Tunitas Creek Ranch is an organic homestead farm. We grow a wide variety of cool weather vegetables and fruits, irrigated and dry-farmed. We have layer hens, milking goats, llamas and sheep. There are 5 gardens spread around our steep valley. Our food production is mainly for those who live and work here, with the excess preserved in various ways and stored and/or sold at a few local restaurants. We are looking into starting either a series of farm stands or a CSA for 2014. We also have three productive apple orchards, mostly old heirlooms on standard rootstock. There are scattered plum and pear trees. We produce all our own compost on site from vegetable wastes and animal manures. The rest of the property has many hiking trails through woods, grasslands, riparian zones and scrub. It is essentially a wild land.
The ranch's new vision is ecological sustainability, from the cultivated to the wild. Within a 5-7 year period we would like to continually provide virtually all the fresh and preserved produce as well as grains, nuts, legumes, eggs, milk, and meat, for the inhabitants of the ranch, with an eye toward creating enough abundance to share with the community via direct marketing. The sales would ideally offset the costs of production and perhaps provide some profit by the end of the 5-7 year period.
Currently, we are providing perhaps 80% of fresh and preserved fruits and vegetables consumed at the ranch, nearly 100% of eggs and milk, and a small percentage of legumes and meat. We do not currently produce grains or nuts. We'd like to cultivate rice and wheat, maybe oats. We have some young walnut trees and may experiment with chestnuts. We also would like to expand our animal flocks to include meat chickens, pigs, sheep and cows.
We also want to restore our native habitat, by removing and controlling non-native species and planting native species. In both our cultivated and wild spaces we understand that if we take care of the land the land will take care of us. This is a time for experimenting to see how we can best work with nature to leverage for the creation of abundance. It is as much about sustainable lifestyles as it is about sustainable ecological practices.
We are looking for 1 to 2 (a couple would be great) full time farmhands beginning March 1, 2014 (negotiable). This is a semi-permanent live/work opportunity to aid in implementing the 5-7 year vision plan for the ranch. The work is primarily small scale farming and gardening with additional general farm maintenance duties, including:
- Preparing and maintaining garden beds and row crops largely by hand
- Irrigation system development and maintenance including daily watering schedule
- Harvesting fresh vegetables and eggs for market plus delivery
- Pickling and preserving various fruits and vegetables
- Milking goats at least a few times per week and making cheese
- Caring for newborn chicks, sheep and goats
- Shearing sheep and llamas (once a year)
- Incubating chicken eggs to hatch
- Processing meat chickens (occasional)
- Closing in animals at dusk (daily)
- Year-round pruning and general orchard care including cane berries
- Grafting and planting of new fruit trees
- Harvesting apples for processing and sale
- Weekly barn mucking (chickens and ruminants)
- Building and maintaining compost piles
- Native plant propagation and habitat restoration
- Trail maintenance with hand and power tools
- Facilities maintenance and repair
Required qualifications:
- At least 2 years of experience gardening, orcharding, farming and/or ranching
- Able and eager to do hard work every day; planting, digging, hauling, etc.
- Serious about expanding skills and knowledge of organic farming and animal husbandry
- Adaptable to solitary, rustic rural living
- Have a car. The ranch is 20 minutes from the nearest grocery or services.
Other welcome qualifications are:
- BA/BS degree
- First aid training
- Spanish language proficiency
- Cooking skills
- Carpentry and/or plumbing skills
Hours are flexible, 32 hours per week with one week paid vacation. Monthly living stipend, housing and all utilities provided including wifi, and access to ample and diverse organic produce, goat milk, eggs, and occasional chicken, goat and lamb meat. It is a one-hour drive to either San Francisco or Santa Cruz.
Please email a Resume and a short cover letter describing relevant experience to:
Aaron Dinwoodie, Farmer at Tunitas Creek Ranch: tomasoquista@gmail.com
