Farm Worker

Job description

Crops/Commodities:
asparagus, strawberries, peaches, sweet corn, tomatoes, blueberries, apples, pumpkins, kale, cauliflower, broccoli.
This job requires a minimum of three months of prior experience working on a vegetable and/or fruit farm, handling both manual and machine tasks associated with commodity production and harvest activities. Workers must be able to perform manual as well as mechanized activities with accuracy and efficiency. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience.

Plants, cultivates, harvests and packs vegetables. Jobs may include any combination of planting, cultivation, hoeing, transplanting, fertilizing, propagation, pruning, preparing soil, weeding, irrigating, loading/unloading trucks. Works on planter, plants roots, seeds, and plants. Workers may spread or remove plastic or other groundcovering and drip tape from fields. Weeds, thins, plants. Transplants plants, riding on transplanter or by hand. May set poles and wires for vine plants. Workers must also stake/tie plants. Workers will trellis and prune plants. Picks, cuts, lifts, or pulls crops to harvest them. May tie vegetables in bunches or top them. Considerable stooping and kneeling is required. Care must be taken to prevent damaging produce and plants. May assist with irrigation and applying fertilizer. May operate hand-operated equipment. May assist with general farm building maintenance. Cover and uncover high tunnels.

Specific Job Duties:

Peaches/Apples
Worker will attach harness, bucket or bag and pick while using ladder; will pick according to grade, color, size, weight and condition; will remove fruit so as to not harm buds or tree branches; will place fruit into bins carefully to prevent bruising of fruit. Desirable fruit should not be left on trees, dropped or removed from ground. Worker will thin/prune trees.
Will also plant and tie trees by hand.

Sweet Corn
Must be able to know by feeling the ear whether it meets the farm’s quality standards as to maturity. Workers must pick the top-most ear and determine by feel and observation corn smut, poor pollination, bird/raccoon damage and other quaility issues. May be required to pick corn by hand and pack in the field.

Asparagus
Shovel, haul, dig holes, ditches and trenches. Manually plant, cultivate and harvest asparagus. Use hand tools, such as shovels, hoes, pruning hooks, shears and knives. Duties may include weeding, cleaning, grading, packing and loading harvested product.

Strawberries/Blueberries
Worker will manually harvest, sort and gather fruit; will gently remove fruit from vines, making sure not to damage fruit. Pickers are expected to work quickly and efficiently. Strawberries grown on low-lying plants. Worker must possess the endurance and strength to bendover/kneel for long periods of time, harvesting the strawberries. Worker must pick the plant clean of all ripe fruit. Pickers will place the fruit in a container carefully to avoid damage to the fruit. Picker wil sort good product from contaminated or rotting fruit to ensure produce is routed to appropriate facilities for cleaning and distribution. Pickers must be detail-oriented, fast and reliable in order to remove fruit without loss. Workers will prune blueberry bushes by hand using pruning shears and loppers; remove debris from fields using hoes, shovels, baskets, etc. Put covers on/off plants, handle concrete blocks. Will also plant plugs by hand.

Tomatoes
Planting: Workers will prepare fields for crop production and plant tomato plants; will take filled plant trays and place individual plants from tray into holes and cover with soil. Roots must be sufficiently covered in dirt. Using both hands, worker will place a tomato stake between each tomato plant. Each stake must remain uprigh. Worker will repeat process through entire row and field.

Special Requirements

This job requires a minimum of three months of prior experience working on a vegetable and/or fruit farm, handling both manual and machine tasks associated with commodity production and harvest activities. Workers must be able to perform manual as well as mechanized activities with accuracy and efficiency. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience Saturday work required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs. Employer-paid post-hire drug testing is required at random, upon reasonable suspicion of use and after a worker has an accident at work.