of May), we switch to mornings, working from 8-noon and eating lunch afterward. When we switch to mornings, we will end our days at 1:30.
Stipend/Compensation/Tuition:
Weekly CSA share, a lifetime supply of seeds, and all handouts provided, along with a some farm staples for cooking lunches, and a bunch of other goodies, of course! We share responsibility for making lunch to enjoy and converse over. We also take at least one farm tour of area farms during the 4th of July week as well as several other field trips and/or guest speakers. And, you get free attendance at any farm workshops or classes you like!
This internship is an equitable exchange between farmer and interns. As your certified Farmer Mentor, I will share with you everything I know about running a farm, and connect you with a vast network of resources and other on- and off-farm experts to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and provide support as you suss out your own future endeavors. As an intern, you become an integral part of the farm’s functioning, with unique responsibilities and an opportunity to hone a variety of skills. Your responsibility is to make a steadfast commitment to the farm, to showing up ready and willing to learn and to work.
This equitable exchange means you don’t have to pay tuition, and you don’t get paid for 
working. However, I require that chosen interns pay a $400 deposit, which will be returned in full to you upon completion of the internship. This allows me to design a farm that relies on everyone, not just a farm I can run myself, where you have little responsibility and thus, a crappier internship experience. If you don’t complete the internship, I can use your deposit money to hire someone (most likely another intern) to log extra hours and take your place to keep the farm running smoothly. If you are chosen as an intern, your deposit is due in full on the first day of the internship. I do not wish to turn any serious candidates away for their lack of funds, so if you truly cannot afford the deposit by the start date, please contact me and we’ll discuss a payment plan. Otherwise, please look at this deposit as a guarantee of sorts to yourself and your fellow interns that you will have an abundant and bountiful season, and you’ll get your money back at the end of it!
The Program
Our goal is to provide an alternative education experience that involves hands-on organic methods, thought provoking readings and an appreciation for local economies, the earth and good food.
Apprentices learn about farming through daily participation in farm tasks and other hands-on activities.
Hands-on activities include:
- direct seeding and transplanting
- seed starting
- seed saving
- harvesting for CSA
- Cooking
- weeding
- weed/native plant identification
- bed preparation
- bee care
- organic pest control
- direct marketing
- compost making
- Soil fertility management
- Irrigation design, installation, and repair
Apprentices will also learn about the importance of small, human-powered, local farming through thought-provoking, inspiring, and sometimes controversial excerpts from books such as:
- The Unsettling of America–Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry
- The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements by Sandor Katz
- Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher
- How to Grow More Vegetables than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land than You Can Possibly Imagine by John Jeavons
- Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
- Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth
- and SO MANY MORE!!!!
Topics included in the readings and during on-farm discussions include:
- Local food economies, self sufficiency and food security
- The global food system
- Nutrition basics and philosophies on consumption
- Permaculture
- Scale
- Soil food web and fertility management
- Cover cropping
- Pollinators and pollination
- Botany
- Irrigation methods and water use in a desert
- Garden planning
- Nutrient cycles
- Plant breeding and GMOs
- Direct Marketing
- Designing your own farm
- Keeping a farm journal
- And so much more!!!
If you are interested in being one of our apprentices please copy and paste and fill out the application (pasted below, as I’m having trouble with the links at the moment) and send it to us at digger@earthlydelightsfarm.com. or via snail mail to:
Earthly Delights Farm2609 Arthur St.
Boise, ID 83703
Earthly Delights Farm 2018 Apprenticeship Application
Tell us about yourself…
Name__________________________________________________________
Address________________________________________________________
Phone__________________________________________________________
Email__________________________________________________________
Birth Date______________________
Current Occupation______________________________________________
Internship dates: Tuesday, March 6 to October 30, every Tuesday and Thursday. From March to mid-May, intern time is noon-5 pm. From mid-May to Oct, intern time is 8-1:30.
(attach additional pages if necessary to answer these questions)
1. What’s your story?
2. Why do you want to come learn from Earthly Delights? Are there aspects of the program you are particularly interested in?
3. Do you have any limitations, physical or otherwise, that would keep you from performing farm tasks? Allergies? Can you commit to showing up Tuesday and Thursday mornings for the duration of your internship? Would your schedule permit meeting on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, rather than mornings, in the beginning of the internship? Please elaborate if necessary.
4. What is your relationship to bicycling? Though times have changed and we don’t require all interns to ride to the farm, we still have our roots in human-powered farming and transportation. Would you be willing to bike most of the time for the internship?
5. Where will you be living during the internship? Is it near the farm? (the farm is located at 5298 Stinger Drive, in northwest Boise)
6. Is there anything else we should know about you?
7. What do you expect of me as a farmer mentor?
8. Can you afford the $400 deposit by the start of the internship? If not, please suggest an appropriate payment plan.
You can send your completed application by email to: digger@earthlydelightsfarm.com or by snail mail to: 2609 Arthur St. Boise, ID 83703