Howard's End Internship Program

Farming is a romantic idea.  Wakening to the rooster's cock-a-doodle-doo, breathing in the air of a fresh crisp morning, standing majestic in your Wellingtons, viewing your estate.  I admit, I do this every day (though we don't have a rooster as of yet), when I'm pulling on my boots at daybreak, eating a sandwich at lunch and taking in a deep breathe in the evening when I can finally stop working after a 12 or 14 hour day. 

 We are offering an internship program for anyone who would like to learn how to farm.   You will learn:

1. How to start seeds, grow and transplant seedlings, harden-off and water seedlings, dig and sort transplants,thinning and weeding.
2. Planning your fields.  Where your rows will be and how to lay them out.  What to grow and where. Getting to know your local micro-climate.
3. The components of soil.  How to build soil, (including making and incorporating biochar), earthworm culture, adding compost, sand and other organic amendments, soil drainage, aeration, solar sterilisation, soil testing.
4. Hoeing and tilling, deep digging, using a stirrup hoe, flaming, mulching (different methods), conservation through terracing, and irrigation (gravity and pump-fed) systems.
5. Watering: inground, above ground and natural.
6. Good Bug/Bad Bug.  What they look like, how to invite them or get rid of them.  Use of row covers and natural chemicals to combat them, how to make your own natural insectisides, etc.
7. The basic rules of crop rotation, how to do it and when and why it is important.  Successional plantings, soil building and replenishment, green manure, cover crops.
8. What to plant and where.  Companion planting, Were to plant and not plant your corn, onions, potatoes and tomatoes.  The different root systems of plants and what you need to know about soil depth and composition in relation to what you are planting.
9. Wildlife, fencing, deer, raccoons, dogs, cats, groundhogs and how to keep them out of your rows.  Use of electric fencing, both permanent and portable.  How to protect the chickens from coyotes,hawks and owls.  Shooting or trapping groundhogs.
10. Harvest vegetables and berries.   Cutting, cold dipping, and spin drying lettuces and other greens.  Preparing crops for market.  Gathering, sorting, weighing, and bagging produce for market.  Keeping track of everything.  Accounting.
11. Growing, cultivating, and harvesting mushrooms. Different growing mediums.  Why not to pick wild mushrooms.  Finding Fiddlehead Ferns and Ramps in the woods.  Other edibles.
12. Market set up, CSA set up and selling at market. How to engage customers and tell them about your produce, your farm, and your CSA.
13. Making Cheese (hard rind) and managing a cheese cave (and how to build one, etc).
14. Mushroom cultivation, harvest and processing.
15. Planning ahead and managing your time, the chores, future plantings.  How to troubleshoot problems. The advantages of diversity planting.  Keeping dailly logs.
16. How to make a living.  What to do first, second and third.  The options you have.  Pastured Beef? Hogs in the Woodlands? Niche farming.  How much land do you need? 
17. Basic construction skills.  How to build a shed, a chicken pen and how to install a fence.  How to cut down a tree. How to build stone walls and mix concrete.

That should be enough to give you an idea of what's going on at Howard's End.  If you are interested and have further questions, just send me an email at: howardsendfarm@gmail.com.  It is hard work, but never boring and you will learn a great deal .  We live in a beautiful valley about a half hour's drive from State College and Penn State University.  By the end of the season you will know whether farming is for you or not.