Farmworkers And Laborers, Crop, Nursery, And Greenhouse

Job description

Worker will manually plant, cultivate and harvest vegetables and fruits. Use hand tools such as shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning tools, shears, and knives. Duties may include tilling soil and applying fertilizers, transplanting, direct seeding, weeding, thinning, or pruning crops, applying pesticides, harvesting, cleaning, grading, sorting, packing and loading harvested products from the field. May also participate in irrigation activities and greenhouse/ high tunnel production.

Workers should be able to lift 50 lbs, unassisted. Must have 3 months experience.

The employer will furnish without cost all tools, supplies, or equipment required in the performance of work. All terms and conditions include in this job order will apply to all workers, domestic and foreign, employed under this job order.

8 hours of work per day is normal. The worker may be requested but not required to work more hours per day and/or on the Sabbath or Federal holidays on a volunteer basis. Due to changing environmental, crop, and harvest conditions employees may be on call and available to work up to 16 hour days 7 days of the week on a volunteer basis. Employees will be compensated overtime rates pursuant to state and federal laws.

Special Requirements

Featherstone Farm engages in a unique form of direct to consumer produce distribution (1000+ member community supported agriculture (CSA) program), which requires of employees a knowledge and judgement level significantly above industry standards. This knowledge and judgement can only come from experience in the field and pack house. For example, employees will be required to pick cantaloupe within a narrow range of ripeness standards (unlike conventional melons which are picked and shipped green.) They will be required to pack highly perishable salad crops not in a conventional 24 count leaf lettuce box, but in boxes of mixed produce where they can easily be crushed or damaged. They will spend large amounts of time grading heirloom tomatoes for ripeness, cosmetic and structural defects and suitability for delivery to very high end customers. This skill alone can take weeks to develop, even for an employee who has months or even years of experience.