Au Naturel Farm is 84 acres of beautiful rolling green pastures and woodland. We raise a small herd of Murray Grey beef cattle, chickens for eggs and meat and host a large variety of wildlife including white tail deer, wild turkeys, and lots of song bird species.
Our housing for our long-term interns is a vintage Airstream trailer nestled in the edge of the woods. It is fully self-contained with bathroom and kitchen facilities. It is also fully furnished right down to the sheets on the bed and the cooking utensils in the kitchen. Wake to the sound of bird-song every morning!
Meals will be a mixture of on-your-own and shared, with the midday meal typically a shared one. The riches of vegetables from our fields and meat from our f reezers will be available to you for your cooking pleasure. Nothing is like fresh seasonal food, well prepared!
We are only 20 minutes from Mammoth Cave National Park which offers canoeing in the Green River and back country hiking as well as its cave tours. Bowling Green, the home of Western Kentucky University is only 30 minutes away and has shopping, nice restaurants and a cafe scene. Nashville, TN, the home of country music is only an 1.5 hours away, and has most "big city" amenities. While we find the solitude of our location very inviting, there are other options close-by.
You will work a 5.5 day week on average, with Saturday afternoon and Sunday off - unless there is a critical need, such as getting in hay. However, you are welcome to join us in the work on those days if you wish. Our intern(s) will be working side by side with us in all the tasks of our operation. Depending on the time of year, these could include:
* Soil preparation
* Seeding in greenhouse, high tunnels or fields
* Transplanting
* Irrigating/watering plants
* Weeding using hand tools and/or power tools
* Mulching plants
* Mowing/clipping pastures
* Fence construction and/or repair
* Farm building construction/repair
* Animal husbandry - feeding/moving/gathering eggs, etc
* Insect identification and control
* Harvesting/washing/packing produce
* Attending Farmers' Market on Saturdays
* Harvesting hay for the winter
* Beekeeping
For those interested, we can also offer formal classes in marketing, record keeping, insects, soil building, rotational grazing and other skills. We have a large library of sustainable farming books for texts and our lifetime of experience to supplement the formal reading.
We have a lot of homesteading skills that we would LOVE to share. Part of living sustainably is providing for our own needs. We preserve food for ourselves using freezing, drying and canning. We make our own soap and brew our own beer. At least once a week we bake bread from scratch - even milling our own flour. Our chicken for our own use is processed on the farm, although those for sale go to a USDA processor. Most meals have large component of farm-raised food. Any of these skills can be yours for the asking - and doing!
We are also pioneers in "high tunnel" growing - utilizing unheated, plastic covered tunnels to grow and sell produce even through the winter months. We can offer 12 years of experience in high tunnels to interested interns.
Last, but certainly not least, we participate in Kentucky CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmers in Training) . Once a month, the participating farms meet on a member farm for a farm tour, workshop and shared meal. It's a wonderful social occasion for both interns and farmers - and a great opportunity to see other farms in their infinite variety.
Interested?
If you would like to join us for a summer of hard work, good food and lots of laughter, please click on the link below and fill out an application. We do require an on-farm interview, and have a 2 week introductory period.
If you would just like to volunteer for a week or a month, drop us an email and tell us about yourself and when you could come to the farm.
