Assistant Manager

The ideal candidate has a minimum of one full growing season, ideally two full years on an organic farm. This person is the crew leader, responsible for helping to oversee the interns and other daily help on the farm.  The assistant manager makes plans happen.  The assistant manager is responsible to the owners of the farm.  This job is between 35-60hrs/week depending on time of year.  This job is from mid Feb-early March through Nov 1-15 and ideally is a two year commitment.  Pay is commensurate with experience, room and board are available.  All of this is negotiable with the right candidate.

Good communication skills are required to facilitate the needs of the management and the crew.  The right candidate has semi fluency in Spanish.  The assistant manager needs to be able to set a pace of quality work, efficiency and make sure others keep that pace in an upbeat fashion.  Respectful communication is essential to an upbeat and productive crew, all work hard on the farm and therefore all need to be respected. 

The assistant manager is given the plan for planting, harvesting, weeding, fertilizing, IMP etc and is expected to see it through to completion.  This person is expected to work closely with the management in updating records, and management plans as farms are dynamic organisms.

The ideal candidate has had experience working on and the basic maintenance of machinery such as rototillers, weed whackers, tractors with implements such as tillers, spaders, disks, mowers, seeders, bed shapers/tape layers, etc.  Training will be provided when necessary.

Please send a resume and letter of intent to Don Lareau and Daphne Yannakakis at 11466 3725 Rd., Paonia, Co. 81428, or dlareau@tds.net, 970-527-3636.  We expect a personal reference and two work references.  Do not hesitate to call or email any questions, and we appreciate your interest in this job.

Internship Information

Dear Potential Intern,

This year is shaping up to be another exciting and diversified year at Zephyros Farm and Garden! Dictated by our markets and goals we focus on the various parts of our farm in this order:  Cut flowers and Vegetables (equal importance), Egg production and Milk production, cheese making and tree fruit. Cut flowers are sold by the stem and in bouquets for the Aspen and Telluride farmers market, and bulk to weddings and designers.  We grow a diversity of vegetables that are sold at the farmer’s markets and plan to have a 15-20 member CSA, along with our existing restaurant accounts.  We have two 26’ x 96’ high tunnels, and one 30' x 96' hightunnel for early and late season flowers and vegetable production, and a 15’ x 50’ greens greenhouse.  We grow organic vegetable and herb starts for early season markets and the farm.  We do the propagation and seeding in our 30’ x 60’ propagation greenhouse.

The animal facet of our farm includes:  100 chickens that live in a trailer that gets moved around the pasture.  Their eggs are great!  A hobby size dairy sheep flock and dairy goat herd that we milk twice daily. We sell the goat milk and primarily use the sheep milk for yogurt and cheese making. Our specialties are chevre, sheep feta, and yogurt. We hope to incorporate a hard cheese into this mix this year.

The big planting project for this season is an acre of small fruit, namely grapes, raspberries, blackberries, and other unique small fruit, as well as, up to an acre of woody cut flowers.  This will be for future production but will require the installation of micro-sprinkler irrigation and various trellising systems.  Finally, we have a small family size orchard of a wide variety of fruit trees, namely peaches, nectarines, cherries, apples, and pears. 

Accommodations:

Camping is available with access to house facilities; two rooms in the old homestead house (the intern house) are available to those who will stay the longest. This house is not luxurious; instead it is a bit rustic, but it is functional.  We supply hot and cold running water, toilet, and bath as well as kitchen facilities including: refrigerator/freezer, electric stove, dishes and cookware.  We expect 40 hours of work a week and require that all interns work on harvest days.  We have a farm lunch together on work days (interns are encouraged to share cooking shifts).  Collectively we are all responsible for the chores on a rotating basis. We encourage study of your area of interest on the farm and encourage you to ask about topics for discussion to provide a complete experiential farming experience.  We have a large library of agricultural books for lending.   Reasonable amounts of in-season on-farm produce, dairy products and eggs are available as well as bulk dried goods for your other meals.  These accommodations and education are part of your payment for being here and we value it at $700/month.

Stipend: The weekly stipend is $110.    

Desired Qualities in our Interns:

We are looking for people interested in sustainable agriculture, who work hard, move fast, follow directions, and can work independently.  Farming is hard work and can be monotonous, so a positive attitude is helpful as we like to have fun and laugh.  We highly suggest that you have a car and bring a bike so that you can thoroughly take advantage of the surrounding areas here on the Western Slope of colorful Colorado!  If you can visit us that would be ideal, but otherwise we will do a phone interview.  We need a resume, at least two references, and a letter of intent about why you want to work on our farm and what you hope to gain out of the experience.  The longer you can stay the better, so let us know because that will help us schedule people; however we do need people for the summer only too. 

About Us:

Daphne has a B.A. in Biology from Reed College in Portland, OR.  Since then she has worked at both large and small nurseries and in the landscaping industry in the US and Europe. This is where she developed a love for propagating plants and planting gardens. She loves to cook, swim in the pond, backpack and ski in the winter season.   Don has a degree in Biology from Lewis and Clark College in Portland OR.  Since then he worked on a mushroom farm in California where he cultivated edible and medicinal mushrooms organically for local markets.  He loves to play with his kids, and get into the powder in the winter.  We decided to move closer to family and follow our mutual passion for sustainable agriculture, and that is how Zephyros Farm and Garden was born.  We have two children, a six year old girl and a three year old boy, who bring magic, wonder and laughter to the farm! They are a big focus and take us away from our work from time to time as they should!  If you have any further questions give us a call at 970-527-3636 or email at dlareau@tds.net.

We look forward to hearing from you,

Take care,

Don Lareau

Daphne Yannakakis

Zephyros Farm and Garden