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Golden Rule Garden

Willits, California

	MESA Notes – Public
	Website :
	Blog, Online Newsletter, etc. :
	Public Contact Information:	[email protected]

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About the Placement:

Detailed Placement Description

The Golden Rule Garden is located on Ridgewood Ranch in Northern California. It is a 5000 acre ranch in which the community that lives here tries to live the golden rule in all things and be as self-sustaining as possible. We raise our own natural grassfed beef and organic vegetables/ fruit. When possible, we do our best to share our overflow with our local surrounding communities. Our goal is to reach our nutritional needs as much as possible and to grow and preserve our food for year round healthy eating. We also are a regional hub for seed saving and cleaning. We have other educational farms on our property to share workshops and work with and learn from. We have community members of all ages that we share our meals with in our large dining room and encourage our stewards to integrate as much as possible into the community. We sponsor many workshops on our property and have managed to include many adaptive agriculture, alternative natural building and sustainable energy projects. We have a large lake for swimming and fishing, beautiful hiking trails and a lot of rural beauty which makes for enjoyable weekend and evening activities. We are a spiritual community in which the members take turns leading devotionals for about 15 minutes most mornings before breakfast. The nearby town of Willits has many churches and events to include all those interested. Ridgewood Ranch is the historic home of the legendary racehorse, Seabiscuit and it has great historic value to the surrounding communities.

Primary Production :

Vegetables, Herbs, Berries, Tree fruits, Grain

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About the Internship

Training Hours:

35 -40 hrs/week

Training Expectations :

Large vegetable production with guided biointensive method emphasized.
Needs to be prepared to start work by 8:30am in the morning with possible break during heat of the day and occasional evening water and work. Some days will be cool enough to work through the afternoons. There will be guided projects that will integrate production with some research and experimentation. The steward will be part of a team with community worker and the garden manager.

On-Site Training, Steward’s primary activities :

Responsibilities include all things required to grow food: Bed preparation, soil fertilization, watering, transplanting, flatting, compost building, harvesting and preserving produce for the community. The Steward will learning biointensive/biodynamic principles and practices. Also how to plan and manage a large community garden.

Climate and Location Description

Our ranch is a large valley inland from the pacific coast in the coastal mountains of Mendocino County in Northern California. We experience cool wet winters from November to February with beautiful springs and autumns, our summers from late May to September are usually dry and hot with cool nights. We live between 2 towns one larger town, Ukiah 20 miles away and a smaller town, Willits, 7 miles away. Many community members go into town and are happy to share rides with the Steward. We live in a rural area and there is no public transportation.

Compensation :

$400/month, shared home by the garden crew, Free, daily food, Medical insurance

Accommodations and amenities provided :

The house is a large duplex with 3 bedrooms and a kitchen and living area on both sides. There are also two bedrooms upstairs in the house. There is a communal bathroom and laundry for all to share and a large yard. There is free internet and trips to town by community members or other housemates. There is a communal computer available for everyone to share.

Preferred start date :

May 1

Preferred length of internship :

7 months, with possibility to extend to 12 months

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