Company description

Founded in 2000, Calypso Farm & Ecology Center is a non-profit educational farm located in Fairbanks, Alaska. Through hands-on education programs like field trips, summer camps, the Farmer Training Program, workshops and a network of school gardens, Calypso works to encourage local food production and environmental awareness at every age level. Situated on a hill surrounded by boreal forest, Calypso cultivates 3 acres of terraced fields, producing vegetables for CSA, community markets and restaurants.  In all of our programs, we strive to increase access to and awareness of the benefits of purchasing and eating local foods.

Job description

Program Dates: May 4th - September 29th, 2019

Start a Farm. Run a Homestead. Build Community. 

Get the skills and hands-on experience you need to make it happen at Calypso Farm and Ecology Center, a diversified 3-acre educational farm, producing vegetables, herbs and cut flowers in the heart of Interior Alaska. Calypso’s 5 month, residential Farmer Training Program immerses participants in all aspects of farming: production, creativity and business planning. 

 

• Gain the farm production skills necessary for farming success: building healthy soil, greenhouse growing, irrigation, composting, animal husbandry, field planning, cultivation, harvest, CSA operations, farm infrastructure, farm equipment use, and using your working body safely.

 

• Weekly Whole Farm Planning sessions lead you through the process of building a comprehensive business plan for a future farm, from choosing land and areas of production to marketing and creating a budget. 

 

• Build creativity and homesteading skills through exposure to green wood carving, birch bark, food preservation, blacksmithing, wool processing, construction, printmaking, and more.

 

• Have your own special interests? Calypso’s staff will work with you to gear the program to your specific learning goals. Participants will have the opportunity to be involved in Calypso’s farm-based education programs, explore value-added product production, and work with Calypso’s food justice initiatives. 

 

College credit for this program is available through the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. 
 

Application instructions

Deadline

March 31, 2019