a call for the wild
caretaker & landmate opportunities

​The woodland harvest mountain farm family is seeking folks to join our co-created community oriented offgrid farmstead to steward the land and continue offering teaching and learning opportunities in our community and beyond!

caretaker positions open; landmate opportunities ongoing!!

we are a unique family and we share our farm with one full-time caretaker/steward, many volunteers & visitors, and a variety of animals!! woodland harvest is a vibrant unique ever-evolving permaculture teaching & learning farmstead that continually grows with the many people who pass through each season from work traders, friends, family, beloveds, community members, college students, to other earth enthusiasts.
 
we spend several months each year in North Carolina on our farmstead, and we also travel to learn and expand our horizons.  we're looking for the right folks to join as we live on and with the land! 

our landmate opportunities range from one to 12 months.  in years past, we've hosted heavily hands-on apprenticeships & internships, but we're seeking folks with some off-grid experience, so we can try to pull away from some of the principle tasks that go into running the farmstead.   we’ve been experimenting with a variety of living situations here & at other farms.  we envision a collaborative situation where two-five eager dedicated & experienced farmer homesteaders live on and work the land to maintain and grow through an antioppression lens. there are several options for sleeping indoors or outdoors or parking an RV or tiny house, etc.  we have one full-time steward, Mike who lives in a small hand-tool built cabin, and we hope that perhaps a small group of like-minded folks and/or partners, friends, etc., will join us soon.  we maintain a year-round garden for some of the produce we consume.  we raise some of our own meats, but do so seasonally based on our travel schedule, but this could shift depending on the stewardship. 

skills required among our collective farmstead -- we realize that not every person will have skills in every area, and they’ll certainly be better honed or learned while here. which is why we know that it takes a collective to live with such intention.  following is a basic list of essential skills we’ve found necessary to maintain and grow the woodland harvest spaces and visions:

• carpentry (rough & finish)
• alternative energy installation, maintenance & problem solving
• how to use basic tools (ie. shovels, post hole diggers, hammers, chainsaws)
• understanding of radical weather shifts at nearly 4,000 ft. in the mountains (living & working in snow, ice, rain, wind, bitter cold, heat, etc.)
• general homestead problem solving
• organic & biodynamic gardening
• water management (ie. plumbing, graywater, spring maintenance)
• consensus process, group facilitation, conflict resolution, participatory democracy & community building
• open attitudes & social dynamism when interacting with guests and community members
• cooking for and with large groups of folks in a rustic setting
• entrepreneurial mindset & skills (ie. small business management, finances, marketing, planning, etc.)

our basic expectations of landmates:

• maintain infrastructure & further projects in progress
• maintain off-grid electrical system & renewable energy installations
• maintain and improve water systems (gravity fed spring water, graywater, etc.)
• harvest & season wood from land for woodstove heat & cooking
• problem solve (ie. frozen pipes, fallen tree, low electricity, leaky windows, loose dogs, etc.)
• take initiative around projects that interest you which further the vision of woodland harvest
• seek donations of time, money, expertise, and resources on an on-going basis & participate in & promote barter/trade
• offer teaching & learning opportunities in line with our permaculture values
• participate in local events & offerings to promote farm products & teaching & learning opportunities
• maintain relationship with worktraders, Alternative Spring Break & other partner organizations
• maintain cabin or tent rentals for income offsets
  

our area has abundant part-time laborer & work opportunities, so it's very manageable to maintain some off-site work for income.  we also have a number of farmer friends who need seasonal help for either money or trade for their goods.  we are half hour from a college town & 10 minutes from west jefferson, nc.

disclaimer:  we've hosted thousands of people on the land over the past decade from very short visits to multi-year stays.  we've had probably 98% powerful positive experiences with folks.  as we grow & move forward on this journey, we must ensure that the right folks have a temperament that is concordant with the rhythms of the land, animals, and other humans on the land and the vision of the farmstead.  this is a sacred healing land, and we cannot tolerate abuse of any kind for even a moment from property damage to intimidation of women, children, animals, and never violence. 
we are a strong loving family and embrace visitors with open hearts. 

for folks who are seriously interested in becoming a part of the woodland harvest family, we prefer an email introduction with details around your desires and goals to live at woodland harvest and some background information about yourself and skills, resources, strengths, weaknesses, etc., that you’d bring to the farm. we hope to have folks join the farmstead this season to have some overlapping time with us on the farm before we depart. we’re so excited to share our magical space with folks in this new creative way and look forward to what and who the future brings!

for folks interested in more information about becoming a woodland harvest caretaker please send an email to woodlandharvestmtnfarm@gmail.com.

blessed be, elizabeth (mamma e) and Aydan & Mike

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