If you would like to apply for any of these positions, please email livingenergyfarm@gmail.com for an application/questionnaire.
Do You Want To Be A Member or Intern?
Living Energy Farm is an intentional community, organic farm, and environmental education center in Louisa, Virginia that is off the grid and uses no fossil fuels. Our mission is to show that, through cooperation and community, a comfortable and fulfilling life is possible without dependence on the corporate energy grid or industrial food system. We are seeking more people to get involved with our project in various ways. Whether you are looking to stay with us for a few months to learn about what we do, or would like to explore the possibility of being a long-term member, it starts out with an internship.
Internships may be generalized, with interns working on a little of everything, or they may be more focused if an intern would like to learn a particular skill. We share cooking and cleaning duties, and all meals are eaten together as a community. We provide our interns with all food and a private room. No experience is necessary to apply. Interns pitch in 35-40 hours of work per week on the farm and as needed throughout the community. What is necessary is a willingness to work, a love for community, and enthusiasm for living without fossil fuels.
If you are considering a season long internship, we suggest you come out to the farm and visit for a day before making a commitment. If this is not possible, we can do a phone interview.
In addition to generalized internships, we offer internships in the following focused areas:
Agricultural Interns
We seek farm interns particularly during our growing season, which lasts from mid May to October. We cultivate about 4 acres of mixed vegetables and grains. Our farm grows food for the community, as well as seeds and produce which we sell wholesale. Our customers are seed companies including Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Fedco Seeds, and others. Interns learn about organic farming using tillage and no-till methods, seed saving, food preservation (processing, canning, drying), horticulture (growing food on trees and propagating trees), as well as the renewable energy systems at Living Energy Farm. The work is mostly planting, irrigation and cultivation in May and June, and harvesting and processing July through October.
Technology Interns
While experience is not required, we do require a clear time commitment from unskilled technology interns. We can teach you about green building, general mechanics, plumbing, and the electrical skills necessary to build DC Microgrids. Interns may work on our solar high-temperature storage and cooking system, our farm tractors with farm grown fuels program, developing inexpensive and durable solar lighting systems in non-industrial countries, or other projects we are working on. We require a 6 month commitment from unskilled technical interns. We welcome skilled interns on a more flexible basis.
Outreach and Promotion Interns
At Living Energy Farm, we have developed a set of tools that make centralized power grids unnecessary. For the sake of our collective future, we need to communicate these skills as widely as possibile. An outreach intern would help with the production of text and video material, as well as outreach to activist organizations, international NGOs, homesteaders, and other people interested in what LEF has to offer. We welcome people with activist or media/ social media experience.