2010 Internships Open For Three Periods:
Early Growing (March 1- May 31)
Mid-Season (June 1 - August 31)
Harvest & Winter-prep (Sept 1- October 31)
Keywords: sustainable living, green design, holistic health, sustainable agriculture, simple living, solar energy
We invite interested individuals and couples to work with us through one or more phases of a growing season and participate in a broad array of experiences: food growing, green design, and retrofits. Our backyard mini-farm builds on John Jeavons’ “GrowBiointensive” method (www.growbiointensive.org), Eliot Coleman’s “Winter Harvest,” Mollison's Permaculture principles, and organic farming practices. Interns will prepare new and existing beds for production, become familiar with different cover crops for compost and fertility, plan crops for the year, learn about improving and maintaining soil health (through rotations, soil testing and organic amendments), prepare and use compost, try natural pest and disease control, identify insects, and much more. Interns will also learn about preparing healthy meals in season, including how to use culinary and medicinal herbs. Healthy meals will address health conditions and food intolerances. We will also cover food preservation and storage.
We approach green design and technologies from an applied context as we think through projects. Our analyses will include calculating paybacks on energy-saving options and retrofits, passive solar energy house design, and Ecological Footprint Analysis.
Our aim is to share what we have learned with interested others on the art of living lightly on the earth. Your aim is likely to revolve around wanting to learn how to do this for yourself. To get the most out of your time with us, we estimate interns will want to commit themselves to at least 10-15 hours/week to the experience, leaving you time for other activities and paid work. We do not have on-site living accommodations at this time.
Interns will require a small number of personal garden tools (estimated cost ~$100) and we will advise you on this when you join the program. We will share seasonal vegetables and fruit from the mini-farm with interns on an as-available basis. Much of the work is weather-dependent, so it will help if you can have a flexible schedule.
We feel we can handle 2-3 interns in each of our three growing season phases. We had two interns working with us during 2008: Andy Porter and Lauren Lewis. They often car-pooled or biked to Neo-Terra. Sometimes they would bring friends or family members to work with us. We enjoyed their enthusiastic participation. If you are interested, call, write or e-mail us (see "Contact Us" page).
Left: Lauren transplants seedlings on three-inch centers. Middle: Andy and Lauren learn how to skim cover crops. Right: Andy teaches his young sisters how to plant seeds in a home-made seed flat with potting mix they helped to sift and prepare.
In 2009 we had two interns: a Penn State undergraduate, Meg, and local gardening enthusiast, Angela.