Grower at Stroud Community Agriculture

Date Published: 17th January 2025

Stroud Community Agriculture (SCA) is looking for a grower to join their team. SCA is a mixed Organic and Biodynamic CSA in Stroud, Gloucestershire. They produce approx. 225 organic veg shares a week all year round, as well as rearing a
small herd of Hereford cows whose meat they sell to their members.

SCA has been feeding the local community for 23 years, making it one of the longest standing CSAs in the country. They currently operate on three sites with a team made up of 3 growers (including this role), pack shed coordinator, livestock
steward and seasonal grower.

Each site has a lead grower who is responsible for the planning, managing the running and harvest of their area. The team is very collaborative and they all work together on harvesting, big planting days and weeding etc. It is largely a flat management structure, in that they don’t have a head grower, with the exception that the seasonal growers role is to assist the veg and livestock team.

This role is perfect for someone who wants to work in a collaborative, and caring team. The benefit of sharing the responsibility for the farm production is that each worker gets ownership over their areas but not the complete weight of a head grower role.

More information about the team and the farm can be found on their website

The grower role will be responsible for:

• 1 acre market garden site, growing summer crops like beans, courgettes and lettuce as well as autumn
  crops like chicory, pakchoi and radish as well as areas of green manures. This area is managed with
  mixture of tractor, two wheel tractor and hand tools.
  
• Approx third of an acres which is a ‘pick your own’ patch where members can help themselves. They
  grow cut flowers through the summer, as well as kale, chard and herbs. This area is managed with a
  mixture of tractor and hand tools.
  
• Working with the lead grower in our 6 polytunnels, to transplant and maintain their crops.
  
• This is not essential but they are looking for someone who might be interested in running farm tours for
  school groups through out the year. These would be 1-2 hour tours, they have a pre-existing curriculum
  but open to new ideas. If you have any experience or interest in this please mention in the cover letter.
  
• Contributing to shared tasks such as; transplanting, weeding and harvesting across their three sites.
  
• The administrative side of running the farm is shared between the farm team. For example, managing
  vehicle tax, MOT and insurance, subsidies, certification paperwork, funding bids for infrastructure,
  working with finance admin on budgets and accounting etc. They tend to share this between the team
  dependent on peoples preference and experience.
  
• The farm is a community owned CSA, once a month they meet with the core group on a week day
  evening(an elected group of people who represent the membership) on a weekday evening. These
  hours are taken back with TOIL (time off in lieu).
  
  Essential Skills
• Commercial organic veg growing experience, ideally minimum of 1 year.
• Experience working on covered cropping or market garden
• An ability to respond to plant health problems and pest and disease issues.
  A good understanding of the need to be quick and efficient.
• Ability to communicate, collaborate and work well in a team.
• Experience of developing systems to improve efficiency and work flow.
• Full, clean driving license
• Administrative skills such as: keeping on top of your emails, processing receipts and record keeping
  in the field.
  
  Preferred Skills
• Tractor or two-wheel tractor and other small machinery experience
• Maintenance and Infrastructure skills
• Understanding of biodynamics farming methods (not essential)
• Managing volunteer groups on tasks, and being customer-facing
• Administrative skills such as contributing to budget discussions and fundraising

What you need to know

The role is a permanent contract on 4 days a week (32 hours a week), with holiday, sick pay and
pension contributions.

Hours: The farm team works Monday – Friday (8am – 4.30pm, with an hour for lunch). They have
some flexibility on which 4 days you wish to work, although they need Tuesdays and Friday covered for harvest. It also includes approximately 2 weekend days every month and half; (not the whole day but approx. 2 hours per day (predominantly, topping up veg in our pack shed, opening and closing tunnels, checking on animals, and watering propagation) these are taken as
TOIL (time off in Lieu) at a later date.

Overtime during the season is recorded and taken as TOIL (time off in lieu).

The start date is ideally beginning of March 2025. There is some flexibility here for the right
candidate.

Application deadline 19th January 2025.

They are looking to conduct interview and half day farm trial with the team between 27th-31st Jan 2025.

Salary starts on real living wage 2025 @ £12.60 an hour. They have a 4-point salary policy and each year your wage increases by a point until the 4th year.

To apply for this position or to find out more, please email a CV and covering letter to alex@stroudcommunityagriculture.org If you have any questions about the application feel free to email and they will get back to you.