Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Job description

Our Farm is a family-run farm in Oxfordshire. We have poultry, sheep, goats and horses and a vegetable garden (which supplies the family and the farm cafe). We have also planted many trees since starting in 2002. Some of this is a fruit and nut orchard and the rest is managed sustainably to provide all the heat energy on the farm. We have also been constructing sustainable buildings including our large cob (earthen) farmhouse.

The farm supplies its customers directly either from farm-gate sales or the local farmers market. Check out our website to see what's going on this year! We welcome volunteers throughout the year, but we stress that farm work is as hard as it is rewarding! Never dull but never-ending.

We usually have 2-3 Wwoofers at a time to create a fun friendly atmosphere, we provide our farm produce in addition to other shopping requirements, and you will be expected to self-cater and share the cleaning up. We share facilities and the kitchen so volunteers must be ready to always clean up after themselves and help keep things around tidy. We also do try to have lunches together and regular family & Wwoofers' dinners and play music in our time off or evenings, so there will also be time for a lot of fun!

Farming methods: We farm naturally and use no herbicides or pesticides and no medication for the animals other than natural remedies. We also have a strict policy to minimise waste, to use sustainable energy and to build natural sustainable buildings. We also feel building a sustainable community is part of natural farming and we work with Farmability and other organisations to encourage wider community links and participation in farm activities. We also hold regular events and an annual festival.

Certifications: Natural farming & responsible stewardship.

How can you help:

We have many varied jobs at the farm and volunteers will be allocated to different tasks weekly. We are also in need of volunteers that can cook and bake and have experience in working serving food and managing a kitchen space, we have our cafe open on Saturdays & Sundays. 

General work:

- Animal care -Work in the veg garden - Forestry work - Packing orders/markets - Beekeeping - General maintenance (carpentry, fixing, painting, building, etc.)

Cleaning & space maintenance:

- General cleaning of the facilities (toilets, kitchen, common area and storage rooms, volunteers' accommodation). - Responsible for the general cleaning of the main areas of the building and highlighting areas that need fixing and maintenance to members of staff responsible for general maintenance. - Take care of laundry and changing bedding. - Dust all areas daily and disinfect the kitchen and cafe area. - Help with the vegetable garden when there is no cleaning work to be done. - Clean animal stables. 

Cook/Kitchen/cafe staff:

 - Look after our cafe on the weekend, preparing food and serving customers. - Help with the vegetable garden when there is no kitchen work to be done.

Farm projects

- We are working to put up electric fences and plant trees to create a silvopasture system of rotational grazing, dismantle some old chicken housing and improve the vegetable garden. We are also working on installing a more comprehensive rainwater harvesting system across the farm.

Kitchen & cafe renovation

- We will be working on renovating our kitchen and cafe area and making it a beautiful and bright space. We would love to have volunteers that are good with renovation work and can sand, paint, and help decorate the place. We will be painting walls and floors and installing new appliances.

What we expect from you:

Volunteers are expected to fulfil 30h of work weekly spread over the days, you can have 2 days off but we welcome those wanting to do more hours. Days usually start at 8:00 am. We will add you to the volunteers' schedule and allocate your days off every week. We organise our schedule in a way that we always have volunteers available to help, so days off will be agreed upon with all volunteers on a rotating basis.

Volunteers are expected to bring their shoes and clothes. We recommend good shoes or wellies that can handle mud and clothes that you don't mind getting dirty or damaged during work. Farm work can be hard and can get dirty sometimes, so be prepared for that! Our farm is simple and there is not much luxury around.

What CAN we offer:

- Volunteers will be provided with a bed in shared accommodation with 4 beds. (accommodation is divided, we have one room for females and one room for males) - We will provide food, milk and drinks and fresh veggies, eggs and meat (all our meat is halal). Vegetarians or meat eaters are both welcome. - Internet access is available in the cafe area. - Clean towels, soap & toothpaste. - Shower and toilet facilities (our toilets are mixed and both females & males use the same toilet) - Washing machine and washing powder are available for your laundry.

What we CANNOT offer:

- We might not be able to accommodate you if you have any severe food allergies. We handle allergens in our kitchens so if you have severe food allergies it might not be safe for you. - Private accommodation. - Shoes and clothes. - People with severe dust allergies might not be a fit for this position as there is a lot of dust around. - We are unfortunately unable to accommodate volunteers unable to do physical work, as most of the jobs at the farm include cleaning, lifting and fixing things.

What is this opportunity good for:

- People with a set of skills that wish to experience farm life for a while! - People that wish to improve their English. - People that want to meet new people and other volunteers. - People wishing to learn about farm work and sustainable methods of farming. - Learn about beekeeping. - Those wanting to be more active and get fit while working!

Length of stay

We require volunteers to apply for a minimum of 3 weeks. Unfortunately due to the time spent in training and organising volunteers, it is not worth it for us to have people joining for 1 or 2 weeks of work only.  

Period

We are now specially looking for volunteer for November, December, January , February and March 2024. 

Send us a message and explain a bit more about yourself and your skills and we can have a chat! Looking forward to hearing from you!

Application information

To apply for this position, please email us at volunteering@willowbrookfarm.co.uk with a description of yourself and your skills as well as the desired length of stay (we require a minimum of 2 weeks) and the dates available and we will be in touch for an interview. Thank you. 

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs